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Stand-up Fishing
PUMPING A FISH
A lot of
fish are lost, and fights unnecessarily prolonged, because anglers
don't know how to pump a fish properly. Here is an easy way to get a
novice started, and brush up your own technique, at home on a nice,
stable platform. In picture (1), Peter has rigged a small, pulley
 wheel
to a rafter of the roof, then he's run the line through
that and down to tie of on the handle of a half bucket of water. How
much water you put in the bucket depends on the tackle you are
working with. In this case, Peter is using a 24kg outfit.
To
do the exercise, stand off a reasonable distance from the pulley to
flatten the angle of the line to a reasonable level, then start
pumping the bucket up off the ground (pic 2). The trick is
that the bucket must never be allowed to go down, only up. It's
harder than you think, but a bit of practice here will get rid of
those split seconds of slack you give a fish; split seconds that
often cost you a fish.
The
trick is to keep even pressure on the rod, same speed on the
downward stroke as the upward stroke, plus start to wind the reel
handle just before you drop the rod on the forward pump.
CLEARING
THE ROD HOLDER
This is the one where you can actually watch
the fish swimming off, smiling, when you get it wrong. In the first
shot (pic 3), Peter does what most people do, grabbing the rod with
two hands above the reel, and lifting in the direction of the pull.
This will allow the rod tip to dip taking the pressure off the fish
which may lose it, especially if it's a billfish.
In the next shot (pic 4), Peter does it right, taking a firm grip
with one hand above the reel and one below. In (5) and (6) you can
see how the lower hand pushes against the butt, while the upper hand
pulls against the fore grip. It is this upper hand that becomes
dominant as the rod clears the holder, pulling back against the fore
grip to loosen the grip in the rod holder and to keep pressure on
the rod tip.
The same push/pull grip is maintained until the rod is firmly locked
into the gimbal. |
FIGHTING FISH
Picture (7) shows a quality gimbal apron and
kidney harness properly adjusted. With lots of pressure on the line,
Peter is able to stand comfortably, resting his arms, yet still
applying maximum pressure to the fish. In (8) you can see how
relaxed Peter is, but his body weight alone has that rod loaded
nicely, and he is, in fact, pulling a 6m boat sideways into a stiff
beam wind. Note that Peter is leaning back, with bent knees and
straight back and shoulders. |
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THE "COME HERE" TECHNIQUE
In (10) Peter has that situation we all hate,
but many people simply accept as part and parcel of dealing with big
fish, the straight up and down slug that destroys perfectly good
backs. The solution? Move the boat. Preferably in the direction
where the boat will drift away from the fish ie down wind or down
current. this puts maximum pressure on the fish and helps plane it
up towards the surface. Try and keep the angle of the line at least
45 degrees.
In
(11 & 12) we have the final 'Don't Argue' situation, where the rod
is fully loaded off the harness, and a single turn of line over the
hand facilitates a full lockup on the fish. Remember, you don't have
anything like the pressure on your hand with line over the hand with
line over the rod that you do on a direct trace grip. If you do this
with the double on the reel you can put a huge amount of pressure
over a bent rod held at a low angle, it is highly unlikely that the
line will break through a bent rod
This is a very useful trick when fishing two up in a boat. The
driver only leaves the wheel to wield the tag pole. |
