"XIAO MU JI"Custom Built Ironwood Montauk Sportsfisherman,with Lots of Lures, Sharp Hooks puts Big Fish in the Box. Traditional Bowhunting, Wooden Bows, Finger & Straight Arrows means Trophies on the Wall.
Author, writer, marine artist, charter captain, lure manufacturer, ind. consultant
Yo, Marty,
What a great video! Cockpit insanity, crew freaking out, f-bombs flying, moments of complete hysteria and a boat with a broken autopilot that ran like the devil himself was driving it in the interests of them hooked tooners. Of course, things didn't get any better when the youngsters took over the wheel..."Right, right, right! No, no! Don't speed up! Ah, jeez, slow down! Right, come on, right, right, right!" I love the part where whoever was driving (had to be your kid) told you to "shut the bleep up and fish!" several times and you just couldn't help it, you cracked up and wound up with a great big smile on your face! What a pisser!
Some great lessons for those who look hard. First, there is no doubt in my mind that you would have caught that last big one, to say nothing of any others, if the boat had only steered straight. The tunas were swimming in straight lines, like they usually do and that circling was simply pulling the hooks at different angles, wearing the hell out of the leaders from that, the tuna teeth and most likely continuous contact with the tails constantly doing damage. It looked like a hook or two pulled, but I'm amazed at how it didn't on that last one with all of the circling you guys did on him. One thing is certain - you had him hooked well.
Another thing that the video clearly showed is how hooked tuna will only run so far and then turn and follow the boat, as long as you just leave the rods in the holders with constant, a little, or even no pressure on them. This is the biggest key in controlling a fight with a multiple and once the crew realizes that they can take their time and concentrate on one fish at a time because those other fish will still be there (always, if you use circle hooks) when they land the first fish and pick up one of the hooked up rods they stay calm and easily keep crossed lines, etc. under control.
There were many times in the video when the rods in the holders with fish on them were barely bending at all. A classic example was when the one youngster lost a fish and was freaking out (CHILL man, it ain't the end of the world), blaming someone for it, and you had to hand him another rod that looked empty, he took a few cranks and was jerked over by the fish. "Now, get back to work!" Classic!
Another good lesson was (and I thank you) that big tunas get after little bars. As I think you mentioned in another post, most or all of those fish came on our little bars. If anyone wants to know how tiny the bars themselves are, there is quite a lot of footage of a little SuperBar bar hanging in over the other, bigger bars. Many times even bigeye get after the tiny stuff and won't touch even six inchers. I honestly don't think a bar arsenal is complete without the little guys.
Again, a great example of the Pandemonium that can break out in a cockpit when nooby crew get bombed by a bunch of tuna. It was a crying shame that your autopilot went on the fritz on you, or you probably would have caught all or almost all of those fish. What a handicap! Of course, the show wouldn't have been nearly as good. In the end, you did a great job considering the hysterical kids, the inexperienced boat driver, and the Devil driving the rest of the time. That big smile on your face said it all when it comes to having fun and not taking things that you can't do anything about too seriously.
Thanks! Now I'm going to watch it again and probably again after that.
Funny...it starts with "Thunder" (AC/DC - go Angus) and ends with the real thing. Very cool! I used to blast that song on the boat stereo whenever we approached a school of tunas. It sure was appropriate when the whole spread exploded!
Back to the show!
Photos...
9 for 9 on The Archer (Only two anglers, but very expienced ones; Capt Bobby Dobson of "Checkmate" and my second captain Chicky Rodriguez. Smaller tuna than yours, but still a handful if you don't know what you're doing. Those guys actually took a beer break in the middle of the tussle! Me? I drove...straight. Ho hum. "Hey, you guys gonna take all day ta land them pore little tooners? Huh?")
If you read my thread GLORIOUS RETURN FROM BEYOND you will see that I have autopilot but I needed it reprogrammed after the drive was put back on. It sucks not having it work. The Simrad AP16 works great when it works. Glad you liked the video,
Norman Batts fits alfred perfectly, Ha! We have been fishing together 30-years and throughtout all the screaming, afterwards when we lost the fish, we were still shaking hands and high-fiving on everyone's effort. I have caught the biggest fish of my life and his, with him standing right next to me.
A nut, but really great guy, although we just gotta learn to stop cursing so much.. glad you liked it. mty
"XIAO MU JI"Custom Built Ironwood Montauk Sportsfisherman,with Lots of Lures, Sharp Hooks puts Big Fish in the Box. Traditional Bowhunting, Wooden Bows, Finger & Straight Arrows means Trophies on the Wall.
What a great video! Cockpit insanity, crew freaking out, f-bombs flying, moments of complete hysteria and a boat with a broken autopilot that ran like the devil himself was driving it in the interests of them hooked tooners. Of course, things didn't get any better when the youngsters took over the wheel..."Right, right, right! No, no! Don't speed up! Ah, jeez, slow down! Right, come on, right, right, right!" I love the part where whoever was driving (had to be your kid) told you to "shut the bleep up and fish!" several times and you just couldn't help it, you cracked up and wound up with a great big smile on your face! What a pisser!
Fred, it was Al driving that's why we call him Norman Baits! Physco! He's not real technical, but he catches a lot of big fish and he and I have been fishing side by side for 30-years and never argue about where to go or when or what to fish, we compliment each other. But, there can be some real fun and insanity.
Some great lessons for those who look hard. First, there is no doubt in my mind that you would have caught that last big one, to say nothing of any others, if the boat had only steered straight. The tunas were swimming in straight lines, like they usually do and that circling was simply pulling the hooks at different angles, wearing the hell out of the leaders from that, the tuna teeth and most likely continuous contact with the tails constantly doing damage. It looked like a hook or two pulled, but I'm amazed at how it didn't on that last one with all of the circling you guys did on him. One thing is certain - you had him hooked well.
What the video didn't show was how many times I drove over the fish and then away to roll and raise the fish. Remember I only had him on 30# test mono, on a #20 Fin-Nor which has 700-yards of60# Jerry Brown and 300-yards of 30# Momoi mono which I got down to less than a 1/4 spool the fisrt run. I really felt that I got him up pretty quickly each time because of my manuvering.
Another thing that the video clearly showed is how hooked tuna will only run so far and then turn and follow the boat, as long as you just leave the rods in the holders with constant, a little, or even no pressure on them. This is the biggest key in controlling a fight with a multiple and once the crew realizes that they can take their time and concentrate on one fish at a time because those other fish will still be there (always, if you use circle hooks) when they land the first fish and pick up one of the hooked up rods they stay calm and easily keep crossed lines, etc. under control.
Typically I try to leave the spread out behind the boat when I get hooked up and keep getting more fish on. I also keep turning in a slow wide arch which allows me to thread the fish through the spread without clearing it and it brings me back onto my MOB where we got the fish to begin with.
There were many times in the video when the rods in the holders with fish on them were barely bending at all. A classic example was when the one youngster lost a fish and was freaking out (CHILL man, it ain't the end of the world), blaming someone for it, and you had to hand him another rod that looked empty, he took a few cranks and was jerked over by the fish. "Now, get back to work!" Classic!
That was Al, the fish that I had nothing to do with loosing. As you saw, I didn't make a big deal of loosing he big fish. It is reality, I did everything right. Cody use to get so emotional when he would not win in an archery tournament or drop a fish or not get a hit when I would be getting fish after fish drifting for big stripers. So showing him the reality of accepting that if you did your best, then that is what you did. What can you do? It just wasn't my time to win that battle...reality!
Another good lesson was (and I thank you) that big tunas get after little bars. As I think you mentioned in another post, most or all of those fish came on our little bars. If anyone wants to know how tiny the bars themselves are, there is quite a lot of footage of a little SuperBar bar hanging in over the other, bigger bars. Many times even bigeye get after the tiny stuff and won't touch even six inchers. I honestly don't think a bar arsenal is complete without the little guys.
Again, a great example of the Pandemonium that can break out in a cockpit when nooby crew get bombed by a bunch of tuna. It was a crying shame that your autopilot went on the fritz on you, or you probably would have caught all or almost all of those fish. What a handicap! Of course, the show wouldn't have been nearly as good. In the end, you did a great job considering the hysterical kids, the inexperienced boat driver, and the Devil driving the rest of the time. That big smile on your face said it all when it comes to having fun and not taking things that you can't do anything about too seriously.
I always laugh at him when he goes off on his rants, to me they are histerical!!!!!! Tightlines>
"XIAO MU JI"Custom Built Ironwood Montauk Sportsfisherman,with Lots of Lures, Sharp Hooks puts Big Fish in the Box. Traditional Bowhunting, Wooden Bows, Finger & Straight Arrows means Trophies on the Wall.
Author, writer, marine artist, charter captain, lure manufacturer, ind. consultant
Marty,
Ahhhhh, ha, ha, ha! It keeps getting better and better! Al is an adult friend of thirty years?! That explains a whole bunch of things that were actually bothering the heck out of me. Since I thought he was one of your kids' buddies, same age, it really bugged me the way that he talked smack to you, and first watching him have a schnit fit when the hook pulled on that first fish and he was madly blaming you and just about losing his mind - hell, you had left the scene long before! Remember, I was thinking that he was a kid and what he could have used right about then was a swift kick in the posterior instead of you being nice to him in spite of how he was behaving.
And then the outburst while he was "driving" and you were begging and pleading with him to turn, slow down, speed up, or whatever - I figured the rod would go in the holder when he said what he said and Al was gonna get conked, but you laughed instead. It all makes sense now. An old time buddy is a different deal - we probably all have ones whose behavior we tolerate and even laugh our arses off at when they lose it and go postal. Actually, I've known quite a few of that type, one of whom used to get so mad, he'd punch himself in the face - and no love taps, either. "Bam!" Then with blood pouring all over the place and he'd snap out it.
I know that you know how to handle multiples and done right they are actually pretty boring after the initial bar bombing is over with. Like you, we left any unbit bars out while we fought the hooked fish, but believe it or not, once we started running monochromatic, all the same size and color bars that matched that day's "hatch", we wound up with full covers more times than not and if any bars "escaped", they got stomped on real soon.
Standard procedure was also to unhook caught tunas and flip the bar right back behind the boat, very short with the drag backed off a little. Down in Mexico we used to get a sort of "production line" of new fish that were following the hooked ones, I guess, nailing those near bars when they came up to the boat. This isn't for the faint of heart, but it often put considerable numbers of extra fish onboard and created what I guess you'd call "an extended multiple."
As I have said many times, the real test of a tuna spread is what happens when a school - and unlike the solitary or small pack pelagics, that's how tuna travel, in schools - is raised; hook 'em in bunches and you're doing it right. Hook 'em one or two at a time and you're doing something wrong and IMO that's usually only having a few of the right size and color lures out there that get bit and other stuff that the fish aren't feeding on and so, aren't interested in. That, and having a pile of the right "artificial chum" in your pattern for the fish to compete over when they come into your spread are two extremely important keys to maximizing the tuna multiples that you get shots at.
Other keys are to keep that auto driver tuned up and going and if Al's along, DON'T LET HIM DRIVE!
p.s. After watching the video a couple of times, I strongly suspect that the bar leader got badly chafed on the anchor line of that buoy that you were so worried about. If that was one of our little bars, the main leader was 300# (not for chafe protection, but for big fish) and nothing on a tuna could do that to it - at least, not that I have ever seen.
Just in from a customer, Matt Goldsworthy up in Northern California salmon country...23 alberts, all on The Little SuperBar like the one pictured. He said that the fish were stuffed with 1.5" sauries and 3" lantern fish and very few were caught by the other boats on the fish, some of whom were trolling "big", 6 or 9" bars and not getting bit on them. Think small!
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"XIAO MU JI" Custom Built Ironwood Montauk Sportsfisherman,with Lots of Lures, Sharp Hooks puts Big Fish in the Box. Traditional Bowhunting, Wooden Bows, Finger & Straight Arrows means Trophies on the Wall.
Fred
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