what to do with really energentic big boys?

[Pete F.]

Shark?

[GonnaCatchABig1]

hey nebe.. your suggestion worked great. didnt hook into anything nearly as powerful tonight. but i had my share of tugging matches. i felt alot more comfortable having a bit of stretch to work with. plus none of the hooks ripped out tonight. one of the blues actually fought so hard it ripped its gills out.. i dunno how that happened.. my hook was on the other side of it mouth. but it snapped all the connections to the lower lip right off.. damnedest thing. i had to bleed him out and give him away. he was in bad shape. but the hook didn't rip out... lol.

[piemma]

I really believe that you had a shark or a tuna on. No way a Blue pulls like that. They shake their heads and run a bit but 2 minutes is a LOOOOOOOONG time. I'd love to see you land whatever is pulling like that. it's gotta be a tuna or shark.

[spence]

Originally Posted by piemma

it's gotta be a tuna or shark.

Or Nebe's legendary "bath mat lunker"

-spence

[nightprowler]

I agree with the shark hypothesis. A buddy of mine hooked into something last year that he couldn't turn or do anything with, thinking he was under gunned I went out with him the next night and I hooked the thing twice, with a VS 250 and 10 ft lami triflex. I had the same thing happen to me, ran straight out hard and fast, he was pouring water on the reel as it was running, i didn't have the drag to tight, figuring that with the 250 i had plenty of line, just as the fish slowed and I thought i had it turned, the line went limp. had a second pick up and the same thing happened, only the run wasn't as long. I was using eels and the second time i had the pick-up and it was slow, similar to a large bass and then once i set the hook it took off. I could really feel the weight of the thing before it turned and ran, and it was heavy, put a bend in the rod all the way to the butt. I've caught 40 lb bass on this rod and this felt easily double the weight. maybe more.
I'm convinced it was a shark.
I have also heard that large rays get hooked in the wings and take off like that and fisherman have no way to stop them.
Anyway, good luck, id like to know what it your fighting!

[Nebe]

Originally Posted by GonnaCatchABig1

hey nebe.. your suggestion worked great. didnt hook into anything nearly as powerful tonight. but i had my share of tugging matches. i felt alot more comfortable having a bit of stretch to work with. plus none of the hooks ripped out tonight. one of the blues actually fought so hard it ripped its gills out.. i dunno how that happened.. my hook was on the other side of it mouth. but it snapped all the connections to the lower lip right off.. damnedest thing. i had to bleed him out and give him away. he was in bad shape. but the hook didn't rip out... lol.

Thats great! I am glad i could help you out. I went through this problem 2 years ago when i was fishing nightly and was into big fish often- I was dropping a lot of them and realized why... no bounce- The ironic thing is this year i have dropped a bunch of nice fish because i have been too lazy to rig up that leader set up-

When Im in the groove so to speak I learn not to take chances, but if Im not, and fishing is a luxury not a given nightly event, I tend to get less methodical about the details- I focus more on wondering where i should go to find the fish and not about "I know there are big fish here, now i am going to bring the meat stick and heavy terminal tackle".