Not a pain in the butt at all, in fact its only with a video that you can really analyse technique, what went wrong etc and be able to comment. Pictures are static and dont provide that info.
You're right, however on that trip the Albacore was being used for chum on another trip hence we didnt go through the whole process of killing it the proper way. The main reason being we had two girls with us, one of whom freaked out about the thought of us gaffing the fish, let alone spiking it, and bleeding it, hence the choice to use it for chum once it was ruined.
With all our tuna of a decent size we always try and do the sashimi method of killing tuna which hardly anyone does, the spiking is one small aspect of the sashimi method. Do a search on sashimi and you should find the attachment, I think you will find it an interesting read and def. makes the flesh taste much better!
In fact in some of my other posts I mention about the troubles with Albacore, but wasnt aware it was histamine that they build up, knew it was some kind of chemical and that they are very important to bleed out quickly. In our family we dont have very many Albacore eaters although they say as its light meat tuna its better but we already had some in the freezer and for some reason they dont sell well?
However, about the keeping the boat moving forward to breathe I was not aware of! I know that all pelagic fish generate lactic acid and their core blood temperature increases when you are fighting a fish, hence the need to a) not fight the fish too long and b) bleed it out and chill it quickly, but perhaps this can be offset by keeping the boat moving so they can breathe perhaps.
In the past I used to always keep the boat moving, however we lost a fair few fish as it was felt that too much pressure was being put on the fishes mouth with the boat moving forward, so we switched to going into idle. It also makes from a sport perspective a far more challenging fight. The americans often anchor up when they fish for Yellowfin etc as its far more of a challenge.
For very big tuna etc, there is actually a specific technique of using the boat, both forwards and backwards. Backwards to gain line and forwards to help lift the fish up to aid in the fight. I had about the technique a while ago.
From my own comments on this video, we had made a mistake of having a very long flurocarbon leader in an effort to get more strikes. It helped with the strikes but mean we had to hand line the fish in which I dont like doing as neither me nor fin are very experienced at that, in fact whilst we tried to be careful there were a few instances where if the fish had bolted we would have probably got caught in the line. It's why I prefer a wind on leader or a leader that is no more than 6-7 foot.
Keep the comments flowing, it's what the forum is all about, learning from each other
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