How long is too long?

4 weight 4x leader
april…
biggest small stream brown ever on the end of the line.
how long is too long to fight it if you have no intentions of keeping it?

4X is about 5 pound test, you should be able to put some serious pressure on that fish. The cold water of April will help keep the fish healthy too. All told, I’d guess about 5 minutes.

Something to consider. First, tie on a 4x tippet, tie it to a tree or a car, and then back away and try to break it by pulling on the rod. Maximum applied pressure is a lot more than people think.

Rootski

was his biggest brown ever ,,,,26 female brown……he measured and released after 40 minute battle.

He told me he feared he played it too long and it might die.

40 minutes is way too long, imo. Whoever this guy is was sure afraid to pull. 40 minutes is ridiculous and i would expect lactic acid to be a big factor, with a delayed death a significant possibilty.

Might as well clobber it over the head with a lead pipe and be done with it.

T

Post deleted by LenH

Not quite following yu? I stand by my comment that if you fight a fish for 40 minutes, yu may as well bash it in the head and eat it…… I do think thats appropriate. 40 minutes then releasing…..that is inappropriate!

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Not quite following yu? I stand by my comment that if you fight a fish for 40 minutes, yu may as well bash it in the head and eat it…… I do think thats appropriate. 40 minutes then releasing…..that is inappropriate!

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Wish Len did not delete his comment I would like to have seen what he said.

With experience talking with other anglers 40 Minutes Fish talk is typically 15 minutes real time.

I agree with 40 min too long.

3 minutes is the longest I have personally seen some one battle a trout and release it.
We came back to the hole 20 minutes later and it was dead.

One thing I’ve noticed is no matter how long a fish is played, releasing it gives it a chance verses a release in crisco bay.