I am no expert, as this is my first year tuna fishing.
But here is what we found was quickest.
Once near enough, one of us grabs the leader and brings it to the side of the boat, then we slip the gaff (its very thin) into the soft part of the lower jaw up near the teeth. We hold it like that in the water to remove the hook. Most of the fish were then just released and swam off just fine. The one I took a pic of in my last post.
http://www.striped-bass.com/Stripert...ad.php?t=34931 I lifted quickly, my bud snapped the pic and I lowered it back into the water. It took off like a rocket. You can see by the color this fish was still full of life. No blood putting the gaff in there carfully.
So my gut feeling is whatever we do, it has to be done quickly. IMHO....A small hole in the bottom jaw is not going to hurt a fish as much as being out of the water too long.
Of course this has only been on scool BF. If one day we get a big'in, we gonna need a tail rope, and I like the set-up Jay described.
Hybrid Mode
