Afternoon, hope everyone is well and fishing! Just got back from Southern Oman and had a great time with some great fish and will be posting some stories over the coming days. Just caught up on this thread as I think it is very interesting and will also help the direction of this forum and possibly a wider audience in the future with regards to weights, size of fish, and also move the focus back to fishing and not how the picture or what the guestimate weight of a fish is?
Lars no probs, this is a forum and we are all here to give our input and feedback and I welcome any information as I might not always agree or be right but I will always think about what is said and possibly change the way we operate or the way we see things (even if I don't admit it!!). But I do have to say in principle I agree with you that it is an easy solution on paper to use a sling but on the boat in harsh conditions is a total different story and is definitely not freshwater and is very different to weighing carp, catfish, halibut etc. We land hundreds of GTs a season and I think we are quite good at landing fish and I won;t give the impression that every fish landed is a bed of roses but I would rather get a fish back into the water than take a picture or weigh if there are any issues to a GTs chances of survival and I have done this in the passed much to the clients unhappiness. The end of the day GTs are a big part of our livelihood and we need to look after them 100% both for business and I believe karma.
We have tried many different ways of weighing in the passed which include slings, bags, hanging, standing on a scale with a fish etc. But with landing the fish, often battling to get the hooks out (even barbless or singles can be very difficult when hooked around the bone or near the "tongue"), controlling a big fish on the deck, measuring, getting the fish held by the client properly, taking the picture, pouring water over the fish and gills there really does not remain enough time to get a fish into a sling, lifted and scaled accurately, so this is the reason we do not do it, plus to have the extra equipment on the boat and having to have the equipment handy is a problem as there is limited space even on our 40ft center console after we have loaded all the clients gear (often 20+ rods, reels, boxes of tackle etc), food, fuel, drinks, safety gear etc. Sure there will be times that everything goes smoothly but this is not the norm as this is GT fishing and unpredictable every second. Then lastly what we have had happen in the passed is that we have tried to weigh a fish and the scale has deteriorated due to humidity, salt, bad storage etc. So we end up with not getting an accurate reading any way.
The above are some of the issues faced as an operator but we are trying to come up with a system that will work and be easy and in my opinion the floor scale modified like Fukui-san in Tokara has done sounds and looks the best option for us in Oman, as lifting big GTs is not easy or safe, so I think this will be the best solution. I'll be fishing Tokara next month and really look forward to seeing the scale in operation if we are lucky enough to land a good fish. The other success factor in Tokara with Fukui-san on Big Dipper is having a large tank that is filled with fresh flowing saltwater and GTs put into the tank to recover before weighing and pictures, but unfortunately this is most probably not going to be possible due to space, but always a thought!
Lastly we unfortunately had a GT die from a bad hooking this season and we could not revive as much as we tried. But the fish was weighed and came in 2kgs over our estimates using our measurements. So for me that was a positive out of a negative situation. As an operator we are not fishing for records and to be honest I'm happy and confident enough that I can estimate a fish quite closely to actual weight after doing this for a long time and seeing thousands of GTs, but as mentioned earlier in this thread I'll change from estimating weights and put tail fork lengths unless we weigh a fish so everyone reading the reports can make their own decision and enjoy the reports rather than thinking if our estimates are right or not.
I have been lucky to have been around a lot of big GTs and really feel privileged to have had these experiences as I think it is rare to see such big animals in the wild in todays dwindling natural environment, and I hope that many more of you will be able to see some of these fish in the future if not already seen, as in true life a 50kg GT is twice as impressive than in a picture, they are beasts and truly amazing!
Cheers,
Nick
