Fighting a trophy for three hours will wear you out. Then again, so will dropping a 4 ounce slow pitch jig and working it a thousand times over the course of a day.
Then again, so will baking in the heat of direct sun for 8 hours, whether or not you swing anything over the rail.
The point here is that unless you manage what causes fatigue, you’ll be more tired on the water, fight less effectively, and perhaps worst of all, might even lose fish.
Here are some tips on how to stay fresher on the water for longer, so you can fight with your full complement of strength and hopefully catch more fish.
Get a Fighting Belt
Fighting belts go around your waist and come with a plastic retainer for the rod butt/gimbal. Not only can a fighting belt reduce fatigue considerably when you’re actually fighting a monster, but they can provide mechanically leverage when you’re just working a lure vertically, such as when you’re slow pitch jigging.
Either way, a fighting belt will let you fight harder for longer and with less discomfort. Driving a rod butt against your inner thigh or pulling against a gunwale all day fighting fat grouper will teach you a lesson. It’s not just guys battling tuna and marlin that benefit from fighting belts. You can too.
A Longer Butt Is Better
All else being equal, a longer butt will help you jig longer and fight fish harder with less fatigue.
See, it’s not just about the length of the rod (although that does matter, a lot). The longer the butt, the more leverage you can exert over the end of the rod, and therefore on the fish.
In other words, a longer butt gives you a longer lever to put pressure on the fish, with less raw energy required from you, especially with one hand high under the reel and the other on the butt. This effect is magnified if you are fighting without a belt.
Install a Gomexus Power Handle
There are also things you can do to modify your current outfit to optimize it for fighting harder with less fatigue. One of the best of these is to install a Gomexus power handle.
A power handle is basically a bigger, broader, grip-filling reel handle that creates less of a pressure point and which enables you to exert greater pressure with less raw force required from you.
Basically, a Gomexus power handle is a force multiplier that will let you crank harder with less fatigue and less soreness in your cranking hand and arm.
Check them out on our website. We sell them and they are some of the best reel upgrades we offer here.
Stop Cranking When the Fish Is Running or Broadside
When a big fish gets tired, it will stop running, but it won’t just roll over and come up to the surface. Fish are smarter than you give them credit for. When they get fatigued, they’ll turn broadside in the water so that their whole body works like a sail against the water; it basically makes it impossible for you to horse them in.
When a fish pulls this move, you’ll know. The line won’t go slack; pressure will stay there, but it will stop feeling like the fish is running. Drag will stop slipping but the rod will stay bent.
Keep pressure on the fish by all means, but don’t keep cranking. You’ll likely just be pulling against the drag and not recovering any line, and you’ll definitely be burning yourself out.
Take Rests
This should be self-explanatory, but make sure you take rests during long days on the water. Don’t fish the whole time, tempting as it may be.
Stay Well-Fed and Hydrated
It is critical to stay hydrated in the heat, especially when you are working a jig hard, fighting tons of fish, and going on little sleep. Make sure you eat well too. Hunger and dehydration magnify fatigue.
Cast with Your Whole Body
If you are working a lure that must be cast, not just dropped down like a slow pitch jig, make sure you cast with your whole body, not just your arms and shoulders.
Yes, much of the power you will need for casting will come from your upper body, but by rotating your hips, you can capitalize on the power of the larger muscle groups in your lower body and core.
Fish Smarter, Not Harder
At the end of the day, if you put some of these tips into practice, you’ll enjoy more of your time on the water, and you’ll be able to fish longer and fight harder and more effectively with less overall fatigue.