it is my favorite thing to do and i do it often. some chubby pike i pickled in the winter 27 inch walleye my best so far this year nice fat bucket mouth bass
Nylon cord with a gang of 6 hooks on metal traces - 3 feet apart.
Half a mackerel on each hook. A pin from a Bulldozer track as a sinker. Park on the shelf where it goes from 120 fathoms to 20. 3-4 mtr swell that surges around the island.
A variety of weapons onboard to deal to what is about to enter the boat.
I got bit by a gar when I was a kid, the only good fish is dead, on a plate, fried, seared, battered, kabob'd, grilled, marinated. Choice between fishing and motorcycling.... I have five bikes in the garage, and not a reel & rod to my name. What do you think wins?
A bit late, but I couldn't resist the temptation of a fishing thread.
I think I posted this one a while back, but here it is. Had a bite-off (rare) three or four hooks before this tiger showed up on the longline. But we got our $2 hook back when we gutted him and found a 3-footer in his belly. Swallowed it whole, parting off the 700# test leader.
A little black tip in the foreground that he probably took a swipe at first.
I don't know what he weighed in the round, but it was enough to have the boat listing. (Copping a lean, for you landlubbers.)
He was definitely a candidate for a little tap with the 44-magnum bang stick before he came on board.
This next one is a deep-water grouper caught with vertical gear in 100 fathoms. My Micronesian deckhand, trying to prop him up against the fish hold hatch cover. 171 pounds, dressed.
Geesh. So what do you do with a 12 foot tiger shark? Besides from be careful?
Just finished "The Hungry Ocean". Good read, but nowhere near what you have written. Keep writing!
I could not tell from the "Hungry Ocean". Did the boat owner jump deliberately? Or did he just fall? Or did he have some other issue (stroke or something) and then fall?
Long time since I read it, Bill. I thought he had a heart attack, though.
I never knew any of those guys mentioned in either Linda's or Sebastian Junger's books. But I knew a couple of guys who fished with them. Linda was a hot-shit captain, according to them.
The Perfect Storm (book) was dead on, imo, accurately portraying the fishing business. The movie was a gross disservice to all fishermen... pure Hollywood fantasy.
Some of it was right, of course: the captain going from hero to a$$hole to hero in the crew's eyes depending on how much meat was coming over the rail, the exhilaration when you were in the meat, the personality conflicts, cramming a month's worth of living into just a couple of days, etc.
But that crap with the torch on the end of the outrigger... been there and done that, but only in calm weather, and it wasn't easy then. And the bit with Mark Walburg up in the rigging with the antenna... that's just plain dumb!
Sorry... it makes me angry every time I think about it.
Sure, fishing can be some really hard work at times, and also dangerous. But for the most part, it's fun, and very rewarding.
To answer your question about tigers... unlike nearly all other sharks, the meat is not considered edible, so their only value is in the fins. ($35 a pound, last I checked.)
But I wish I had the time (& resources) to target those big grouper. Sharks were the target when we caught the one above, but that was nearly a $350 fish, in spite of the fact that we sorta gave it away at $2 a pound. (You don't have to catch quite so many when they get to that size.)
