Armpit Fishing - Poor Technique

[Guest Kendaric]

This one may stir the pot - but honestly, it will make your fishing so much more comfortable, if you use good technique - which armpit fishing is not.

Years ago, I went to purchase a new rod.  I commented to the Queensland tackle shop owner "Why are so many of these rod butts so long".  His reply was "That is because Victorian anglers tend to fish with the rod butt under their armpit".  

That comment has stuck with me for a long time.  This oddity has born itself out more and more now that so many more fishing shows are now aired (mostly coming from Victorian based presenters) are showing this method of tackling big fish.  My concern is that these presenters are teaching very poor technique, but I doubt they even realise it, as they were never taught properly to begin with.

Yes, fishing is a very personalised hobby, or sport for some, but like all personal endeavours, good technique makes things more pleasant.

The number of these presenters that fight big fish, with the rod butt under their armpit, is painful to watch, as they look so awkward.  This is a poor technique.  You lose leverage in this position, and your rod hand wrist is cocked at a weakened angle.  This is made even worse if you are using a threadline reel.  So often, watching these shows, you see the presenter having to then take his reel hand off the reel, and use it to help lift the rod.  At some point, they realise that it is not working, and drop the rod butt down to waist height and get the leverage required to make the rod work as it should.  Much of this style could be attributed to heavy tackle spin fish casting for heavy weights like trevally up north, where the longer butt may help with casting heavy poppers and the like, but this should not flow on to other tackle forms.  The manufactures may be part to blame for this.

A lot of these presenters also suffer from "Rex Hunt Syndrome", where every moment has to be filled with often stupid or childish commentary.  Bring back the commentary style of Peter Morse, Bushy or Steve.

Honestly, get the rod butt out from under your armpit when tackling big fish.  It will allow you to handle the fight with so much more ease, and you wont look so awkward or 'special' either.

 

[Dinodadog]

Not realy the way to  win over mates on your first posts, giving advice before you even put a post up of you catching fish. Happy to take advice when we get to know you.

 

Dino

[rayke1938]

The main reason that I do not watch fishing shows and dvds is because most of the presenters carry on like a pork chop.

Anyone who screams out ,does high fives and dances around in my boat does not get invited again.

Much prefer a quietly spoken nice fish or a prefix of congratulations if it is a stonker but that is me and everyone is entitled to do what they like in their own boat same as smoking and bananas.

Cheers

Ray

[Guest Kendaric]

4 minutes ago, rayke1938 said:

The main reason that I do not watch fishing shows and dvds is because most of the presenters carry on like a pork chop.

Agreed!

[Guest Kendaric]

14 hours ago, Dinodadog said:

Not realy the way to  win over mates on your first posts, giving advice before you even put a post up of you catching fish. Happy to take advice when we get to know you.

Fair enough.  

[fifis101]

The only time I could ever imagine putting a rod butt under my arm would be for jigging where it's directly up and down.

[Angus]

35 minutes ago, fifis101 said:

The only time I could ever imagine putting a rod butt under my arm would be for jigging where it's directly up and down.

Same.

And yes leverage is definitely lost. I had an ill purposed rod on my last 1770 trip and due to the but had to have it under my arm. On top of this it was to long for vertical fishing. Man it made my large red emp and a coral trout far more awkward to land than they should have been and even to some extent took some of the enjoyment out of it.

For my longer butted rods though I usually use them as I am land based casting large lures. However having a small gimble (even just a cheap alvey one) makes fighting the fish so much better. 

[Fishaman]

I have the rod butt under my armpit for the strike then move it to my ample belly. Gimble belts schmimble belts 

[The Mad Hughesy]

if it gets the job done, who cares how someone else catches their fish lol

When im fighting a 1.2m bull shark in a tight mangrove area land based, i can tell you right now that i wont have the rod but in my waist, i need to be able to move the rod tip quickly if it darts into the mangroves etc

different scenarios call for different styles, bit rough saying someone looks "special" when fishing how they feel comfortable to do so.

[Do$tylz]

Benno is an under the armpit fisho I agree it looks real uncoordinated but it seems to work for some.

Doesn't stop me from have an internal laugh at them but really.. they're laughing at me coz they're the ones catching the fish.

[demarc]

Depending on what I'm hooked up too, I'm an arm pit fisher like most offshore bottom bashers. I general skull drag my fish up, so this style helps. If it's a bigger fish, I'll either use a gimbal or rest in my belly and pull and wind. What ever you do, just gotta get the fish up quick before the tax man comes, thus skull dragging whenever you can.

[Terrova]

My arms aren't long enough to tuck a rod under them.

That said, a few more trips with @rayke1938 and I will probably be swinging as comfortably through the trees as Tarzan ever did, and suffering from gravel rash on the knuckles. If the gravel rash is bad enough, and I opt for a lobotomy,  I may even qualify for a position presenting iFish! :-) 

 

 

[benno573]

13 hours ago, Do$tylz said:

Benno is an under the armpit fisho I agree it looks real uncoordinated but it seems to work for some.

Doesn't stop me from have an internal laugh at them but really.. they're laughing at me coz they're the ones catching the fish.

And your point is...?

 

i use both methods. Light tackle I generally have the rod in my hands only. When fishing offshore or in the bay I generally find it easier to strike with a rod in my hands or under my arm, if the battle gets more serious I'm straight to resting the butt on my right hip to put more pressure on.

 

its the same as people telling me as a right hander I should always wind with my left. I've tried it, didn't like it, felt weird and couldn't put any action into the plastics. So I went back to the "wrong" side, bagged out on snapper and went home. Everyone has a style to suit themselves.

 

If you find it that funny @Do$tylz... Just thinking back on some of your hairdos in the past... As I said, everyone has their own style!  ha ha! But I'm glad my style or alleged lack thereof brings someone amusement.

 

Just to put it back into a simple analogy... does every bowler in cricket have the same style? Watch Glenn McGrath vs the late max "tangles" walker vs merv Hughes vs lasith malinga. All very good bowlers and 4 completely different styles of what is effectively the same thing.

 

with regard to fishing shows and people carrying on. While I understand and love peace and quiet on the water, I will admit that at times I get a bit excited about catching something awesome and unexpected. After an extremely tense 45 minutes chasing a 12.5kg kingie around on 20lb line that took a plastic intended for a pan sized snapper in 9m of water, when that hit the deck of the boat I probably jumped around and carried on and looked more like a complete tool than normal. When I managed to land my first cobia after nearly 2hrs of fight I probably did just as much carrying on then too. Did I care? Not at all. They were and still are two of the best moments I've had on the water.

[kmcrosby78]

Pretty sure (don't do it often enough to know/recall) that I hold the rod under my armpit for comforts sake when surf fishing. Whatever works for the individual I say - I'm not out fishing to impress people with my 'style' ...... (if I was I wouldn't wear the shorts I do ...... ). With regards to getting excited when landed a memorable fish, I'm certainly guilty there. Was only telling @benno573 about my first jack capture (56cm) years ago and how ecstatic I was and have been like it a few times since. Each to their own.

Looking forward to reading your reports @Kendaric  What area/s do you fish?

[Drop Bear]

On 2/20/2017 at 8:17 AM, Angus said:

Man it made my large red emp and a coral trout

show off!!!! hahaha

Runs away....

 

[Guest Kendaric]

23 hours ago, christophagus said:

different scenarios call for different styles, bit rough saying someone looks "special" when fishing how they feel comfortable to do so.

Absolutely, and granted, using the word special was a very poor choice.  There will always be scenarios that will require the rod butt under your armpit, including vertical jigging, skull dragging fish out of the reef to avoid sharks with the rod held low, or resting the rod there whilst standing.  Done it myself.  I was more referring to the style often presented were every fish is played with the rod butt under the armpit, almost regardless of what they are fishing for, either it is with a light threadline, baitcaster, bottom bouncing, or even marlin fishing with a big spin reel.  

 

 

[Do$tylz]

and my hair dos are still much the same

I've just realised there are 2 armpit type fishos. There's this one:

https://goo.gl/images/hOJEkT

and then the others which have the rod under their other armpit while the winder is still on the same side.... I can't even find a google pic of that technique. These latter guys are the ones that look funny to me. But again... different courses for different horses.

[Do$tylz]

As for the getting a bit loud when catching fish I can't say I don't do that.

Probably not going to be doing it on a nice a silent dam while catching bass with Ray but it's not really the place to be ruining the tranquility.

But I have certainly done it for some of my more memorable catches. Usually a high-5 is my way of celebrating.

 

What is funny is Angus doing his stomping when he misses a good fish cracks me up everytime

 

[Angus]

1 hour ago, Do$tylz said:

As for the getting a bit loud when catching fish I can't say I don't do that.

Probably not going to be doing it on a nice a silent dam while catching bass with Ray but it's not really the place to be ruining the tranquility.

But I have certainly done it for some of my more memorable catches. Usually a high-5 is my way of celebrating.

 

What is funny is Angus doing his stomping when he misses a good fish cracks me up everytime

 

And a bigger stomp when I bag a good one

[Guest Kendaric]

1 hour ago, Do$tylz said:

then the others which have the rod under their other armpit while the winder is still on the same side.... I can't even find a google pic of that technique. These latter guys are the ones that look funny to me. But again... different courses for different horses.

Yeah, I think it was Merv Hughes or one of this mates doing this on one of his shows when bottom bouncing.

Bugs me when fishing shows decide to use some well know sports character to promote a fishing show, when they are clearly not fisherman (I'm not pointing at Merv here).

A classic example would be the early episodes with Ettingshausen.

[The Mad Hughesy]

1 hour ago, Kendaric said:

Yeah, I think it was Merv Hughes or one of this mates doing this on one of his shows when bottom bouncing.

Bugs me when fishing shows decide to use some well know sports character to promote a fishing show, when they are clearly not fisherman (I'm not pointing at Merv here).

A classic example would be the early episodes with Ettingshausen.

man i cannot stand E.T! He has this chuckle that he always throws in mid sentence when doing his voice overs.. drives me nuts

[Do$tylz]

1 hour ago, Kendaric said:

Yeah, I think it was Merv Hughes or one of this mates doing this on one of his shows when bottom bouncing.

Bugs me when fishing shows decide to use some well know sports character to promote a fishing show, when they are clearly not fisherman (I'm not pointing at Merv here).

A classic example would be the early episodes with Ettingshausen.

nah I think that's good. You know they aren't great fisherman but they just enjoy getting on the water and catching a few fish. Seeing them have a great time and doing a bit of sports crossover is pretty cool I think.

It annoys me more when the presenters should know better Inefficient or poor casting techniques are my single most petty hate on shows.

[samsteele115]

2 hours ago, Do$tylz said:

my single most petty hate on shows.

Oh my.... Does the term "Pet hate" come from the full word "petty" ???   Amazing. Always thought it was a strange phrase. Like why would you want to have a hate that is your pet? 

Anyway, carry on everybody.

[Do$tylz]

You just spurned me to spend a few minutes googling the etymology of "pet hate".

Which apparently is linked to "pet peeve" which is linked to actual pets which is linked to being treated like a favourite. So apparently not connected to "petty".

 

[samsteele115]

Well there ya go! Although petty hate still makes a lot of sense; if not more.

[kmcrosby78]

4 hours ago, samsteele115 said:

Oh my.... Does the term "Pet hate" come from the full word "petty" ???   Amazing. Always thought it was a strange phrase. Like why would you want to have a hate that is your pet? 

Anyway, carry on everybody.

Put the bottle down Sam, put it down .........

[Gad]

I`m sure the misquote is "Play it again, Sam"

[rayke1938]

I do not put my but in my armpit because it stinks

Cheers

Ray

[Dinodadog]

I would of thought the rod under the armpit was a carry on from southeners that used long buts and overhead reels for surf fishing while us northeners were using alveys. Also a lot of smaller fisherpeople stick it under their arm as its easier for them until they hook a whopper and then it gets a bit tricky. I dont ocean fish and I cant cast an alvey anymore so I dont have to worry about it.

 

Dino

[benno573]

10 hours ago, rayke1938 said:

I do not put my but in my armpit because it stinks

Cheers

Ray

Is that the but or the armpit that stinks @rayke1938??

[Guest Kendaric]

On 2/20/2017 at 8:50 PM, Terrova said:

and I opt for a lobotomy,  I may even qualify for a position presenting iFish! :-) 

 

 

Lol.  You'd still be over-qualified.

[Guest Kendaric]

Just to revisit this subject again, I was watching Adventure Angler (one of the better fishing shows) the other day, about fishing poppers for trevally up north.  What I did note was that the young fellow hooked and landed 3 good size trevally comfortably, whilst the other person hooked and lost 3 trevally.  The young guy fished with the rod butt low, down near his waist, while the other, who lost 3 fish quickly - was armpit fishing.  Whilst you may just put it down to bad luck, but being three for three would tend to indicate that the young man simply had better control of the engagement.

[Gad]

ah yes , I have fond memories of younger times when I had better rod control..... bloody aging process

[Luvit]

I use under arm or any other that I feel suits me at the time. I catch some and lose some. I don’t care as long as I having a good time doing it. 

I’m just glad we have a variety of fishing shows to watch. If you don’t like one, there are plenty of others to choose from. 

My person preferences for presenters would be Starlo, Lee Rayner Micah Adams. Informative presenters that help others catch more fish. 

[Luke Landrunner]

Those fellas on Screeming Reels ( I think it's a fishing show....) have heaps of tips and methods for both old and young fisho's. 

[Gad]

On ‎24‎/‎12‎/‎2017 at 2:52 PM, Gad said:

ah yes , I have fond memories of younger times when I had better rod control..... bloody aging process

On ‎24‎/‎12‎/‎2017 at 11.49 AM, Kendaric said:…….being three for three would tend to indicate that the young man simply had better control of the rod…..

later EDIT:

On ‎24‎/‎12‎/‎2017 at 11:49 AM, Kendaric said:

 being three for three would tend to indicate that the young man simply had better control of the engagement.

I see what you did  

[Drop Bear]

I use both depending on situation. On a beach or land based with long butted rod I only ever use it low but in a boat lure fishing or jigging or even bait fishing my rod doesn't have a long enough but to ever use down low and I seem to always be moving around avoiding other rods or the engine or when the fish goes under the boat. Putting it down low would loose lots of fish in this situation. If it was a bigger fish trolling and rod had long but I would do both. Playing it down low at first if fish was away from the boat then under arm when it was close or directly below.

[Guest Kendaric]

On 12/26/2017 at 11:11 AM, Gad said:

I see what you did  

 

Lol, yeah I kind of had too.

[Gad]

moral of the story: Don`t play with another man`s rod....someone may judge you

[Guest Kendaric]

Lol, who was talking about using another's gear?

Man you have to be careful, everything can be misconstrued, even that last comment.