How do you get a fish out of weed?

Question

In the event of a fish weeding up solid, how do you go about getting it out (without the help of a boat). Some people recommend letting the line go slack, others say keep up the pressure and it will eventually move, and others say hand-lining is the solution. What do you guys do?

Kev Hewitt

In the event that I get a take and the fish weeds me up during the fight (something which I experience regularly on the venues I fish), I always place my left-hand half way up the rod, keep the tip in the air and gently walk backwards slowly building up the pressure and 99% of the time the fish will slowly pull free of the weed in which time I carry on walking backwards gently trying to coax the fish away from the weedbed.

Walking back slow

Jon McAllister

Firstly, keeping the pressure and applying a different angle to the pressure by walking up the bank to the left or the right, or walking the rod back and away from the water’s edge and gaining more height so you’re attempting to get the fish to rise rather than pull it directly towards you. It’s a slow game so don’t rush it. If you keep the rod taut for half an hour and nothing seems to work then try putting the rod down for 10 minutes at a time to see if it comes free. At the end of the day you can’t make miracles happen and losing fish in weed is part of what you have to accept. I mean, if we caught every fish we hooked it wouldn’t feel much like a sport because at the end of the day sometimes you win and sometimes you lose… it’s all part of it!

Taking my time resulted to this fish on the bank

Elliott Gray

If a fish becomes weeded halfway through the fight I have often found that just keeping maximum pressure on is enough to eventually see them kick themselves free. If a fish is already weeded by the time you reach the rod then it can be more of a struggle to free them as the line could be passing through the weed at any given angle. A combination of steady pressure and if that fails, leaving the rod slack can see them come free but it is harder. When fishing around heavy weed it’s really important to one: lose the lead, and two: fish with tight clutches; the less line they can take the better. The boat really is an edge though, if you haven’t got one, then swim, pulling for a break on purpose is not an option!

A chunky mirror that I managed to extract from a large weedbed