Article by Capt. Franky Pettolina
The Spro swivel was breaking water after a 20 minute battle. My 14-year-old angler was doing a great job of keeping pressure on the fish. I’ll admit, I had my doubts when I handed him the rod, but the young man was cranking for all he was worth and the bend never left the rod. His dad was documenting it with a flip cam for the whole family to watch later that evening. I reached down and started to pull the leader up to get the bluefin tuna into gaffing range. As the leader was being wound onto the reel I could see the white and crystal Squidnation Big Heavy lure sliding on the leader and the distinctive glow of the fish below it. But something looked a little off. After a closer look I could see that a small gaffer dolphin fish ( I call it this to appease the internet movement to limit the use of Dorado to Latin countries, and apparently Mahi is only acceptable on menus or in Hawaii…) was swimming next to the 45 lb. bluefin tuna. I am not sure if they were buddies or if the dolphin was eyeing up my Big Heavy, but either way I felt that this dolphin needed to be taught a lesson for swimming too close to my boat.
As the tuna was coming closer, the dolphin was getting into my gaff range. So I figured what the heck, I might as well give it a shot. I reached out with the gaff and stroked the dolphin. In one fell swoop I almost got the fish into the boat. As a matter of fact, I almost slapped my faithful sidekick Mr. Evans right in the yap with it, which is much better than the last place a dolphin tried to slap him! But alas, the fish fell off of the gaff and swam away. Luckily, the tuna was still on the line and my next gaff shot of the morning held true and the tuna was securely brought onto the deck. “Over the rail and into the pail” as they say on that TV show.
While Mr. Evans and I were measuring the bluefin, my left, long rigger, which was still in the water, came down and a dolphin came up jumping with my ballyhoo in it’s mouth. The next angler hopped into the fighting chair and quickly wound the dolphin to the transom of our charter boat, “Last Call”. When I reached down to gaff it, I was surprised to see that the little fella already had a puncture wound. Yup! That same dolphin apparently didn’t mind his recent near death experience and went right back to eating. So I swung my gaff again and proceeded to knock that sucker right off of the hook and away he swam. I guess it just wasn’t that fish’s time to die.
Sometimes you can do everything right and the fish just get away. Other times, no matter how bad you screw up, the fish just seems to have a death wish. Probably the best example I have ever seen of this was in a video that my friend, Capt. Dan, found while transferring his tackle into a boat he had recently purchased. Dan found the video, which had apparently slid back behind the TV, in the boat’s entertainment center. It was an unlabeled VHS tape. Yes, this was a few years ago. Before GoPro. Before YouTube. Before Snapchat. A good old fashioned VHS tape. Dan popped the video in and watched it from beginning to end. Thankfully it turned out to be a fishing video. After his initial screening, he came out on the dock and called all of his dock partners in to have a look. Capt. Dan’s boat was a 48-foot Ocean Yacht. As we were watching the video, it became clear that the footage was taken on a smaller Ocean Yacht. It looked like the cockpit of a 35, or maybe a 38-footer. Anyway, Dan fast forwarded the first half of the video. I felt like I was missing out as I saw longfin albacore being gaffed and put on ice all through the gray snowy lines on the screen (you younger readers won’t know what I am talking about, but ask your older friends, they can explain the joys of watching a VHS tape in fast forward). Finally Dan let it play at regular speed after the screen was filled by two anglers holding 80 lb. class rods for a long period of time. Dan said, “OK. Here we go. You gotta see this!” We all glued our eyes to the screen. The first leader broke the water and the mate took wraps while one of the other crew members swung the flying gaff at a huge bigeye tuna (for those of you that are not offshore fishermen, a flying gaff is set up so the hook part of the gaff detaches on a rope that is cleated off. This helps control big fish better than a regular fixed/straight gaff). Before the bend of the gaff hook could go over the fish it fell off of the handle and wrapped around the leader. I guess the head wasn’t properly fixed onto the handle. Usually this spells disaster, but not this time. The leader didn’t break. The fish didn’t get off of the hook. The gaff man untangled the gaff rope from the leader and put it back on the gaff to swing again. And it fell off again. Finally, on the third try, the fish was successfully boated. I learned at the end of the video that it weighed over 250 pounds.
Now the cameraman switched his focus to the other angler. His fish was nearing the boat too. We all saw right away that the fish was coming in backwards, the line had wrapped around its tail. As the fish came to the stern of the boat, the gaffman went back to work, and the same flying gaff circus took place again! Yet this fish, like it’s partner, did not get away. Three tries later the second bigeye was in the boat, and this one was even larger than the first! At this point, Dan asked us if we noticed anything as the tape was still rolling.
Somebody pointed out that none of us saw a leader or a hook anywhere near the second bigeye. Right about then, there was a plethora of profanity and yelling in the video. Sure enough, bigeye number two was only tangled in the main line. Bigeye number three was still on the rod. That’s right! Two bigeyes on one rod, with one of them not even hooked! So the angler went back to work and muscled the last bigeye to the boat, and you guessed it, the flying gaff head fell off of the handle multiple times again, but somehow finally hit pay dirt and the third bigeye was put to bed. This one was just under 300 pounds! I don’t know whether or not these bigeyes had death wishes, but it was definitely their time to meet their maker. Like I said earlier, sometimes you catch the fish no matter how bad you screw up. In this case all three of the bigeyes should have probably escaped, but they didn’t. And yesterday I couldn’t get one puny dolphin in the box with two very solid chances at doing so!
For you folks that are new to the offshore fishing scene, here is my first bit of advice/how to tip. When you rig your flying gaff take the following steps.
Step 1 - make sure the rope is no longer than what your reach is from the point you will be tying it to. I.G.F.A. rules allow 30-feet, but this is way too much. Find your mounting point. See how far you can reach out and swing the gaff, and that is how long your rope should be.
Step 2 - put a little Vaseline or grease on the part of the gaff head that goes into the handle. This keeps it from corroding and turning your flyer into a straight gaff.
Step 3 - now for what I feel is the most crucial part. Lay your rope straight along the handle. Use one wrap of duct tape around the rope and handle up near the head, and another wrap of duct tape around the rope and handle at the end of the handle. This secures the head in place and also makes the rope easier to deal with along the handle. Now it is ready to use (be sure to tie it off before you swing it at your big catch).
As I am writing this it is sign up day for the OC Tuna Tournament. Hopefully there are some good bigeye pictures in this issue, and hopefully the kill shots go smoother than the ones I just told you all about.
Also, my first “Fish Story” has been public for only a day or two, so I have not heard if Capt. Monty has received any donations for the “Franky in his Skivvies” Reef Foundation fund yet. Hopefully the money will start rolling in! The picture is ready to go to Larry!!!
Capt. Franky Pettolina is Co-Captain of the charter boat, “Last Call” and President of the Ocean City Marlin Club.
