fighting belts?????????/

[j towne]

I was wondering what kind of fighting belts everyone is using?

[clt_capt]

Most of the time we use a Play Action Wraparound belt - it is fine for mahi, wahoo, kings and medium YFT.

For bigger fish we've got a Braid Power Play belt and a Sampo Shoulder harness.
Haven't run across anything yet we couldn't handle with that - including marlin up to about 500 lbs.

[Fish-N-Fool]

The Braid Pro-Manta 30200 matched with their 30500 Fighting Harness makes for a decent set-up at a reasonable price (around $130-140.00). On the charter boat, we also carry a couple Play Action Sport Model PLN100's for multiple hook-up situations. Quickly snapped around a waist, they are a fish saver in the controlled chaos environment that occurs when three or four rods go down. If you do not have a fighting chair, I suggest installing a chair rod gimbal on a folding deck chair. At $30.00, it is easily installed and can make the difference of landing a trophy fish once an angler can not longer stand.

[Hroonk]

We use the Braid Harness for big fish and anglers with tender backs. It REALLY makes the difference.

For average tunas, we just use the cheap Bass Pro belts (they go on sale for $15 every spring.) They're velcro and also work well for multiple hook up chaos.

[alltackle]

The Braid Pro-Manta 30200 matched with their 30500 Fighting Harness makes for a decent set-up at a reasonable price (around $130-140.00). On the charter boat, we also carry a couple Play Action Sport Model PLN100's for multiple hook-up situations. Quickly snapped around a waist, they are a fish saver in the controlled chaos environment that occurs when three or four rods go down. If you do not have a fighting chair, I suggest installing a chair rod gimbal on a folding deck chair. At $30.00, it is easily installed and can make the difference of landing a trophy fish once an angler can not longer stand.

John,

I agree with your belt choices and welcome to SFC. You will find this forum to be a great resource. I still need to learn how you rig trolling squids.

[shoefish]

For the bigger stuff try the OTR (I think it's ocean tackle resources) belt- in my opinion the harness is much more comfortable than the Braid, and the gimbal plate has one large smooth pad that rests against your legs as opposed to having two or having ridges like the braid- in a long fight those ridges that are in the Braid plate cause pressure points and will wear on you.

[j towne]

http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/st...L&cmid=PP_P1_2


I was thinking of getting one of these.

[DEEP DEFIANCE]

ocean tackle research is what I use and it is A superior performer.I also have several braid belts and harness setups on the boat and they are also decent but if you get use to the otr that is what you would want to use I have fought big shark and tuna on the otr for long durations and it always goes very well with a lot less fatigue than you would expect out of A standup fight .

[Anngler]

I'm asking for a harness for my birthday (which is only 20 days away ) . So this is really helping me out!

[clt_capt]

http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/st...L&cmid=PP_P1_2


I was thinking of getting one of these.

I've got a couple of those on the boat - and they work ok, but they are a real pain to get on someone in a hurry. Also for really big fish, it helps to move some of the pressure up from the waist to the shoulders - unless you are using a really high end standup bucket type harness.

We've noticed that when the waist belt attaches to the reel lugs, it is much harder to adjust so that the angler can really use their legs to fight the fish.

Ideally, the angler should have the right hand for cranking, and the left hand should be free to hold the reel (NOT the ROD) - 2 reasons for this - 1) if the line breaks, the rod is going to pop the angler in the head 2) Need to guide the line onto the reel for level loading