Tomales Thursday June 2

I have a big net on my yak and my first day out I lost a butt when it decided to go airborn out of my net.  I chalked it down to inexperience netting something from a yak for the first time but I did catch a striper earlier in the day.  Everyone I've told the story to has told me to get a gaff, not that I've read this thread I'm good and confused.  Ugggg

I'm comfortable using a gaff, but it's no good to you unless you also have a club ready to whack'em really hard as soon as you can reach the fish's head.  In those critcial first few seconds, when that fish is stunned, is when you need to work fast to get it on a game clip or stringer, or down the hatch.

When using a game clip, it's best to already have it open before you bring the fish onboard.  Also, be sure that your game clip or stringer is tethered securely to your kayak ahead of time.  I've learned that lesson the hard way.

The trick is to fold the net over the fish, so it entirely encloses the fish.  Then just drag it aboard and cut it's spine at your leisure.  A long handled gaff works well on a big boat because once a fish is flipped inside the boat, it'd have to flop over the gunwales to escape, but our gunwales are what, 3" high?

Have yet to catch a flatty on the yak, but on big thingies I generally prefer the gaff.  I can't even imagine trying to use a net on something like a dodo.

You guys have seen my posts before on the problems I've had with butts on the gaff on the yak.  I've thought a lot about this and here's the issues I hit.  Halibut tend to come to the surface on an angle with their heads coming up first.  When I've gaffed them, the first thing they do is kick their tail and jump out of the water.  On a boat you just keep pulling up and over the transom.  On a kayak you are too close to the water and can't pull up high enough.  The butt literally jumps off the gaff.  I've seen this happen more often than not on a kayak, but have never had this happen on a regular boat.  On one particular 25# butt, it jumped off the gaff twice.  I got lucky on the third swing as it was running out of steam and was no longer able to kick.  Perhaps my gaffing style could use improvement, or perhaps I need to play them out a bit more, but I deemed it dangerous enough that I switched to a big ol' net before my last outing.  The net worked great.  I just swooped it under the butt and it was in the net (and calm!) before I knew it.  I'm a butt net man from now on.

-Allen

Hmmm,

On my 39" flattie that I caught last month, it took 4 (!) tries before I was able to get it ALL the way in my 24'x30" net. A bigger net would take up a lot of room in my boat, so I am going to try what the charter had, which was a homemade BARBED gaff. I checked it out carefully. It was a large hook (20/0?) with a bolt through the eye and handle, and lashed with cord. I saw a lot of fish gaffed that day (admittedly a big boat), and none of them looked to be close to coming unbuttoned. A good heart shot, between the gills and pectorals, slowed them done quickly. Still, if I ever hook a really big flattie, (there was a 160#er weighed the day I got to Neah Bay), I doubt either a gaff or net will do the job.

Who was telling me about the double hook gaff?

They said it did the job on large lings because it didn't allow them to spin off the hook. Might have to make one, with barbs as well.

BTW- is there any regulations about gaffs w/ barbs?

Who was telling me about the double hook gaff?

Elric... it was me.   Alan Tani uses a small double-hook lip gaff on his boat.  That was the first place I saw one in action, and I was amazed at how well it worked at landing big lings.  The double-hook placed right under the lower lip prevented even the biggest fish from jumping or spinning off the gaff.  It was less damaging to the fish too since it didn't rip a big hole.  The two hooks distributes the fish's weight better as you lift it out of the water.

Alan's lip gaff was made with a barbless stainless steel double-hook screwed and wrapped to a tip of an old golf club shaft.

I was thinking about making one with barbed hooks for added holding power.  I checked the DFG regs and could'nt find any restrictions on double-hook or barbed gaffs.

Good to see you caught one, Sean!    Sorry about the wedding band.   I have to wear mine when I do dubious things (like kayaking in bad conditions) because if I die without it on, my wife will kill me.  I actually bought a second (cheap-o) band to wear so that if I lose it, I still have the one we exchanged at the wedding.

I hope you're coming down for the tourney.   Even if you don't enter it'll be a hell of a lot of fun.