Several years ago Andy, Dad, and I were working a weed line offshore when we spotted a nice sized school of “gaffer” Dolphin. We rigged some light weight spinning outfits with a hook and a piece of ballyhoo and began casting to the school. Within seconds each of us was hooked up with a fish and we began to dance around the boat maneuvering around one another with the fish on the light tackle. After about 20-minutes of chaos dad had his fish to the boat and ready to be gaffed.
Since my fish was still fairly far off I set my rod in the holder and picked up the gaff to give dad some assistance. I set the gaff and swung the fish into the boat. In the chaos I had forgotten to open the fish box and therefore had to drop the fish on the floor. (Mistake number one.) Andy now had his fish ready for the gaff, in haste I took dads fish off the gaff with the fish still in the bottom of the boat. (Mistake number two.) I then walked to the bow to gaff Andy’s fish while dad assisted by running the boat. Just as Andy was guiding his fish towards the boat I heard a splash and looked back in just enough time to see Dad’s fish swimming off. Apparently his fish was able to muster up enough energy to make one last solid flop and flipped over the transom of the boat.
We were all disgusted, on top of losing the fish, we knew the fish would not survive very long with the gaff hole in it’s head. What a waste! We got Andy’s fish in the box and then mine when I saw a Dolphin swimming about 6 feet away right on the surface of the water. Upon closer inspection I noted a gaff hole in the fish’s head. We moved over to the fish, gaffed it for a second time and threw it in the box.
In my experience I have seen more fish lost in the last minutes then during any time of the fight. More often than not these fish are lost due to poor gaffing techniques.
Proper gaffing begins with organization. Prior to beginning to fish the cockpit should be cleared of all non essential items. Buckets, tackle boxes, ropes, coolers, etc. are all tripping