The Pros of Heavy Tackle when fishing for Threshers -- Archive

[ Show ]

Support VoyForums

[ Shrink ]

VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, 3, [4] ]

Subject: The Pros of Heavy Tackle when fishing for Threshers

Author:
ED

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 927502490PDT

Posted by Dave Brackmann on May 05, 1999 at Sharktagger 15:19:27:

In Reply to: Re: Releasing a tail hooked thresher or mako posted by Jim Day on May 04, 1999 at 21:49:37:

Jim:

Thanks for the good post. Like you, I too fish my lures and baits off the downrigger with just enough tension to keep the lure or bait on the clip to try to avoid hooking a fish in the tail. Generally I run a skirt / bait combo on the downrigger with a single 7/0 - 8/0 #7691 southern tuna bend style hook with the hook facing down with a Sunshine Rig. When we get a knock down off the down rigger we free spool the bait and hope to allow for the shark to come back and eat the bait and then hook it in the mouth. I don't try to hook them with the clip or use a double hook arrangement to try to avoid tail hooking a fish. My goal is not to snag threshers in the tail, instead it is to mouth hook them and tag and release them in a healthy state.

If you fish for threshers you will inverably hook a percentage of threshers in the tail - it's the nature of how these fish feed - slash and kill and then eat. However, with the loose clip combined with a single hook and drop back the odds will be in your favor to get more mouth hook sets. Like you Jim, I love these fish and don't like to see them drown in the fight. I want to have these fish around for the future for me and you and everyone else to catch and enjoy.

As far as heavy tackle causing a mortality issue with fishing for threshers, I have to disagree with you. As with any hooked fish the shorter the fight time, the better odds that fish will have to survive at release. Fight time builds lactic acid in the muscle tissue and a stressed tired fish cannot swim fast enough to re-oxygenate the muscles quick enough. Back East studies on giant bluefin tuna shows that the mortality rate increase proportionately with the fight time. Studies have found that the survival rate of a tuna on the line in a fight over 30 minutes is very low. This is the reason boats there fish a minimum 130lb. dacron or even 200lb. dacron and keep the fight times under 30 minutes, usually around 15 minutes.

Sure you can land threshers on light tackle but it can lead to problems. My first thresher that we hooked on a trolling lure, and I was the angler on the rod, was landed on 40lb. line. A 410 lb. female fish, mouth hooked on a single speed 30W Penn and a grueling 7 hour fight. The fish came up tired but in good shape. We killed the fish and split the meat up for the crew after a weigh in and photos at the BAC. Before someone slames me for killing a thresher, please know that I this is the only fish I have personally fought and not released. I stress release of all threshers on our boat, but leave the final decision to the angler. Most decide to release them. Never again have I fished the light tackle for threshers.

I hear reports of guys getting spooled or breaking fish off due to line under 80 lb. or trolling with small reels with low line capacity. Vic Hasbrouk (spelling? - sorry Vic) just wrote a great article in South Coast saying that he has been spooled 3 or 4 times in the last few years by big fish, he's not alone, as I hear this from other guys too. Vic is a good fisherman and fishes the right gear (I don't agree with his double hook rig however), but when you run into a big fish and tail hook it, there is the chance that you could get spooled if the fish drops off into deep water, especially if you are not fishing a reel with adequate line capacity or drag pressure. With agressive boat handling, staying right on top of the fish throughout the fight, and with the heavy drags possible with heavy line and a big reel, getting spooled should rarely, if ever happen. It's never happened to me, or to other I know and/or fish with who use the right gear. Remember, when your reel gets spooled by a hot fish, that fish is doomed to die by a slow death of dragging 100's of line around in the water. Again a plus for the heavier line and a negative for the lighter stuff. Being spooled isn't something to brag about. It just shows you weren't prepared for the fish at hand. The fish is the real looser when this happens, not your cost to re-spool a reel with line and purchase a new lure.

Let me know what you think. Thanks.

Dave

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]