Can anyone explain how the tuna comes off the hook so easily when the commercial guys using poles flip them over their shoulder?
Poling tuna is one of the most funnest things you can do in your life. Damn hard work, but such fun. newbies to poling are a treat to watch when they start............usually way too much lifting effort & usually throw the first few fish completely over the other side of the boat into the water.
Having poled a lot of fish & experiencing how easily they throw the jig as soon as they get a tiny bit of slack line ............I just cannot bring myself to use barbless hooks funfishing..........fish releasing themselves is just frustrating.
Not tuna, but we were cane poling bait. My video, from the south pacific, remote atoll, about 7 years ago. One of the islands in the atoll was a nursery for rainbow runners. They would stack up in the hundreds right behind the boat on both sides of the prop wash. Small tuna cane pole jig and just swim it behind the boat, the jump on it. The other guy is hand lining them using rubber hoochies/squids. I'm in the bow taking the video, and collecting the fish to get on the ice.
For those who have not done it ......the poling of medium to bigger fish works like this......... Fish typically dont have a reverse gear they go where their tail drives them. The art of poling is to control the head & aim the fish up & over the side of the boat. You need to apply enough power to control the head at the strike & force it to aim towards the boat. At the strike the head is never aiming at you , always away from you, fortunately in cruise mode.......but you have a split second to get it moving towards you before the fish puts the power on. The fish is in flight mode with fleeing power & basically jumps out of the water into the boat with the help of a gentle nudge upwards..........all the angler power is applied at the strike & is eased off immediately the fish starts to come out of the water. Newbies keep the power on all the way, until they realise the error of their ways..........usually to the sound of laughter from the experienced guys. Fish over 50# generally require double polers...........2 poles linked to a single line. fish over 100# generally require triple polers. Its no fun being the middle guy triple poling............thats where the fish heads on its way into the boat.........the guy in the middle works twice as hard as the other 2 guys ........he has to fight the fish & then duck & weave as it comes onboard..........the harder part is there is not much room to duck & weave. little fish..... its just a tiny flip & they are onboard.
I feel you on that Dennis, for Tarpon and Ladyfish I always mash the barbs down so they can throw the lure when jumping but when it comes to tuna it's barbs all the way!
SlowPitch Cane Poles ................love it!!! TunaFishing 85 Port Lincoln 15 Vid shows the purse seiner Maria Louisa in the background of a few shots........ saw that boat Entering Eden Harbour NSW a few years later ......415T of striped tuna on board & only the cabin, bow & hatch coamings above water............waist high water on the deck.Compare that to what you see in the vid............hard to imagine that deck under water. The vid also shows what happens when the poler(s) don't have enough power compared to the fish size to quickly control the head & get the fish swimming itself onboard............its messy & saps poling energy.
