Ever Spooled and Won

[Mike P]

I think it's been documented that waste products can actually begin to cook the muscle mass of some tunoids during a long fight. Tunoids are basically all red muscle mass.

It's a real boot in the rear to catch an albie on light tackle, but very few of those fish survive a release. Most people won't eat one, so it's a total waste of a good, noble fish. I stopped chasing albies on the Vineyard long before they took them out of the daily prize structure in the Derby.

I can relate one instance that I witnessed--one day, we were fishing at Pogue Light for blues, using fairly heavy tackle. A friend from CT hooked a very small albie. Maybe 4-5 pounds. He was using 20# test on a medium 9' rod. From hook up to release, the fish was probably on the line for less than 5 minutes. He grabbed the tail, unhooked it, gave it a few back and forth passes to get water flowing over its gills, and let go. It swam 10' and sank right to the bottom, and stayed there

[Raven]

this friend and i were out rabbit hunting...

so we see one and are about to shoot

but it froze solid as if to camouflage itself
by becoming perfectly motionless
or so we thought....

we stalked it carefully pointing the
shotguns but never firing a shot

as we got to within 3 feet of it
the rabbit keeled over and died.
we had scared it to death.

i have seen the same thing
happen to fish.

[DZ]

For what its worth I had a close experience with being spooled but it was a very unique set of circumstances that made it happen. I was using a penn 704 with a heavy 10 foot stick. 704s don't hold a lot of line to begin with so I probably had 180 yards or so of 20 lb flourescent blue stren with about another 30 yards of 30 lb pink ande as backing.
I hit a fish on the end of a long cast with a loaded needle so I had a good amount of line out on the cast. The sweep in this particular spot was really pushing with a big sea. I hooked up and the bass took huge amounts of line - at one point I was well into my pink ande with a blood knot between me and the fish. I lucked out and landed the bass but not without some anxious moments - it was the last time I would use backing on a 704 to save some money.

DZ

[niko]

three years ago i was fishing bahai honda st park (marathon in the florida keys) under the bridge. i hooked up on a nice tarpon w/ a 20# spinning outfit and in the blink of an eye i can see the bottom of the spool. the captain was fumbling w/ the glouster ball and anchor line and i get to the bow of this boat and i'm living on stretch. the cap starts the boat and saves the day. while chasing down this tarpon a hammerhead shows up and we have to let the fish run from the shark. we finally loose the shark and bring the fish boatside, capt says 150# maybe more. my first silver king and not my last i hope.

[hunan]

the question was "ever been spooled and won?", right? no, cow tamer. i, myself, have not. by the way, use an arbor knot to tie your line to the spool.

[Raven]

comparing uni to an arbor....

[taJon]

Originally Posted by niko

three years ago i was fishing bahai honda st park (marathon in the florida keys) under the bridge. i hooked up on a nice tarpon w/ a 20# spinning outfit and in the blink of an eye i can see the bottom of the spool. the captain was fumbling w/ the glouster ball and anchor line and i get to the bow of this boat and i'm living on stretch. the cap starts the boat and saves the day. while chasing down this tarpon a hammerhead shows up and we have to let the fish run from the shark. we finally loose the shark and bring the fish boatside, capt says 150# maybe more. my first silver king and not my last i hope.

niko, that sounds awsome. thats still on my to do list.

on a side note. My new little nephew is named Nikko also. he's about a week old now.