Paul's FP

[queenfish]

[Jearley]

Paul, when you’re fishing for giant snakehead are you using a
10-weight or is it lighter than that? I’m assuming the rod you use for Gourami is a 5-weight… I could be mistaken.

[Paul Arden]

I use the 8 for Freerising Snakehead mostly and Ashly the 10. March/April chasing big snakehead with babies I’ll use the 10. For Gourami 5 or 6 is perfect. I used the HT4 for a couple of seasons.

For guests here and Snakehead I recommend 9 or 10WT. I’ve seen quite a few broken 8WTs. The nice thing about the 10 is you can use the butt to turn them.

With the pointing the rod at them during the fight you could arguably use any rod stiffness. It’s really about the fly size (1 or 1/0) and I like it to land gently especially with Freerisers.

[Jearley]

I will say they look like impressive fighters. I’m willing to bet pound for pound a snakehead fights harder than a largemouth bass. I hope to eventually find out.

[Paul Arden]

They are strong. They don’t hit like the trains in tropical saltwater. Jungle Perch do. I think most things that fight in the tropics go hard. The challenge here is stopping them. Subsurface it’s a 50yr old flooded jungle and it wasn’t deforested before being flooded. Gourami is actually a much more technical fight however. The hooks I use for them are bonefish hooks that straighten at 9lbs. So they get to run! But they need to run against pressure. Lots of line burns from that fish!!

It will be great to see you over here!

Cheers, Paul