along you will need all the help you can get!

Heads appeared from bivvies all around the lakeall intent on watching the ensuing battle. The luckyangler raced from his bivvy, disengaged the baitrunnerand tightened into the fish. Almost in a singleaction, the rod first bucked over and then sprangback. The fish was off. At this turn of events, mostof the anglers went back to bed, but as I was close tothe bloke I stood and watched. As he slowly wound init was obvious from the lack of weight on the end thatsomething had gone wrong. Closer inspection revealedthat the line had broken above the hook link. Atotally preventable occurrence, and something thatthis angler had learned the hard way can spoil all theeffort put in over the course of a session.How many fish do you lose in the course of a year? Howmany fish slip the hook, or come adrift during thefight? Perhaps the answer is too many, as in mostcases fish losses can be minimised, particularly ifyou have a good working knowledge of the venue. This weekI intend to look at some of the simple measures I taketo reduce the number of fish I lose.If, like our friend above, you do not replace yourline regularly then you will lose fish. Althoughmodern co-polymer lines are incredibly tough, they dosuffer from damage from time to time, not just on thebank, but also when in storage and transit. Zips onrod bags can be a major cause of line damage, forexample. Transit damage is likely to only affect thelast few metres and is easily tested for. Simply castout twenty yards and reel the line back through thumband finger. Any major damage will show up and theoffending line can be removed and disposed ofproperly. It is also wise to change the main line atregular intervals. How regularly will depend on theline you use and the type of venue. At the very least,changing your line a couple of times a season isadvisable. After all, line is one of the cheapestitems we use when fishing, so why allow it to causethe loss of a good fish? Most modern reels have hugelydeep spools which take miles of line to fill. I packmy reels with heavy (cheap) line and then add between50 and 200 metres of top quality monofilament over thetop. Make sure the backing is well packed and you willmake your line go even further. Another cause of unexplained line breakage aredamaged leads, particularly heavy carp leads. Alwayscheck leads for sharp edges, which can occur whenfishing over gravel, or once again, in transit. Asharp lead will cut even the toughest line like butterand should be removed. What about rod rings? Most arenow of a good quality, even on relatively cheap rods,but pay particularly attention to the lining in thetip ring. I have had a couple of tips crack in transitin recent years, and if I had not checked them then adisaster may have ensued. It goes without saying that even the best line can beruined by tying a duff knot. Stick to palomars,grinners, and such like and you will not go far wrong.If you continue to use blood knots then you are askingfor trouble with many lines. Finally for this week, always check the clutch on yourreel before fishing. The number of times I see anglersfishing with the clutch either set so loose that theycannot set the hooks, or so overly tight that theycannot give line. Get a friend to hold the end of theline (without a hook on of course!) and bend the roduntil you feel the pressure is right for you and thenadjust the clutch so that it will give line at aslightly higher pull. Now leave it alone. Mostclutches are almost faultless on modern reels and onceset need no attention. Above all, do not think thatyou can get away with being sloppy. It may work forsmaller fish, but when that fish of a life-time comes

along you will need all the help you can get!