Spinning gear for tuna/yellow fishing?

[mrjonez]

nick, the deck hand on the old no 7, told me to practice casting a conventional reel with a paper clip on the end of the line.

nick says a lot of things.

[migfrias]

June of 2003, I boarded the Royal Star for a 8 day trip. The game plan was to fish the rock for tuna and yellows. The tuna we were told were running between 40 - 110 lbs and the yellows were 20 - 50lbs. A fisherman new to long range fishing stunned everybody with a spinning rod as his primary rod for tuna and yellowtail. Fellow fisheman and crew both offered this gentleman the use of "appropriate" gear to fight tuna of this size. He however, declined the offers and readied his equipment for the up comming battles.

The reel was a Fin-Nor, not sure of the model and the rod was a custom 6' 6460xh by calstar with spinning eyes wraped to the rod. He was using Trilene 50lb with a double hitch knot tied to a 4/0 eagle claw circle hook. (how in the -ell did I remember that?) For a harness he had a contraption that crossed his chest and attatched itself to his rod. He of course used a belt gimbal for support during a fight.

As is with most circumstances when your fishing at anchor, the bite turns into a plunker bite and the fish get very selective to their offering. Well, Mr. Spinner came into his own. He at this point had lost several fish after lengthy battles with his gear. But he was determined that he would at least boat one fish over 100lbs on this trip. He was able to cast a fly lined bait (med. sardine) on 50lb farther than anyone else using conventional gear and the result was getting bit non stop for the rest of that afternoon.

His landing ratio over time got better as he was learning to use his gear. But watching him fight his fish was painfull. His harness strap only allowed his upper body to be used when fighting a fish and many times simply bent him over the rail. I don't think I have every witnessed one angler break so many fish off. But by days end he managed three fish over 100lbs. Yes, he had managed to also **** off many passangers and crew members becuase of many burn offs that he caused for not following his fish properly. But I am sure he made alot of people think at the same time.

miguel

[mybada]

As is with most circumstances when your fishing at anchor, the bite turns into a plunker bite and the fish get very selective to their offering. Well, Mr. Spinner came into his own. He at this point had lost several fish after lengthy battles with his gear. But he was determined that he would at least boat one fish over 100lbs on this trip. He was able to cast a fly lined bait (med. sardine) on 50lb farther than anyone else using conventional gear and the result was getting bit non stop for the rest of that afternoon.

Nice story!
Thanks

[sansou]

Good story Migfrias!

Score one for the coffee-grinder!

[SanDimasLMB]

Theres nothing wrong with using spinning gear for tuna. In Japan, where everything is crowded being a small island, including ships, ALL JDM conventional saltwater reels are narrow spooled or subnarrow spooled.

So some people didn't like the narrow spool, which is why Daiwa came up with the Saltiga Z, the Dogfight, and the new Catalina. Even some US marketers carry saltwatter spinning equipment, like Van Staal.

[Z-TUNAKILLER]

Good story Migfrias!

Score one for the coffee-grinder!

:rofl: MAN ....

I'VE BEEN ON MORE THEN A FEW 1 1/2, 2 & 3 DAY TRIPS, WIT GUY'S FISHING THE COFFEE GRINDER .... AND I'LL HAVE TO SAY THEY WON JACK-POT ... $$$ ...WITH THE BIGGEST FISH ... WTF :confused: .... :rofl:

HEY WHAT EVER WORKS FOR YOU ... IS COOL WIT ME :thumb:

Z

FISH ON !