The Prey
When you take time off to go fishing, one of the goals is return from your trip with the same number of rod pieces as when you left. Barring incidental damage caused by untimely collisions with rocks, boat parts, other rods etc., there is no reason to come home with a 5 piece- four piece rod. Or, as I did once a 7 piece – four piece rod with both the butt and tip sections intact like the one below.
If properly handled, modern graphite rods are up to the job for which they are manufactured. Most rods are made for casting and fishing fresh water species, and are usually light in the hand and of narrow diameter at the butt. These rods suffice in freshwater and the angler will usually have no problem landing their target species with them.
When fishing the salt and pulling up beasts from the deep, you might want to consider something a little less wimpy and purchase a rod designed with deep water or salt water species in mind. These rods will be heavier to the hand, will cast a heavier line easily, and the blank will be built up to a larger diameter at the butt section. Once you get into the 10 and 12 weight class these rods may also sport a fighting grip just above the cork. All of them will have fighting butts attached below the reel seat.
Why does salt water fishing require different rod design elements than fresh water? It has to do with the nature of the target species; their physical design and size, and their habits once hooked. These elements not only comprise reasons for designing the gear differently but also force one to change their way of handling the fish. Let's take a detailed look at this topic beginning with the fish themselves.
Why is a saltwater fish so much harder to land?
A fun thing to do, when taking a trout fisherman for the first time on the salt, is to watch what happens the first time they get even a smallish tuna, skip jack, or other pelagic species on the line. As the fish is making its initial run you can almost see the thoughts going through the brain:
- Do I have enough backing?
- Did I pay attention to the knots?
- Just how big is this thing?
- Great it finally stopped.
- Holy crap, how far out is this thing? All I can see is backing.
Ten to fifteen minutes later, when they finally the behemoth to the boat, they are often very disappointed to find a fish of only 5 or 6 pounds weight on the end of the line. "But it felt so much larger than that..."
A number of years back I was reading, The Fishermen's Ocean, by David A. Ross, Ph.D. (Dr. Ross is a scientist emeritus at Wood Hold Oceanographic Institution). In the book he breaks down the 5 different caudal (tail) fin shapes found on all fishes and lists the Aspect Ratios, species examples, and swimming characteristics of each tail type. Some of this was in an effort to illustrate why species like Tuna, Roosterfish, Sailfish etc. can make such strong surging runs when hooked while other species like trout or bass just don't have the same effect, regardless of size. What it comes down to is Mother Nature's design of the fish's body shape and the design of the tail.
If you find the square the tail height then divide it by the area of the tail, you will get a number usually from about 1 to about 10.
Fish with a tail aspect ratio of about 5 and over like the two below usually are faster and stronger fighters and therefore are harder to land. These same fish usually exhibit football shaped bodies like a Tuna, or long broad bodies like a Sailfish. They are most often found in open water and are generally not found in enclosed or restrictive areas.
Fish with lower tail aspect ratios cannot pull as hard or run as far due to overall drag on the tails, but will be more maneuverable than those with higher aspect ratios making them easier to land. The tail on the left is that of a Pargo or Snapper. It lives, like the trout on the right, in an environment where its best protection is to maneuver around and hide in rocky areas, though they can both be found in open water.
To the tail aspect ratio you want to add the overall shape and build of the more popular salt water game fish species. Tuna and skipjack are shaped similar to a football so they slip easily through the water. Though their fins can create drag, they have the capability of folding their fins into depressions on their bodies putting the surface of the fins at the same level as the surface of their bodies. This makes the body even more efficient when passing through the water. Add to all of this the fact that some Tuna can beat their rigid tail fins as much as 30 times per second and you have an underwater speedster that can do as much as 40 knots duringt short distance sprints.
In the case of Sailfish and Marlin the body shape is different and they can't beat their tails nearly as fast as tuna, but they have the right tail aspect ratio combined with broad sides combined with a long body capable of moving a lot of water allowing them to make some respectable sprints.
Out of all the species nature had to choose from she chose certain shark species to make the most streamlined and fastest due to their long thin tails. It should come at no surprise that they ended up at the top of the food chain.
Now that you have a better understanding of the whys take a look at what the angler needs to do to overcome the specialty components of some salt water species.
