Tangled Lines was originally published March 2013
Do you fish from a boat and tangle up your line with that of your fishing partners? Have you wondered how fishing guides on the river can fish so many guys without having a tangled mess on every drift?
Well here is the key. Use rods and reels that are all setup the same. This includes using the same weight line (ie. 10lb mono), leaders, swivels, and weight. If you decide that the weight you are using on a particular drift is not enough and you decide to use a heavier weight, then everyone in the boat needs to change.
Having the same setup keeps all of the lines moving through the water at the same rate, preventing tangled lines with anglers in your own boat.
If you think about it, anglers who have their own boat also have several rods and reels. So when you buy your rods and reels, instead of buying different weight rods, buy 3 or 4 of the same weight and length.
As an example, I run 6 spinning rods and 6 baitcasters. All of the spinning rods are the same and setup the same. If someone breaks off and I hand them another rod it feels the same as the one they were using. Since I usually use the baitcasters for pulling plugs, I have a couple of rods longer in length to allow for the offset of the rods. But I still use the same weight line on these longer rods.
