When I was a little kid fishing with Dad, he used to tell me, “Keep your rod up high!” whenever I’d fight a fish. While this was pretty good advice for a kid (because otherwise, I’d probably point the rod tip straight at the fish and lose it), this is actually poor form for adults that can quickly break your fishing rod.
High sticking in fishing refers to raising the tip of the rod past 45 to 60 degrees when fighting a fish. This forces the rod to load up and bend much closer to the tip than it is designed to do. Since the tip of the rod is the most fragile part, high sticking your fishing rod can cause it to snap and break.
High sticking in fishing also occasionally refers to a technique used by fly fishermen where they raise their fly rods high in the air to minimize how much line touches the water. You’ll note that you’ll want to stop high sticking once a fish is on the hook, or you’re going to have the same issue with placing far too much pressure on the tip of your fly rod. This article focuses on the high sticking that can damage your fishing rod. Here’s another page you can visit if you’re interested in learning about how to present fishing flies with high sticking.
Drawbacks to High Sticking in Fishing
Very little good can come from high sticking in fishing. As mentioned, about the only benefit is it helps little kids remember to keep pressure on the fish and avoid allowing slack in the line. Then again, it’s extremely unlikely that children are going to hook the kind of fish who would snap a high sticked fishing pole, anyway. Here’s a few of the more likely outcomes.
Your Fishing Rod Will Snap
The most obvious issue with high sticking while fighting a fish is that your rod will snap. Most fishing rods aren’t designed to bend just at the tip. Instead they rely on the force of the fish being distributed across the entire blank evenly. If you fight a large enough fish and raise your rod tip too high, you invite catastrophe.
Consider this. If you had to catch something heavy, would rather use both hands, or one finger? It’s a very similar concept to high sticking. Keeping your rod at a bout a 45 to 60 degree angle will allow it to effectively absorb the fish’s shock and let your entire fishing rod work for you.
Your Fishing Line Might Break
If you’re lucky, your fishing line will break before your rod does when you’re high sticking. It’ll break for the same reason your rod might snap. Rather than having the entire length of the rod to work with and absorb pressure, your line will flex right at the tip. This is going to become all the more prevalent with the lighter the fishing line you use.
High Sticking Prevents the Fishing Rod From Tiring Fish Effectively
Every time your rod bends, it’s absorbing the fish’s energy and providing resistance. You want your entire rod providing this resistance so you can tire a fish effectively. High sticking your fishing pole during the fight is going to prevent it from working for you and against the fish. This in turn can lead to a longer time fighting the fish, where more things can go wrong.
The Fish Might Pull Off the Hook
If you raise your rod tip too high while fighting a fish, the rod can’t bend enough to absorb shock. That’s a big issue if you’re fishing with a lure that has thin treble hooks, like a crankbait. You really want your rod to flex and be forgiving when working with these lures because the thin metal can easily pull from a fish’s mouth. If you raise your rod tip up too high, it won’t flex enough and you might lose your fish.
High Sticking While Fighting Fish Makes Them More Likely to Jump
The last reason you don’t want to practice high sticking while fighting fish is that it makes them more likely to jump. When you raise your rod tip with a fish on the other end, you pull them closer to the surface. This can cause them to start jumping wildly to try and throw the hook. Fish have an excellent chance of breaking free when they jump, because the change in pressure can create some slack that allows a hook to fall out. The higher you keep your rod while fighting a fish, the greater the chance they’ll jump.
This is why you’ll see so many professional anglers get down low with their rod tips while fighting smallmouth and other large fish. That’s not to say that you don’t want to keep the pressure on the fish – they’ll have their rods set way back to maintain a good bend. It just means you want to avoid giving the fish any reason to jump and possibly ruin your day.
Conclusion: What’s Good Advice for Kids Isn’t Always Great for Adults
All in all, I think Dad’s advice to “keep your rod up high!” was good advice for me when I was a kid. For whatever reason, kids struggle with the concept of not pointing their rod tip right at the fish they’re trying to catch. Telling kids to use high sticking while fighting fish can help there, especially since kids also struggle with listening to that. If you tell a kid to keep their rod up high, they’re pretty likely to keep it at about the 45 to 60 degree angle you really are seeking.
With that being said, if you’re an adult, you don’t want to raise your rod tip too high. While you can “pump” a rod sometimes by bringing it up quickly, you then need to quickly drop it down while reeling the slack. You don’t want to get into a situation where you’re leaving your fishing rod tip up too high for too long. It only takes one surge from a strong fish to ruin your day.
Thanks for reading,
John Paxton
