Harpoon

[bob lico]

I notice the wicked tuna fisherman use a one piece harpoon as opposed to what I use that is a dart with cable attached to a line..the dart separates from handle and you haul in the fish close enough for a conventional gaff and tailrope.they also throw the harpoon and stick the tuna but they don't seem to haul in fish with harpoon handle .will somebody shed some light on this harpoon technique .

[Keith Poe]

Hello Bob here is what you are looking for we use these commercially out west but are not legal for sport on the west coast but are legal for sport on the east coast.

http://www.blueoceantackle.com/harpoons.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[CHolgerson]

Bob,

They are throwing the same two piece harpoon you are referring to. The difference is when they throw the harpoon they are buttonholing (dart goes in one side and out the other) the fish and the steel of the harpoon is staying imbedded in the fish, not allowing the handle/pole to fall out of the fish. It is also common to tape are fix the pole to the dart line, while having a separate line for the pole/handle. From my experience there is not much fight left in the fish after they get buttonholed therefore not much of a need to haul them in. We do use a basket of line for the dart and at the end of the line we have a small poly-ball. On the poly ball we crimped a small section of 400lb mono and a big barrel swivel just in case the fish takes all of the line we can hook the ball up to another rod n reel and keep fighting. For Tuna you should lose the cable and go with plain rope, pass the rope threw the dart hole and tie a boelin knot about 2 feet above the dart. After you land your fish simple untie the boelin and pull the rope threw the fish leaving your dart on the other side. It stinks trying to pull a dart or a cable threw a nice bigeye. We also use a halibut dart when shark fishing and that is attached to cable.

Best Regards,
Chris

[bob lico]

Thank you Chris it looked like a regular dart but I never seen it separate from the handle. I normally take the line in the basket and tie thru 31 Bertram Hawes pipe same method for mako unless in tournament but don't do that anymore.your method with 400 lbs mono and barrel swivel is one step better especially on feisty mako that can go ballistic at boat side.