Howzit Matt, Many thanks, just happy my Saffa english is understood to some extent........A lot of the time things happen so fast on the trips you tend to forget and always cool to relive it through writing it down and thinking about the trip! We have been using lighter drags and set ups for a while but not to this extent and it was awesome to see the number of hits, hook ups and landing of big fish, there is definitely a time and place for both methods but with the softer approach you going to have to be a lot more technical and exact like measuring drag setting before fishing, testing leaders etc. You have to now the set up 110%, no just getting up and cast. But I learnt a good deal and will be trying a few of the methods out. We live and learn!
For weighing the fish this was very interesting as we have weighed a few fish last season and if were not bang on the weight we were only about 1kg out on most of the fish weighed from our estimating model, but then on this trip a few of the fish were below. The first 146cm fish weighed in at 56kgs, I put the fish at 57kgs. Then the 140cm fish I put at 51kgs but came in at 48kgs, The 149cm fish weighed 57kgs (3cm difference from the 146cm but only 1 kg weight difference, but the fish was slimmer than most) The big 155cm I put at 67kgs was 65kgs, so I was out a few kgs. But shows that if you want to put a weight on paper the only way to do it is get an exact weight. I have seen thousands of GTs landed and consider myself a fairly good judge of size and weight, but can be wrong as it is an estimate at the end of the day. This is the main reason we now only put the length and no weights anymore in the reports, if the fish is not weighed as there is so much room for discrepancies and a lot of people to use the details for various reasons or promotion. Clients always ask on the boats what we think the weight is if we take the measurements and we will give an estimate but this is purely for personal information on the boat and never intended to be published, but sometimes does end up in reports but as long as it is said to be an estimate then is alright to some extent as the angler is obviously very proud of a great catch. But this time the GTs were weighed and I'm happy to put up the weight as official and not a maybe or around Xkg weight. We are not going to weigh all the fish all of the time unless we can get everyone involved on the boat to look after the fish and weigh, measure, flush gills, get picture and release the fish in a reasonable time, but if the opportunity arises that the fish can be weighed we will do it if we have the scales on the boat and in a good working order and build up our information and experience with size vs weight. It is always going to be a point of discussion and I'd much rather focus on the fish and a catch of a lifetime for an angler than end up the fish been queried so measurements for me is good enough and a great picture even better!
Started packing for Tanzania, very excited to go as my first time and a new destination to catch a GT and hopefully some doggies, but also just a new adventure!
Hi Taniy-san! Many thanks for the feedback, it was awesome to have Fukui-san and group in Southern Oman and very glad they caught some great fish. They were great guys and really good company and fisherman. Also would like to say many thanks for all your help with setting up the trip and patience! Look forward to meeting up soon! New Big Dipper, the old one is a machine the new one is going to be a proper GT weapon, can't wait to see it!!
Cheers,
Nick
