Hi Rich, my name is Capt. Jamie Bruce of Bruce Brothers Charters from North Lake, PEI Canada. I just finished reading your "Stand up and Fight Right" article in the Feb edition of Sport Fishing and really enjoyed it. Your tips about how to handle a yellowfin are very much the same as we handle Giant Bluefin. We are fighting much larger fish up to 1200l pounds but the techniques are almost always the same. Stand up is a new technique up here as we always used side gimble style with 130s but have mixed it up a bit with the introduction of stand up with 80s. It gives the experienced angler more of a workout and tests his ability. We fish primarily catch and release but did have a limited commercial fishery that lasted 36 hours with the average weight being 743 pounds.

I noticed you had two types of harnesses in your article, which one do you like the best? The Aftco or the Braid? And we're used to using Penn and Shimano reels and are thinking of trying some other brand of 80w's. We're looking at Avet and Okuma. Any recommendations? Looking forward to your next edition and I will be sending my subscription form soon.

Thank you, Jamie

Bruce Brothers Charters
www.peibluefintunacharters.com
North Lake, Prince Edward Isand,
Canada

Jamie,

Thanks for the good words, man I would love just to see a bluefin that big. I've only been around the 200-plus pounders max that we were getting regularly before they set up all the pens to grow fish for Japan off of Baja. We had a short run one year of fish up to 900 pounds that blew holes in gillnets and gave the seiners a bunch of money. I have used the Avet and the new Okuma reels in the 50 size and they were great, but not 80 size. An incredibly solid 80 is the Accurate Platinum Twin Drag built here in SoCal.

Just watched your video and saw what you call side gimbal is what we call "Hawaii" commercial style with the rod in the rail. I've got some big fish that way. I also realized I did not answer your question about harness and pads.

I prefer the AFTCO, it incorporates a lot of what was learned from the early pads and harnesses developed on the long range fleet starting when Norm Taniguchi was approached to adapt the commercial lift pole pad into a recreational pad. The first good hip/butt harness for rec was Ken Pepping's Ripoff, but he went out of business using up all his money, ironically enough, to protect his patent with lawsuits.

Braid came in soon after and I do highly recommend his latest gear. My friend Capt. Kit McNear swears by the Power Play harness and the Power Play pad with droppers. He notes that's it's important to get the new, aluminum Power Play pad, especially for the kind of drag and pressure you apply. He's a scrawny guy and likes the conture on each side of the pad, saying it's easier on the tops of his thighs.

It's important that a harness be properly fitted to the individual. One of the problems with Pepping's original design and subsequent harnesses following that design was a tendency to slip up the back. A company called Ocean Tackle Research developed a similar harness that you step into, for lack of better description, like a jock, that keeps the harness perfectly positioned. Of course, that makes it much harder to escape the harness if pulled overboard, always a consideration, especially with fish the size of yours.

Braid and subsequent designers approached the slippage problem by first fiddling with chair harnesses. Often these still rode up an angler's back.

The answer Braid and others came up with is to segment the harness, distributing the pressure and stopping the creep. One of the best pads out there is the Smitty pad and he also came up with the Spider harness that shows in other designs including the AFTCO. The key is multiple friction points create better grip. The AFTCO harness does this in what I consider the most compact, comfortable design.

Of course you know your rail fishing is not IGFA stuff, it's about getting the fish in. We have our own style of rail fishing without using gimbal holders on the long range boats.

AFTCO has built in a safety feature that keeps its harness IGFA and that would be attractive for your fishery. While it is not allowable for record purposes to touch line, rod or reel of the angler once a fish is hooked, you can touch the angler. AFTCO has a handle on the back of its harness.

Records or not, it's nice to know that you can have a secure grip on a customer if trouble arises and they need help out of the harness.

Hope this helps and look forward to hearing back from you.

Rich

Final note to SFR readers: Definitely check out the Bruce Brothers Charters site and check out the video of them hand feeding giant bluefin, followed by a commercial trip with a client (it's free if the boat gets a big one since they keep the fish).