Second Handline stories...

[bigg09]

Geoff, great story.

I have a first hand one of a couple that come to mind, but my favorite one occurred in Equador on a tributary of the Amazon River in the Equador rainforests.

I believe it was the summer of '99 or '00(Boy Time Goes by FAST!) i went on an exchange trip and did a summer abroad at the universidad San Francisco de Quito in Ecuador. Of 21 students, I was the only guy on the trip besides the Spanish Professor that came with us. The trip was a little over two months and somewhere around week five in the break between summer sessions, there was a planned trip to the Rainforest. This took a plane ride to another city, a Chiva ride (open bus with benches across an open back (below is example)

After this, we took a ride on a river boat for two hours to get to a oil driller outpost. Well this is where the fun started. the boats are long imitation dugouts that are maybe 5-6' wide and 40'+ long with benches along the whole thing. every person that stepped on, it felt like it was going to tip!! Well we get to the outpost and the Guards search all our bags and take our Passports?????? Oh CHIT I am thinking. Well then we have another Chiva ride except this one is along a road throug the rainforest cleared for oil exploration with the gravel packing that is made of granite stones the size of grapefruites. This was a two hour drive (my whole insides were sore for a week after we got back to Quito). After this, we take another hr ride on a long river boat and finally get to the research station in the middle of the Jungle. WE ARE 6 HOURS FROM ANYWHERE!!!! To skip through a lot, along the ride in the river, there were cayman all along the banks, but they all seemed to be less than 4'-5'. the coolest thing we saw were the freshwater dolphins. they were light grey/almost white but had no snout. Weird. we were thousands or miles from the mouth in Brazil. HERE IS THE HANDLINE STORY SORRY FOR THE BUILD UP:

One day they asked us if we want to take a little ride, go fishing and swimming. I am thinking COOL!!!. Remember, I was the only guy with my group, But there were three other Guys and 5 girls from Kalamazoo(sp?) that were doing research that came along. so we take a little trip up the river and pull into a little feeder tributary (maybe 30' wide). the main river was mud colored, but the little finger tributary was black and still water. One of the boat drivers pulls out a piece of steak and proceeds to shop it up into little chunks and hands us handlines. maybe 30# test and little hooks (no wire shock leader). Boy those little pirahanas are bait steelers even better than a sheep!!! well we finally catch a few and had fun with a bunch of the girls. I don't have any pictures on the computer but this is about the same

That was really neat, but where it got interesting was about 10 mins after we caught a few. The boat guides said "OK, Lets go Swimming!" Everybody turned to the guy with eyes wide open and jaw dropped. Well after some screems and hell no's, I ended up being the first to jump in with the guide. He just said jump out the other side of the boat in the muddy water. ( i am thinking OK jump in the murky water?) Then he says BTW don't pee in the water b/c of parisites that will try and go up your you know what!!! Long story short (not really sorry again) We get almost all the girls in the water swimming and having a great time. they push off the boat and we drift with it back to the camp swimming the whole way. You have to understand how miserible a rain forest is. Hot muggy Wet just miserable. the river was the only cool place to go. So there you have it, little bit of fishing but a great memory to go along with it!!!

[HOLWACHAGOT]

Gotta Love fish stories, they get better as time goes!!!!
Geoff the big mama had 3 digested sails in him just the cartilage of the bills and tails were left. That fish was caught on a Moldcraft lure.
The stuck bill was in another fish and we only used dead sailfish as a teaser but yes the marlin would go for them...
MM

It's my lie...I'll tell it how I want to....and...you will still be King of the Dakar Rednecks to anyone I get to tell your secondhand stories to.

Casey-We will be looking for pics of your adventure too...all your classmates....and if you find pics of the fish that will be good. Cool stuff.
Holwachagot

[Big Jay]

Other than handlining snappers in the lagoon or the occasional creek chub in the river as a youngin'...I only have one story.

We were vacationing in Aruba with the family. It was my brother, father, mother, and I. We chartered a half a day on a boat called the "G-String" she was an older single diesel vert with a deep keel.

If you've ever fish in Aruba you know two things:

1) It's rough as shit
2) The wahoo's attack like packs of dogs. Makes the Carolina's look like a barren wasteland.

The mate put out a spread of strips, feathers, and all the generic crap. Then lastly, a long cord of leads on a cuban yo-yo that was cleated off. At the end, a strip bait. I was baffled by this. No reel? No rod? Oh well...lets see what this about.

I knew enough at 15 to know we weren't Marlin fishing. More than likely Wahoo and Mahi. We trolled and trolled. My mother got seasick. My brother, father, and I were used to it. For 3 hours we bobbed and pitched in the windy Caribbean sea. Little bro happened to be in the chair when a little 30# wahoo saved the day for us. After the wahoo was boxed, the mate began to pull in the spread. Wanting to help he instructed me to pull in the black handline. I felt like a moron. I knew how to handle a stand up setup. At 15 i was already canyon fishing off NJ. Don't give me a goddamn handline, I am not an idiot.

Pulling the handline in I thought to myself "What the hell would anyone do if something hit this?" There was a lead molded to the line every foot or so. Ungodly contraption to handle. It was pretty much a friggin parachute cord.

The bait was about 10 ft. from the boat. I could see it fluttering in the wake. I went to grab another arm length of line when out of no where, comes the absolute BIGGEST wahoo i have ever seen. Then another slightly smaller. They came in at the exact time smashing into each other. Both missing. I yelled "WAHOO!! WAHOOO!" The mate looks over and yells "HOTY SHEET! HOTY SHEET!" and jumps up and down.

I braced myself knowing what was coming next. Big boy #1 came back with a vengeance and smashed the strip bait. TWANG! went the handline. Now locked in a temporary tug of war, the wahoo flipped and flopped airborne in the wake. In mid air we got a good look. The fish was all of 6' long.

The mate screamed "HOD ON BOI! HOD!". I couldn't. The fish took off straight away from the boat. The leads were ripping through my hands "bang bang bang bang" The mate worked to clear the leads and leader from between my feet. The lay of leaded line was ripping off the deck smacking the fiberglass whipping past my knees through my hands. My hands were on fire. Father and brother cleared the last two lines still left out. My mother just watched in absolute awe. Line in...the captain from the bridge screams "Ebery one hod on!". He blasted the stick in reverse. Black diesel smoke poured over the transom and then whitewater. My mother screaming "Oh! Oh! Oh!" Water up to my ankles i was almost back to the cleat where the handline was tied off.

The mate was yelling "Pull! Pull!" Hand over hand I pulled the line. Water was pouring over my waist with my knees against the bolsters. This went on for what seemed like an eternity. Probably was no more than 5 min. Finally I was making progress. I was down to the last 15-20ft. of line. The mate and I saw the fish. He said "Ma god...." The fish was huge. Out came the bamboo gaff. The fish, darted back and forth, shaking its head violently against my pull. Almost there. Just a few more pulls. The mate would go for the gaff and the fish would just dart a little out of reach. I took a deep breath and grabbed a wrap. Walking back i pulled, trying to bring her in reach of the steel. Then it happened...slack. The mate dropped the gaff on the gunnel, and his head.

My heart sank. He said "He gun boi..." and patted me on the back "Ya deed good doe".

After that the captain pointed the boat towards the harbor. Saying "Beeg fish...bery beeg"

That's my handline story.

[The Codfather]

Handlining GBFT

3 'laundry baskets' actually commercial fishing tubs of 1/4 in 3strand nylon, coiled. Three tubs connected with snap shackles and a small poly-ball at each connection and the end. 40' of 130lb mono with a 15' flouro leader tied to the strongest live bait hook we could find, bridled to a live bluefish. 1lb sinker at the top of the leader. Bait sat under a huge balloon, staggered in the chum slick.

When you hook up, the whole first basket jumps in the air and disappears. The second basket goes slower and the third is just streaming out. We'd surge the line on a cleat to slow the fish down, throw the anchor ball and other lines over the side, and go chasing after the fish. Usually only one large run is made, then its easy to get them to circle under the boat.

What ive heard of now is some fellers fix gps transponders to the balls and cast them off, then go into port and watch the movement of the balls. When they start taking off at 30kts, time to go pick them up.