Whenever one of your lures starts catching a bunch of fish, the first thing you want to do is get that hot one right back into the water. But trying to get it back out too fast can put the crew in danger. Attempting to remove a hook from a large, thrashing fish armed with a bill, teeth, fins, gill plates or some other weapon gets dicey on a pitching, slippery deck. And you definitely won't get a shot at a second fish if you spend all of your time racing back to port for medical attention.
If you're lucky, the hooks might drop out by themselves when you bring the fish aboard, freeing the lure to go right back out again. But even then, you have to be careful to avoid the free-swinging hook while you subdue the fish and get it in the box.
Better to go right to your backup plan. Control the fish on the gaff, and put it directly into the fish box - lure, hooks and all. Just let the lure stay in the box until the fish dies and the danger passes. While you wait, pull out one of your duplicates that you keep for just such an occasion.
Most crews know which lures make up their heavy hitters, and the good ones bring along plenty of identical substitutes. By putting the understudy in for the star, the show can go right on without missing a beat.
And it's easy to justify the extra expense; you'll catch more fish, avoid any unnecessary injuries trying to retrieve lures from kicking fish and be less despondent when a big fish eventually takes off with the original.
Be sure to take a photo of your best offerings so you have a record of exactly how you skirted and rigged them. Remember the old saying: "There are good lures and old lures, but no good, old lures."
Jim Rizzuto / Kona, Hawaii
