How long should it take to land a fish?

[Acristickid]

Should'nt take very long- certainly not minutes.

Most of the fish I land are with 10-20 seconds- albeit typical PA pee pee trouts.

Heck, even steelhead take less than 1 or 2 minutes.

What do you think?

 

[Stevie-B]

I think your 10-20 secs is about right, given the size of most of the fish caught. Very large fish (approx. 20 in and above) may take up to 2 minutes but I think that would be rare.

 

[gfen]

I don't think I've ever had a trout run me past one minute to land, unhook, and release; and usually that's t the end when I'm fumbling about because I thought that I didn't want to be btoerhed with a net.

Generally speaking about 20-30 seconds I'd say.

I often wonder how guys who get pictures of fish laying placidly next to their rods pull that nonsense off, I've never had one so tired as to just lay around for me.

 

[pcray1231]

Yeah, 10-20 seconds seems reasonable for your normal 9-12" fish. I get brookies to me in well under 5 seconds probably, though it might take me another 5 seconds with it in the water at my feet before I get my hands free and such for the release, or picture.

Big fish will make it take longer. The difference in the "fight" isn't that great, where the difference comes is in the landing. Normal fish you can pull that head up and just drag em right in. When they get big enough where you can't get the head up and can't stop the panic runs when they get close, then that can take a little time. Still, even on steelhead, I think 1-2 minutes is typical.

 

[krayfish]

It would depend on the tippet size and the speed of the water. Even chrome can be landed in under 5 minutes in some heavy water. I guess my answer would be "as quick as possible".

Don't you hate the guy that just stands there with ZERO pressure on the fish and plays it to near death. He's more worried about the other anglers seeing him with a fish on. I'll drop the hammer and break a fish off before I play it for 20 minutes.

 

[pcray1231]

gfen, there are tricks.

1. If the fish is small enough to do so, hold the fly and let it hang, take the pic vertically, they often don't flop.

2. Turn him upside down, then back flat, that seems to settle them (confuse them, maybe?). They flop more with the belly pointed down.

 

[greenlander]

I've had kings go 10+ minutes and pacific steelhead that went 5+. I'd say the ~10lb chromer I picked up on the SR last year probably took 3-4 minutes.

Small to medium sized trout, sure ... well under 30 seconds.

But a 16-18" or higher. Might take over a minute. Or at least it seems that long, maybe it just seems longer than it is.

 

[JasonS]

pcray1231 wrote:
gfen, there are tricks.


2. Turn him upside down, then back flat, that seems to settle them (confuse them, maybe?). They flop more with the belly pointed down.

Yes this works on many cold blooded animals. Sharks will go into a catatonic state if you get them belly side up. Same with alligators.

Edit: After some quick googling found this wiki article. It's called Tonic Immobility.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonic_immobility#Tonic_immobility

 

[csoult]

gfen wrote:

I often wonder how guys who get pictures of fish laying placidly next to their rods pull that nonsense off, I've never had one so tired as to just lay around for me.

This is why I always take pics while the fish is in the net. And I always use a net because for me I land the fish much easier and quicker.

 

[gfen]

csoult wrote:
This is why I always take pics while the fish is in the net. And I always use a net because for me I land the fish much easier and quicker.

I've fallen into the routine of not thinking I need the net, then always regretting the lack of it by having the fish break off with a fly in its mouth while I fumbled. I don't like that feeling.

This becomes more problem as it gets warmer, and I shed more and more junk while I fish.

 

[BPS]

A few seconds. My personal best brown, a 14.5 pound lake run monster, took about 4-5 minutes and I never saw my backing. That was with 5x tippet. If it takes more than a minute to land a 10-20 inch pa stream trout even with 7x tippet, You're just kidding yourself and hurting the fish.

 

[TLoomis]

If the water is cold I like to let them run around a little bit more just because thats the fun of the sport. 10-30 seconds sounds about right depending on wild or stocked, brown or rainbow, and slow water or rapids

 

[PSUFishMenace]

I had one very fat 17" wild brown in fast current that probably took over a minute to land, but mainly because I had to lead him down into another pool to land it and remove the fly. Everything else I believe has been under a minute and that includes a 19" wild brown. Can't think of any big ones I've caught on anything other than 5x.

I have had some brookies that while they may only take 5-10 seconds to get to my feet, will take at least that long just to settle down and stop flipping around when i touch them. So for a while i tried letting them play themselves out for a few more seconds, but it didn't seem to make a difference. They just never wanna quit!

 

[MKern]

My largest fish (20" wild Brown) took under 20 seconds to land on 5x. However, if it would have a chance to run the fight would have been longer. The conditions for me to land him quickly were just right.

I would say my normal landing time is under 20 seconds though.

 

[gochs]

On smaller streams, It's easier to reel in the larger than average trout. I'd say 20 seconds, because I'm a pansy.

Larger streams, I'm too afraid of breaking my tippet and losing flies. Then the fish gets in the fast current and there's no stopping him, certainly not I. But quite honestly, the rush of fighting a fish blurs time and space, so it's probably only 30 seconds or so.

 

[jdaddy]

krayfish wrote:
It would depend on the tippet size and the speed of the water. Even chrome can be landed in under 5 minutes in some heavy water. I guess my answer would be "as quick as possible".

Don't you hate the guy that just stands there with ZERO pressure on the fish and plays it to near death. He's more worried about the other anglers seeing him with a fish on. I'll drop the hammer and break a fish off before I play it for 20 minutes.

Ahhhh. Tully time. You know . . . 10 x tippet, 26 tricos and 000 weight rods.

But ya, you do break every other fish off. LOL.

Big chromers taking 1-2 minutes? That's pretty bad ***. Takes me a few minutes to get a nice chromadome in and I don't fish with 4-5 x like some of the Erie guys.

 

[wildtrout2]

On very small natives I'll often set, hold the line, and just "sling" them in. That takes almost no time and it helps to not spook the other trout. It usually takes a bit longer to get the fly out. Generally, 10 -20 secs sounds right on fish that are a bigger.

 

[Tiltaxp]

If you're landing chrome in 1-2 mins then it must be in slower water with at least 4x, or you're catching small chrome... a 10-15 lb chromer in a decent sized body of water that is fresh, not winter lethargic can easily take 10 mins or so. Erie steel though is completely different though, I'm not saying elk to be a decent sized body of water, more like the salmon or oswego ny

 

[David]

My wife took about 10 years to land....in retrospect, I should have hoped for an LDR!

 

[pcray1231]

Doesn't take me any longer on the Tully. Then again, I don't go finer than 6x tippet even on tricos.

Tiltax, yeah, my chrome experience is limited to PA, fish average 6ish lbs and bigger ones are 10ish. And I'd only use 4x in extremely clear conditions, 2x or 3x is more typical for me on chromers.