On Monday I realised that I need some instruction on fighting fish on fly tackle.

Let me fist add that I know how to fight a fish in general. I have been competition fishing for years, so I know the basics, and as a papgooier I lost very few fish compared to my peers.

That said, on Monday I finally broke my curse of losing every single yellow I've hooked on fly that was of any substantial size. I hooked a nice fish about 100m upstream a small creek(?) at Vaal Hackle. Having lost all my good fish up until this point in my ff career I decided to play this one extra lightly as a change of tactic. All went well for a while, and I even started to get my net ready. Then all of a sudden the yellow just took off. That fish took me all the way down to the main river plus another 150+ meters down stream before I could land it. The poor fish was so exhausted that I had to spend minutes trying to revive it, and even then it was very weak. I actually don't know if this fish made it. I didn't have anything to measure or weigh with, but this sm yellow was just under an arms length (finger tip to armpit).

Later in the same spot I hooked another yellow of size. This time just over a forearms length. I decided there is no way in the world I'm hiking/wading all the way back again, so this yellow is staying right here in this very pool, so I gooi brakes. A few minutes later I got out at the exact same spot where I landed the previous one. Wet and somewhat defeated (although I did net this one as well).

Here is the catch. I'm currently fishing a 9 weight rod. What on earth am I doing wrong? How much strain can one put on a fly rod before it will break (assuming the rod is not damaged in some way)? I would think that with a 9 weight I should be able to drag that fish over the water like popper Ok not quite, but at least be able to contain the fish within a radius of 30 m. Right? I shiver to think what yellows would do to me on a 5 weight rod...