I seem to have missed the first few items of this thread:
I definitely prefer to play a fish on the reel especially anything over a
couple of pounds. Nothing worse than having lots of loose line to catch on
sticks, rocks , grass, bushes etc...
If I am wading in the lake the small fish I will retrieve by hand.. the big
fish usually head for the other side of the Lkae and normally have me to the
backing in about 10 seconds so no trouble getting them on the reel
On the stream I will play them by hand and recover line to the reel when the
opprortunity presents itself..I trap the line against the rod to maintain
tension, bot not stoo tight. If the fish lunges it will still pull out
under a bit of tension...
regards ian
