©2005 Tsunami Fishing Systems
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Tips, Tricks & New Products
In the course of researching this issue, we came upon
these tips, tricks and new products. We can't say that we've tried them, or
that they even work, but they sound reasonable, inspired or clever. Might be
worth a try!
| Fishing |
| Releasing fish caught from deep water can be a problem. Fish with
swim bladders often suffer from barotrauma, in which their swim bladders pop
out, and they can not swim to a depth required to collapse the bladder.
An Australian fisherman, Garry Lilley, has come up with a interesting
way to release fish under these conditions. He has developed a
"release weight", which is basically a large sinker with a barbless hook molded
into one end. A snap swivel is attached to the bend of the hook.
The idea is that after the fish is landed, the release weight is hooked into the
fish's mouth, the snap is attached to the fishing line, and the fish and weight
are sent over the side. The weight pulls the fish to the bottom, where a tug on
the line allows the fish to come off the barbless hook, and swim off.
We've been looking around for a source in the US, but have been unable to find
one...
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courtesy IGFA |
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The October 2005 issue of
Sport Fishing magazine featured an article titled "Mexico's
Incredible Cow Town" by Doug Olander, which covered the yellowfin tuna
fishing off Puerto Vallarta. In the article they described a method used by
Captain Josh Temple for rigging large live baits.
The usual process is to use a bait needle to make a floss loop through the
bait's eye socketes, then attach the floss loop to the main hook. Called
"bridling", this is a tried-and-true process, but it does keep the bait out of
the water for a while, affecting it's liveliness. Also, circle hooks
can get blocked by the bait's body, as they need more room to turn in
order to catch in the corner of the fish's mouth.
 Capt. Temple has come up with an alternative method. He takes a
small (2/0 - 3/0) hook, and uses floss to tie the hook to the bend of
the larger (12/0 - 18/0) primary hook. To rig the bait, he hooks it
through the upper lip using the small hook. This is quick, and keeps
the primary hook clear of the bait.
When a large fish hits, the floss breaks. If the small hook were attached
permanently through the eye, this would not be IGFA - legal. However, the fact
that the second hook can break free makes it a legitimate rig, at least
according to the most recent IGFA newsletter.
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The same article also described an interesting way to subdue green fish at
boatside: Using a spray bottle, Capt. Temple simply squirts some cheap tequila
into the fish's gill area. This calms the fish down and makes it easy to
handle!
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Marlin
magazine's November 2005 issue featured an article on New Zealand striped
marlin titled "Light Tackle, Fat Stripes" by Sam Mossman. In this
article, Mossman describes another approach to bridling that improves hookup
ratio with circle hooks - using a #32 rubber band instead of floss for the
bridle. The rubber band stretches to allow the circle hook to rotate.
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| Boating |
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The December 2005 issue of Boating magazine had an
interesting tip in their Electronics column by Ken Englert: coax
cable should not be bundled, but rather coiled in loops. According to Englert,
RG-58U coax should never have a bend radius of less than 2", RG-8X a minimum
bend radius of 3". Check your VHF antrenna cable and see how it's stowed!
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The November 2005 issue of Boating magazine had some
interesting observations on the increasing use of ethanol in gasoline in
their Boat Doctor column by Charles Plueddeman, .
Apparently, boaters on the east coast are seeing a higher number of fuel
injector failures and filter clogging. Analysis of the residue indicates that
it could be due to the ethanol in the fuel. The current theory is
that the ethanol (which is a good solvent) is loosening up
accumulated gum / varnish / debris in boats' fuel tanks, which
then gets carried into the fuel system and gunks up the filters. Ethanol also
attracts water.
Marine systems are typically not designed to handle more than 10 percent
ethanol. This is the specified level for automotive fuel, but a
Suzuki field study found that there were a large number gas stations in which
the ethanol content exceeded 10% by quite a bit.
Recommendations? Go to a larger water separator fuel filter with a 10 micron
sieve size (versus the more common 28 - 35 micron sieve size), and check
it frequently. We would also suspect that aftermarket fuel additives developed
to address this specific problem will appear shortly.
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