@OmSigDAVID,
not really. I rarely go after big fishes. Once and a great while we will go after tuna, but just for the meat. Im not enthralled at the fight a fish puts on. I get bored after a half hour no matter how big. (anyway, the bigger the fish the shittier th flavor). Except for 'aleebut. I love catchin halibut. They are a like a seagoing piranha with very formidable teeth and so we fish for them using wire leader.
I was introduced to halibut fishing by this old guy. He was in his mid 70's and was still a waterman. Wed go out on his boat (A beal Island boat) and out to the Gulf of Maine off several islands (fishing spots are like blueberry barrens, or lobster coves, they are guarded secrets. I signed on to help this guy and e went out with several sections of steam radiator (like the radiators used in old houses) He would bait up a wire line with several big Halibut hooks (the curl on a Halibut hook can be over 6 inches and VEERRRY SHARP and they are snelled so, if you ever got one in your hand, theyd have to pull it out going forward AND, they dont cut the hook, that would be wasteful.
Wed have the radiator out in front of the line and the hooks (usually 4) in a "trotline fashion" off the main leader. Wed use swivels as big as door locks and then wed lower the radiator slowly and then bait each round of wire and hook with a piece of old chicken or ham.(Halibut arent kosher). Wed drop the line with several floats to mark the spot (We must remember that the prime halibut water is over 200', so you need another 150' of line so the floats dont get dragged down in the rising 30ft tides.
We take off and bait about 20 lines and then go to Jonesport for something to eatr (high tides vary an hour each day). When we return we grab a float and roll it up on a cathead (Its a 5 hp engine and a pulley made out of an old 15" car wheel on a rack. The engine drives the wheel via a axle pipe and a bearing (called a pillow block). The cathead pulls up the line (this line is very heavy monofilament)and my job is to coil and stuff the line in a line crate and not get it tangled (Took me several trips to learn the skill) When a hook was visible the line and swivel had a flourescent tag on it so you can see it coming in 50" of water(Water is very clear up there).
Usually wed have 2 halibuts on and these were not DEAD. Wed raise the halibut up to the gunwale and id grab him with a gaff in the gill and my employer would beat the **** out of him with a Louisville SLugger. (wood soft ball bats are the best to dipatch an halibut). Wed drag the halibut over to a cooler bin (it had a refreigeration bay, and wed slide the fish in. Wed head back to shore to several points of fish buyers and these guys would have an agreed on price and theyd take the fish to Boton or NY that day.
I did this a few years ago to learn how to catch halibut. I got really obsessive about it and my wife had to punch me in the head to remind me that we were on vacation. Its a market fish and catching them and to be part of the whole commerce thing was fascinating. HOWEVER, I was always treated as someone from AWAY, and being in Academia at the time, I was as much of a curiosity to the watermen. Every year we go for big halibut at least once.
PS, an halibut can get up to 200 lbs of mean gnashing teeth and bone breaking tumbling when its drug on board. Its not a docile fish like a cod, which just comes up, lies on the boat deck and dies for you. I hate cod fishing, its like dunking for cinder blocks. If they werent so delicious broiled, Id never go after em. Usually when wed go for cod (before the seasons were totally closed due to overfishing) wed get one or two tops, just enough for a good supper.
