Article by Capt. Mark Sampson
So often we hear details about someone losing a really big fish, and from the description of what happened it becomes obvious that the crew was simply not properly prepared for success with a fish of those proportions. Every fisherman wants to hook and land a big fish. Then they finally have an opportunity to do so and they manage to flub it up! Well maybe not always, but you sure do hear plenty of stories about “the big one that got away” more than you do about little ones that manage to make their escape.
The best way to ensure that you actually land that dream fish when it finally makes an appearance on the end of your line is to prepare ahead of time for the eventuality that some day it’s going to happen. It’s like playing a slot machine - you know that if you pull the handle enough times, sooner or later you’ll hit the jackpot, and if you’re prepared you’ll have a little bucket sitting on the floor beside you to collect your winnings. If you’re not ready to win, you’re bound to end up crawling about the casino floor scrambling to pick up your winning nickels as they overflow from your shirt pockets. Being prepared to win is the first step in winning!
So how do you prepare to catch a fish that might, if you’re really lucky, only come along once every few years? A good start would be to run some “what-if” scenarios through your head. If you’re chunking for tuna, ask yourself “what if instead of hooking the standard 30 to 50 pound yellowfin we tie into a 200-pound bluefin? Do our reels have enough line capacity and are the drags smooth enough under pressure to handle a tussle with a fish like that? Is the terminal tackle, including hooks, knots, leader and swivels, up to the extra pressure that might be necessary to exert on such a fish to successfully land it? In this case I mentioned tuna, but the same questions can be asked of anglers fishing for marlin, sharks, flounder, stripers or any other type of fish that has the potential to grow to gargantuan proportions not often encountered by the average angler.
If in order to fool the average 30 to 50 pound yellowfin, anglers find the need to use light 30-pound leaders and small hooks, they are going to be at an immediate disadvantage when that 200-pounder hits. A small hook and light leader attached to a jumbo fish is not a good recipe for success. But if that’s what’s needed to catch the smaller fish then anglers have to work with what they’ve got and make the best of it. To land a 200-pound tuna on 30-pound leader (in a reasonable amount of time) anglers will want to apply as much pressure as the terminal tackle will allow, requiring that every knot be perfect, the hook stout enough that it won’t straighten out and the leader be flawless. The reel’s drag will also have to be smooth as silk and the maximum drag setting set so that it cannot over-tax the breaking strength of the leader.
Leaders should be checked at the dock by setting the drag at “full”, hooking each leader up to the rod and with a screwdriver in the bend of the hook, someone can take a run down the dock and see how it all holds up. If something is going to “let go” let it happen then and not when that prize fish is on the line. It doesn’t matter if someone is targeting tuna or flounder, knowing that their terminal tackle is put together as best as it can be should give anglers the confidence to push their drag up to “full” if they hook an exceptional fish.
Another part of being ready to deal with a really big fish is having enough line on your reel to handle whatever might come along. A monster size fish is likely going to pull out a lot of line, and even if you’re fishing from a boat, it might take more than just a few minutes to get up and running after a fish and actually regain some line. Anglers fishing from a bridge, pier or shoreline have it even tougher because they don’t have the option of going after a fish that’s hell-bent on taking all their string! Fortunately, with today’s thin but strong braided lines, even small reels can hold many hundreds of yards of line and greatly extend the radius that a fish can run. Anglers wishing to be prepared for an exceptionally large fish will need to decide for themselves if it will be to their advantage to use heavier line that will allow for higher drag settings or lighter line that will allow their reel to hold more line.
Of course, even with the most finely tuned tackle, if an exceptional fish comes along but the wrong angler is on the rod, the encounter might be doomed to failure from the start. Anglers come in all sizes, skill-levels and physical abilities. No one wants to hurt anyone’s feelings, but sometimes you just have to be practical about things and face the reality that, if it’s little 12-year-old Jimmy’s turn to catch the next fish that bites, and suddenly an 800-pound blue marlin slurps down a rigged mackerel set out on 80-pound tackle, it might be necessary to have the little guy miss a turn and allow “Big Jake” to have a go at the fish. Hopefully the day will come when Jimmy will do battle with a monster, but right then and there if that fish is going to be caught every tool used to bring fish-to-fisherman, including the person on the rod’s physical strength, stamina and angling skills, needs to be putting out 100% effort.
Hook, leader, swivel, knots, line, rod, reel, drag, boat handling and the angler’s capabilities all need to come together in perfect sync to make an unexpected and exceptional catch happen. A failure in a single link in the chain means a lost fish and missed opportunity to land a possible fish of a lifetime.
Capt. Mark Sampson is an outdoor writer and captain of the charter boat, “Fish Finder”, docked at the Ocean City Fishing Center.