Gaff Technique

Hi Yakers and Gaffers:

        My first Butt (see Thumb),   sounded about three times and on the last trip up, He jumped out of the water
and flew across my Bow. I was able to bring him in close and slipped my Gaff between his Gills. I pulled his head out of the water. We both were quite tired and just spent time checking each other out. After several Min. I hauled him
in and wailed on his head with a net bag of egg Sinkers. I never did stick him with my Gaff!
       I had no game clip so, I ran my Bow Line thru his Gills and strapped him in with the Hatch cover Straps. My last Butt I stuck him with my Gaff ( Short Aly. Aly 22" Lg. x 3" R. from Bayside) by, going under the white side behind the Gills and pulling up toward me (per Alex). I used a game Clip loaned to me by  Alex  to secure him. My Penn 505 with 30 Lb Trilene tied to a brass swivel Clip  and #4 egg Sinker worked well (SCALLEN tip).
The leader was  3 Ft 25Lb. P-line X rigged with a #1 Ringed Owner FlyLiner , #3 trible Stinger and a whole Squid
( SCALLEN tip).
       I just don't have all the money to buy all the fishing stuff that would make fishing so much
easier but, I'm not sure if I want to make it easier. If I were to loses fish more often, I might change my Mind. 
       Too bad I lost my  Fav. Rod and a Penn 310GTI  while fishing off of "NOT" so Pleasure  Pt. 
                                                                                                                                  Ernie

I have a leash for my rods.  Just some plastic coated cable (thin cable where I can cut it with a knife if I have to) taped to the butt of the rod.  Knife is strapped to my leg.

I have all my leashes (for my gaff, needlenose pliers and hammer) all on one side of the yak.  So, if I ever fall out of the yak.  I can still climb in from the side at free of cables.

Ken kickfish

I'm with polepole - just use beefy grippers instead of a gaff for hostile CA fish. I easily dealt with lings to about 30 lbs using grippers, and would feel comfortable with lings up to 50 lbs as well. Bring on the flying gaff or harpoon for bigger or nastier fish.

I brought fish to the boat gently, slid the gripper in the mouth, and then let the fish fighting an A1 buoy for a minute or two. Let fishy get nice and calm, then released it  or bled/bonked it. I happen to have the Rapala Lock and Grip, but others would be suitable as well. The pictures below are not to scale.






Regards,
Scott

A gaff is so much cheaper and takes up less room, why the need for different equipment for different fish?

Small ones, just flick em off the jig, keepers get gaffed.  The thumb up, hook out technique worked great for me yesterday.  Didn't even have to club em, (one less piece of equipment to deal with).  From now on it's straight to the game clip while gaffed and in the water, followed by bleed-out coup de grace.

Lip grippers don't work if you can't get the fish to open its mouth.  Sometimes fish come up with the hook through both lips.  What do you do then?

During tournaments, with weight being important, do you lose precious oz's with poking a hole in them?

  I noticed The Ling in ChuckE's boat was still flopping around, it makes sense that keeping the fish alive

 as long as possible would weigh more than one that was gaffed 3 to 4 hours prior....

  Just wondering if this makes sense ..........   Danglin

I can't speak regarding tournaments, but I can say with certainty that bleeding the fish while alive improves the quality of the eating.  If you wait too long that blood just sits in the fish and the decay process starts.

I brought fish to the boat gently, slid the gripper in the mouth, and then let the fish fighting an A1 buoy for a minute or two. Let fishy get nice and calm, then released it  or bled/bonked it.

I leashed my grippers to the yak.  The yak was the buoy.  I had no problems with chicken butts and 30# class lings doing this.

ChuckE, if the fish is hooked through both lips, you have a pretty good hookset.  Grab jig and hit 'em hard???  BTW, I'm not advocating not using a net or a gaff at all.

Danglin, I always bleed.  Even in tournaments.  First priority is using the fish I just harvested as best I can.  We did the same in Valdez on the sharks.  The captain explained to us that if we didn't get the sharks cleaned ASAP, the meat would go bad.  We all said in unison to clean 'em up.

-Allen

During tournaments, with weight being important, do you lose precious oz's with poking a hole in them?

  I noticed The Ling in ChuckE's boat was still flopping around, it makes sense that keeping the fish alive

 as long as possible would weigh more than one that was gaffed 3 to 4 hours prior....

  Just wondering if this makes sense ..........   Danglin

Where are you gaffing your fish that they bleed so much?  Unless you're gut-gaffing, a lingcod isn't really going to bleed all that much.   Like other fish that white flaky meat, there really isn't much blood in the muscle tissue, just  a thin strip of red muscle near the skin and the rest is white muscle.  Now a tuna, shark or other pelagic fish that has a lot of red muscle will probably bleed a bit more.

As for bleeding ... I think it's probably more important for red muscled fish like sharks and tunas than white muscled fish like lingcod.  Maybe I'll have to experiment on some rockfish bled vs unbled.  I really doubt it will make a difference.

All the pro's bleed halibut, and that's not a red-muscled fish.

By pro's I assume you mean commercial halibut fishermen.  I guess the question is do they bleed them to increase the quality of the meat, bleed them to help kill them, or simply bleed them and gut them at the same time?  How long do they keep the fish around before getting them to market?

If you keep a white muscled fish cool enough and clean it within a few hours I see no need to bleed it.  There simply isn't any blood in white muscle.

There simply isn't any blood in white muscle.

I'm not buying that statement.  All muscle needs blood to supply oxygen, right?

-Allen

I bled and only try to stay out rockcod fishing around 4 hrs.  I keep my fish on the deck and not in the water.  Burlap sack on top of the fish and use my hands to spray water on them.

I have ice in my ice chest in the truck and bring in the fish first when packing up.  Then trout fishing I bled first and then put them on ice.  I always have a ice chest on my yak when lake fishing.  It is important to bleed while the fish is still alive.

Ken kickfish

All I can say is there is a surprising amount of blood in lings and buts.  On the charter boats I've been on they bleed em.  They do it for a living, and that's good enough for me.

Ditto on the ice chest in the truck.  That's the way to go, imo.

I'm not buying that statement.  All muscle needs blood to supply oxygen, right?

Okay maybe I overstated the bit about not having "any" blood in white muscle.  There is some blood, just not enough to even notice.  The fact your ling/rockfish fillets don't bleed isn't a matter of how well you bled your fish ahead of time, mine don't bleed either and I my fish aren't bled.

The main difference between red muscle and white muscle in fish is the amount of blood (hemoglobin) and the presence of myoglobin which in fact gives red muscle it's color.  The red muscle found in fish like tunas are designed for aerobic metabloism, allowing the fish to cruise around constantly with an adequate oxygen supply to the muscles and a decent mechanism to remove lactic acid.

The white muscle in other fish however is designed for short quick bursts like a lingcod ambushing a rockfish. White muscle doesn't have a good blood supply and therefore doesn't have a decent way of getting blood to the muscle or a decent way of removing lactic acid. The metabolism of white muscle anerobic.  For a fish that makes a couple short bursts now and again that's fine. 

I think it's probably more important for meat quality to keep the fish alive but sedated for a little while to allow it's own metabolism to deal with the lactic acid.

As for blood accumulation and taste, I can see the importance of bleeding out a red muscled fish and any fish you plan on letting it sit around awhile before cleaning it and/or eating it.  A fish thats going to sit in your cooler on ice for a couple days is probably going to taste better having been bled.   A white fleshed fish that is destined to be cooked or placed into freezer bags the night it was caught probably isn't going to make a difference.  Again, I am willing to test this out on some rockfish next time I go out fishing.  I'll be sure to thank you guys if I notice a difference.