Y'know, this is a topic which intersts me to no end...hooking hot springers in a tailout on straight 8lb test taught me to keep the line in the water to use the current to bring some side pressure on the fish...battling chums (hurry the heck up and tire out so I can get you off my line and get back to fishing) I noticed that changing the angle of the line kept the fish off balance and made it tire earlier (where'd I see this? some video about the Babine?)...hooking hot summer run steelies on the fly made me rethink a few things, because when they tore across the river you'd want your tip up in the air to reduce the drag on your line...but one constant, it seems to me, is your position on the river in relation to the fish. Don't let the fish get above you, at least not in the current. If a fish does get above you, keep your line up and out of the water to reduce the drag which is trying, essentially, to pull the hook right out of the fish's mouth.

The angler that always amuses me (and who I never fail, eventually, to meet, year to year) is the one who battles a fish while standing in ankle-deep water...and the fish won't come in that close, and he won't go out and release it or step back and beach it...they just sit there and pull on each other...yawn!