What gets me through these cold days of March..

[jutah09]

Here is a pic from one of our trips to the Hudson last summer (just figured out how to post some pics)..looking at these keep me going through the winter as well as the Canyon Runner seminar....Was my first one :mrgreen: , my arms felt like jello afterwards since the captain doesn't believe in harness :roll: :roll: ...

 

[scalywag05]

Nice pics John!! Seems like this winter is lasting forever! Luckily I have been back out to sea since early Feb. Hope to catch up with you this spring. -Joe

 

[jutah09]

Thanks Joe - glad everything is going well. My buddy and I got the offshore bug last summer..Not sure how many trips I will be making this summer...Expecting my third child mid July. At least I will fish hard for the spring striper run.. The spring run is great near me..drop me a line when your back on land....

Here are a few from another trip...

 

[DaleH]

..Was my first one :mrgreen: , my arms felt like jello afterwards since the captain doesn't believe in harness :roll: :roll: ...

Rigged and worn WRONG, and a harness can pull an angler overboard :shock: ! A handful of anglers have died when the put a safety line to themselves ...only to have them pulled down under water and have them pulled between the boat and a running fish. A clearly NOT good and deadly situation ...

Any safety line should be to the rod&reel only and if a harness is used, the reel clips must be quick-release. Then if an angler goes over wearing such a rig, they unclip and swim away from the rig. When tuna fishing, I insist all crew wears at least 1 clip-on knife on the belt-line or pocket to their shorts or pants.

Nice fish !

 

[Regulate It]

You're not kidding Dale - http://vimeo.com/9886244

 

[jutah09]

You're not kidding Dale - http://vimeo.com/9886244

I seen this before..crazy.. I totaly agree on the danger of using a harness, we make sure everything is quick release and the line can be easliy cut off.

 

[dave-j]

I'm with Dale on this! All of our tuna rods have leashes tied to boat cleats. Hooks to harness are quick release and we all wear fixed blade knives in sheath on belt. When I let my boys fight a tuna, we have the harness itself on a short leash that keeps them in the boat, no matter what!

 

[John_Madison CT]

Dale is correct. Leash on the rod, and be sure it's strong enough to trust your life !!

FWIW, when the fish is close to the boat, unclip from the harness.. .... That's when crazy stuff happens. Before the gaff man is near you, unclip and hold the rod.

Also, once the leader guy takes the leader, reduce the lever drag about an inch. If he has to dump the leader, the shock on you will be much less if you lower the drag.

 

[got_em_on]

That was Stuart Campbell getting pulled over in Maderia Portugal during the summer of 96.

He was record fishing for the 30lb atlantic blue marlin record using 30lb test connected by a swivel to 28 feet of double wire- breaking strength was probably over 700lbs. CP, his mate and a great wireman, had the fish on the wire several times and had to dump it. They estimated the fish to be about 1,000 which was not uncommon there that year.

When wiring a big fish like that you normally take a "back wrap" so you are actually pulling line of the reel to get that extra bit of slack in order to get the first wrap and then quickly the second wrap to start guiding the fish.

There was about a foot and a half of 30lb hanging off the tip and in the action it wrapped around the rod taking the double twisted wire with it. Now you have the wire, direct to the rod, direct to the angler via the harness. If the main line would have wrapped around the rod the line would have just snapped. The good thing is that he was not using a full bucket harness, but just the kidney harness so it slipped over his head.

He was pretty banged up, but managed to take his wife out the next day to get the womens 30lb world record!