Gaffing white marlin in the WMO

[SeaMent]

http://www.youtube.com/user/stealthm.../2/TR_HukkUEsA

This is old news, and by the way these boys knew they were in the money, they were catchin em all day on the last day of the WMO !! They knew before the fish got to the boat that they were goin to the scales with it !! That fish got measured and they put the dimensions of the fish on the radio as soon as they boated it !! This is a classic example of "GAFF & GO TO THE BANK "

[love]

Last year on the first day we caught an 81Lb for first place. On the last day the Haterascal tied us. We both tied for 1st because we both gaffed the fish. Fortunately they did not put thier money in E class, thank you.

Charlie backed down the Fish Whistle so fast that we got a gaff shot on her within a few minutes. As I was measuring the fish I noticed that the circle hook was barely lodged in the under side of the bill, about three inches from the mouth. Walt touched it and it fell right out. If that fish had taken another run and jumped, the hook would have been thrown.

By not gaffing the fish it could have gotten us another 160K or so, or it could have lost us 956K. I am a betting man so I will stick with the numbers on this one.

We are still learning a lot about using circle hooks and the one thing I learned from this situation is that circle hooks sure help to kill white Marlin well.

[pitch bait]

I will continue to gaff fish that I think are close. I will not loose due to pulling a fish off trying to boat it with out a gaff. The majority of fish lost are lost on the leader. I dont feel bad I let enough go with just a sore mouth.

[SNAKE EYES SPORTFISHING]

first off im no marlin fisherman, just a few thoughts here, what i use to measure fish is a seamstress tape , i hook a snap ring to it send it down the leader and it goes right to the jaw, i can get a pretty good measurement , now for tournies why not make something up that will clearly show legal size fish. both white and blue marlin size. now dont anyone try and steal my idea,

next these whites are fairly managable at the boat so isn't it possable to tail rope the fish to handle it, please dont slam me for these ideas, like i say i never target marlin, i just use the clip on tape to get a tuna measurement since we had somany fish in the 47 -48" range. any feedback on the slidin tape.

[mattmain]

i think that it should be a rule.. to many under sized fish are being killed.

[Squidnation]

I will continue to gaff fish that I think are close. I will not loose due to pulling a fish off trying to boat it with out a gaff. The majority of fish lost are lost on the leader. I dont feel bad I let enough go with just a sore mouth.

bobby you and Love are absolutely right in gaffing a fish. I would also gaff a fish faster then you can say "check Please". my question is more should it be tournament legal.

[Fritz]

bobby you and Love are absolutely right in gaffing a fish. I would also gaff a fish faster then you can say "check Please". my question is more should it be tournament legal.

If you are asking should gaffing of Whites be allowed at all and not as a choice. Not permitting anybody to gaff would level the playing field and make it more interesting, but like I said its tough to reach the bill from some of the pits on the
60' plus rigs.