hooking a giant by accident, has this ever happended to you??

[tuna wrestler]

I have been fishing CCB and having good luck with footballs, mostly in the 45 to 55 inch classon on 10 inch magnets but recently I have had not one but two times that fish that were waaaaaaaay out of my league hit my lures. Has this ever happened to you and what have you done. The tackle I use is a 9ft heavy action rod with a spinning reel loaded with 50 lb power pro and 50 lb florocarbon. I also don't want to keep reloading my reels every time this happens!!!!!!

[north coast]

happened to me several times. once this year. not much you CAN do. you can chase the fish with the boat , you may stand a chance with a 50w and alot of work and stellar boat handling, but with a spinning rod ,you might as well kiss the line goodby.
I was bass fishing last year in Ipswich bay with a couple avet lx's -40 lb line.
got spooled twice in about an hour. big fish. the first time, once the fish realized he was hooked, the line was gone in under 10 seconds:eek:

[sage fly guy]

Before I switched to the LRS 30 and 50's I ran Avet's. Three years ago had the biggest fish i ever hooked change my mind about Avet's, luckily they EBAY good.

Not much I could do, did everything right, but nothing could be done to stop the reel from being 3/4 spooled(in about 5 seconds), between spool tension, drag in the water, reel locked, line parted. Line was leaving the reel so fast the dust from the 80# power pro made a green cloud.:cool: I wanted to toss the reel in the ocean.

Hang on, enjoy and hope you have someone on board to drive and chase for any shot.

chris

[Go Fish]

If you are fortunate enough to realize you are out classed: get the angler to the pointy end of the boat, get it on plane, and instruct the angler to wind like a mother $%#^& and yell to you when most of the line is back on the reel. When the angler yells, instruct the angler to grab the spool and hold on tight. When you see the angler grab the spool, drop to idle...pop.

This works well with leader to 50 lbs. bigger than that may give the angler a friction burn from the spool.

[sorry charlie]

I just hooked my first tuna today. It was 49''. I caught it on a penn 6/0 reel on 60# braid with a 50# flouro leader. I was cod fishing! I had tuna gear on board but it was too rough to spot surface fish so we bottom fished. He took a double hook rig with purple teasers and clams as it went to the bottom. Took 2+ hours to get him to gaff. Most amazing experience of my life. We were on the ridge at jeffries. Antbody know what a 49" length tuna with a 39'' girth weighs? I know there is a formula but cant remember where I saw it. I cant imagine a giant on a spinning reel. T:)hese fish are STRONG! Oh and thanks for all the info I learnsd on this site.

[e-sea-e]

Line was leaving the reel so fast the dust from the 80# power pro made a green cloud.:cool:

I too have seen the green cloud- and watched 500+ yards of 50+ power pro disappear in seconds. :eek:

now we do what kevin said when we hook a fish we know we wont land.

we were also spooled 5 times this year fishing for blues in early june on the bank- tuna kept taking the jigs. but that was with 4000 series reels and 260 yards of 30 lb power pro- that goes in about 4 seconds once the fish realizes its hooked

[backman]

on June 5th 2000 was hooked on a cod jig in 120' of water after unsuccessfully trolling for hours through acres of pushing fish of all sizes.

We fought that fish for 3 hours on a Senator 4/0 w/ 50# braid. The fish was hooked on a diamond jig connected to the braid by a mackerel jig! Think teen y snap swivel.


We got the boat on top of the fish a number of times and had it racing around 10h yards off and 20' down. It was a ~400# class/~84" fish. The angler was only able to bring 12-14# drag to the fight - I eventually missed a shift after 3 hours and was unabl to keep the fish out of the props - zing.....gone.

[fishahn]

sorrycharlie,
I'd guess that 49" fish was around 75 - 80 lbs! congrats!!

[riptide]

My biggest on spinning gear is a 150# class fish. It took almost 2 hours solo in a boat to gaff the fish.

A few things that MAY help you.

First, if you have 2 people have the motor on and the boat ready to go FAST.

Let the fish fight the drag. Don't chase it every time it runs unless you are REALLY going to be spooled. The longer the fish pulls drag the harder he works. Chasing him all over to keep line on the spool is like walking a dog, he will never get tired.

Let him run, then chase him. Let him run again, then chase ETC.

If and when you get him up and down then luck and technique is going to decide if you can land the fish.

When the fish is circling ALWAYS be pulling against his direction of travel. If he is swimming clockwise, as he swims 12-6 you pull left, as he turns and swims 6-12 you pull to the right. The constant pull in the same direction only pressures the fish on half of his circle, the other half your pulling him foreward (i.e. Helping him)

The sooner and deeper you can figure out which way he's circling and start doing this the better your odds of landing the fish.

If your using braid as most of us are, palming the spool for extra drag is an option. If your new at this it ay not be the best time to learn on a monster, but it may be your only chance. When you feel the fish get excited and ready to run let him go, don't palm the spool. When your pumping and lifting thats the time to add the extra drag to keep the line from easing off the spool as you lift.

Lift SLOWLY! Jerking the rod upward as you pump and wind will cause you to loose line on the lift. A drag set at 14# will take a bit more pressure to start up (START UP DRAG) depending onthe quality of the reel anywhere from .5-1.5# So if you lift slowly you can get 14.5-15.5# without palming. Once the drag slips then your back to 14#.

REEL THE ROD TIP DOWN!!! This is a HUGE one. Tuna have all their weight foreward towards the head. If you lift the rod and get the fishes head aimed up and then you drop and reel the fishes head will aim down again. I've seen dead fish take line because of this. A guy lifts the fish on the upstroke and them drops the rod and reels the slack or almost slack line. The fishes head swings downward and momentum when the fishes body take up the slack with jerk a foot or two of line off the reel. Happens on big fish that dead can overwhelm the drag pressure. Lift the rod to 930-1000 and then reel the rod tip down keeping the same bend in the rod the entire downward stroke. That will make sure that the fishes head stayes aimed upwards. You can do this quickly with practice. Keep a constant bend in the rod. This also help prevent pulling hooks, constant pressure is less likely that jerky pressure to pull a hook.

If the fish is that big that you really don't think it's able to be landed fight it accordingly. Fight it hard and take some chances. On a really huge fish, you need to take them or break them off by fighting them as hardas you can. If you play it safe you'll be there for ever.

After a hour or two, we start to up the drag a bit every 15 minutes or 1/2 hour. The fish is less likley to make a big fast run so easing the drag up a small amount can sometimes be the extra you need to land them. This is if you just are not movign the fish. If your making headway stay with whats working. If your in a stalemate you have to make a move and risk loosing the fish in order to land it.

Swap out anglers. If your not going for a record keep a fresh angler on the rod. Most guys have never gone over an hour on a fish and they get tired. Better to hand off to a buddy thats fresh and let him have at the fish for a bit then swap back. I've seen fights go over and hour with no sign of gaining, then a fresh angler gets on the rod and lands the fish in 10 more minutes. If your angler is "resting" your loosing. Line should either be going on the spool or coming off the spool. The angler shoud never be just standing there with a bend in the rod and nothing happening.

Encourage the angler, water them and feed if nessary. A bottle of gatorade and a cookie after an hour battle can be huge. Have a towel person wipe thee sweat out of their eyes. Beign tired and uncomfortable is not helping your angler land the fish.

Just some things I use with my sports.

[Brad G.]

I would bet your 49" fish is about 75 pounds give or take a few. Nice work.

[sorry charlie]

Thanks guys. Riptide thanks for the tips. Ill bet I could have cut the battle time in half with them. Im looking at recipies now for some dinner tonight.

[tuna wrestler]

very informative, thanks guys. Just a thought do you think 80lb power pro and 80 florocarbon would be the ticket to landing these big boys??????????????

[sorry charlie]

very informative, thanks guys. Just a thought do you think 80lb power pro and 80 florocarbon would be the ticket to landing these big boys??????????????

Im a newbie, but any more pressure you can put on these fish is really important, can your reel put up with 27# of drag?. That being said, Ive read numerous times that tuna can be leader shy. You might hook up less with smaller tuna with the heavier gear. Im thinking of bumping up to 80# line on my cod rod after barely landing a chance tuna yesterday. My tuna setups are 50 class with 80#line but thats for trolling. Im still amazed my half assed mono to braid connection held!--125-3

[twofinbluna]

the first time, once the fish realized he was hooked, the line was gone in under 10 seconds:eek:

Definitely... a lot of times when guys hook them with really light gear, the fish dont even know they are hooked...but once they do, seeeee ya later.

Pretty much impossible to even get close to getting one with spinning gear, if not completely impossible. I assume when by 'Giant' we are talking about fish over 82 inches....you are not going to stop one like that with spinning gear, no matter what you do or who is driving the boat.

Definitely true that big bluefin are leader-shy...definitely explains why it is often easier to get one to bite light gear.

[JohnnyR]

I'm curious about the "leader shy" issue. As I understand it until not so long ago a lot of giant fishing was done with handlines and the leaders on those were more or less rope. (correct me if I'm wrong).

Is the difference that the handliners were fishing bait? Or is the theory that in 15 years or so tuna have evolved to be more apprehensive of lines attached to their food?

In other words are the tuna really "leader" shy or are they just "lure" shy and we've only figured that out recently because the practice of using artificials for tuna is relatively new?

[Jacob K.]

I'm curious about the "leader shy" issue. As I understand it until not so long ago a lot of giant fishing was done with handlines and the leaders on those were more or less rope. (correct me if I'm wrong).

Is the difference that the handliners were fishing bait? Or is the theory that in 15 years or so tuna have evolved to be more apprehensive of lines attached to their food?

In other words are the tuna really "leader" shy or are they just "lure" shy and we've only figured that out recently because the practice of using artificials for tuna is relatively new?
could be that they have always been, but there used to be SO MANY MORE that the chance of hooking up were astronmical

[sage fly guy]

could be that they have always been, but there used to be SO MANY MORE that the chance of hooking up were astronmical



There used to be so many that you didn't need rod and reel, you drove thru schools as large a football fields and stuck, and stuck, and stuck, and stuck, then went back and retrieved all the poly balls. And sold them for cat food.:eek: So I'm told.

chris

[north coast]

I'm curious about the "leader shy" issue. As I understand it until not so long ago a lot of giant fishing was done with handlines and the leaders on those were more or less rope. (correct me if I'm wrong).

Is the difference that the handliners were fishing bait? Or is the theory that in 15 years or so tuna have evolved to be more apprehensive of lines attached to their food?

In other words are the tuna really "leader" shy or are they just "lure" shy and we've only figured that out recently because the practice of using artificials for tuna is relatively new?


hmm, well, part of the leader was like rope, it was called gangean(sp)
( pronounced gan'jin) but the terminal end, where the hook is,was done just like on a rod. fluorocarbon and all. when it came out of coarse.

fish may be a little more leader shy today than back then, maybe there were just more fish ,maybe a little of both.

I do remember hooking a Moonie boat's lines once though, while hauling the anchor with a ball(should have heard them screaming):eek: two lines were hooked on my anchor line, they were using about a 14/0 -16/0 shark hook and AIRCRAFT CABLE for a leader! I doubt you'd do so well with that setup today:)
I saw them hook up once with dogfish fillets too,and land the fish. big fish.

One thing I'm sure of, fish do get used to certain methods ,lures, etc..
what's hot this year won't necessarily be hot next .

[dcobbett]

Regarding being leader shy, I worked as a mate on a Cape boat in the early 60's and we did a fair amount of tuna fishing. Most of it was trolling and the only rig I remember was a daisy chain of 4 fresh squid of Seven Strand braided steel leader. I think the O.D was in the range of a 32nd to a 1/16th of an inch. I don't recall anyone mentioning concerns about leared shy fish, and we seemed to catch our fair share of tuna.

[graftology]

I've taken two winter trips to North Carolina, fishing out of Moorehead City, with Capt. Brant McMullen on his 27' "Carolina Contender". On both trips we landed several bluefin in the 400-500# class with 30wide Shimanos in full harness stand-up gear with 150# braid, and large mono top shot, trolling balyhoo. The key is how the boat is driven. Once hooked up, straped in and fighting the fish from the bow of the boat, it was just a matter of time. The fish faught the boat, and surprisingly quickly(never more then 1/2 hour) would be tired, and could be planed along the boat for release. One year we participated in the "tag a giant" program. When the tagging boat was around, you would radio when you got hooked up, and the tagging boat(a large sport fisher), would steam to you. Once you leadered the fish, the tagging boat would back down and throw us a line, which we conected to the leader with our fish on, and the tagging boat would then haul the fish on to their deck through the tuna door, to tag, measure and release the fish. Overall a very cool expirience. I don't know if I could duplicate it here on my own, but you can land a giant on 30# gear.


Graftology

[FISHING FREAK]

The universally accepted weight formula is Girth X Girth X Length divided by 800 length being measured by CFL. Using this formula your fish weighed around 93 Lbs. Must have been a very FAT fish. Congrats. FREAK:)

[sorry charlie]

The universally accepted weight formula is Girth X Girth X Length divided by 800 length being measured by CFL. Using this formula your fish weighed around 93 Lbs. Must have been a very FAT fish. Congrats. FREAK:)

Thanks for that formula. The fish was fat as hell. Good eating. I gave away all the toro as I dont like anything raw. I cooked the steaks till there was no red color left. Oh the horror. Blackend cajun was the best. Tried going out sun but it was rough as hell.

[Rhumbline]

I hooked a 50" fish on the SWC yesterday tossing a 2 1/2 oz polish sandeel.

I used the techniques listed above and boated the fish much much quicker than in the past.

The tip of pulling in the oppisite direction, especially when the fish is doing the circle dance below the boat, cut the time in half!!! Really made a difference getting the head point up.

Great tips - much appreciated.

Cheers.

[Jacob K.]

i have been practicing the pulling in opposite direction tip while on big bass in the kayak. it really helps control them and get them in faster. thanks for the help.