Good evening to everyone. Here is another article from the bridge of the Shogun. Hope you all enjoy.
Bruce
Tangles-
October 26, 2010
This is an article that I don't want to write. In fact, I don't think any sportfishing writer has tackled the issue. Clearly it is not a popular subject: tangles.
Nobody likes to be in them, but it's hard to keep yourself out of them, much less know what to do once you have become entrapped. Tangles. Just the word conjures up spider webs of monofilament and spectra, the embarrassment of sitting next to a patient deckhand trying to undo an incomprehensible mass of chaos, visions of dollar signs multiplying with each click from a pair of sidecutters.
Causes and Solutions-
I want to start with a simple hint that helps to get tangles out: the first thing you do is take the bait off all the hooks involved in the tangle. It is much easier to work out bare hooks instead of trying to thread bait through a small hole. .
In conversation with fellow deck hands, there is a certain point that comes up time and time again. The number one cause of tangles is (you will see this ties into the last article I wrote) not paying attention to, or losing contact with your bait. I am not going to go over the whole keeping contact with your bait scenario again here, we have covered in detail already. I am, however, stating that the more vigilant an eye you keep on what you are doing, the less time you will be involved in tangles…the more time you will be fishing, instead of wishing.
Next, bear in mind that during long soaks your line is out there doing big S turns. When another angler winds in their hook, it can snag one of those S turns, and then they bring your line right along with theirs. This creates a huge, long loop of line being dragged back to the boat, and hopefully it's only yours and not two or four or five others too. Again, stay in contact with your bait, and if you feel it stop swimming or you lose that tiny tail beat, put your reel into gear and take some turns on the handle. If you don't and you are standing near the center of the stern in a long soak situation, there could be a costly tangle headed your way. You can see how quickly this can multiply, creating a huge mess in no time.
These are the top two causes, but they are not by any means the only reasons we get into tangles. The knot connecting monofilament to a fluorocarbon leader is a major player in the world of tangles. The tag ends of the knot acts like a hook and will catch other pieces of mono or other passengers line while you are winding your bait back to the boat, and it's hard to prevent it. What you can do is ensure that your knot is tight, and then trim the tag ends close, to a 1/4 inch. If you tighten your knot correctly it won't slip---even with very short tag ends---and you will cause many fewer tangles.
Rubber core sinkers with it's rubber "ears" sticking out of each end can cause the same kinds of problems as the tag ends of a connection knot. If you are fishing in a group shoulder to shoulder, you probably don't want to fish with these. Opt for a split shot, slider or rubber band a torpedo sinker to your line instead.
Every day that we fly the kites, someone casts over the line(s). Frankly, it amazes me how high some anglers can throw a baited hook, or a jig for that matter. If you do happen to do this, just reach up with your rod, snag the kite line with the guides on your rod, bring the line down to your level and then hand your rod over. It's as simple as that, and no one needs to get into a huff about it.
When dropper loop fishing is on, it can be a ton of fun. The downside to these heavily weighted configurations are the tremendous tangles that often occur when all passengers are using them at the same time. Just to complicate matters, this frequently takes place in the dark of night. Honestly it's a tough deal. You can't really escape these kinds of tangles…often they just happen. If everyone on the boat is using a dropper loop, what you can do is try to spread out down the rail as much as possible. When a tangle inevitably does happen, what you need to try to do is spin the tangle out. Take hold of both lines involved as near to the tangle as you can, let the sinkers hang free, and slowly pull the tangle apart. As we said at the beginning, make sure you take the baits off the hooks first. Every once in a while you may need to unthread the hooks as the tangle spins free. Do that as needed, and continue unraveling. It’s not always that easy of course, but at the same time, it usually looks much worse that it is. One big tip: since most of this takes place at night, try not to use a dark colored line. Green or red are really tough to see. Clear line glows white under the deck lights and is the easiest for the crew to work tangles, especially if we are working them while leaning over the rail.
Bait (Sabiki) rigs, Aaaagghh! Do I really want to go here? First thing to remember is they look a lot worse than they are to take apart. Without writing a book on taking apart bait rig tangles, just as with dropper loops, let the weight hang and work from the top. Most of the tangle will spin out; you just have to undo the occasional hook as you go. Admittedly some of these are tough and spun tight. If that’s the case, suck it up, accept the inevitable and throw it in the trash. It happens to everyone. There are two kinds of people in this world, those who tangle bait rigs and those who don't fish bait.
Spinning chunks also get into tangles. You can avoid a lot of tangles if you fish them on a short line, if you don't soak them way back past 100 feet, and once they get to that point without a bite, wind them in and start over. Most all chunk baits spin, the longer you soak them the more line you have out, the greater the number of rotations of the bait, and the more tangles you create. When you’re fishing the chunk, keep it short, keep it in the zone, and you will put more fish on the boat.
Heavy current peels a lot of line off your reel in a short time. If you have twenty guys standing on the stern fly-lining baits, it’s easy to see that it is a recipe for disaster. The more line in the water the bigger the tangles, simple math. If you don't want to be a part of these, again I say keep it short and sweet. Fish your baits for shorter periods of time and you will get into less trouble.
On the opposite end of the current spectrum is light current and the having the boat swinging from side to side in the wind (what the captains would call "doing the watusi") while sitting on the anchor. What works well for me is to wait and watch, then throw your bait out on the apex of the swing, that way the boat is then swinging away from your bait and not over the top of it. If you don't fish it this way and go for the standard cast off the stern fishing, then the boat's motion creates huge S loops, and those will go directly into huge tangles.
Spectra vs. mono. The two have very different characteristics, one is soft, limp and almost floats, the other is hard and springy, kinks easily, and sinks. They both have their positives, but the fact is spectra or PE lines can be a real bear to untangle. You must have much more patience with the soft lines, keep the knots loose and be prepared to untwist yards of it to free it up to be able to fish with it once again. When mono and braid are in a tangle together, try to cut the hook then pull the mono through first. That simple step will free up the braid and make it much easier to work out the tangle. Our best tool to help out with the super braid tangles is the tuna spike that we wear on our belts. The point isn't overly sharp and doesn't dig into the spectra itself tearing at the individual strands, but attacks the knot instead, opening and loosening at the same time. Being able to grab a single strand with the spike is most helpful at times while standing at the rail.
Personally it would not hurt my feelings if the line companies stopped making green or red super braids and mono. They are hard to see, and make it difficult to work tangles out while fish are on the line. In this business of long range fishing, I have yet to see the advantage of using colored lines other than a gray or smoke colored monofilament. That color, at least, is still easy to see and work out of tangles.
Fish creating tangles-
We’ve been talking about the tangles we create as anglers, the ones we get our selves into, but there is a whole 'nother ball of wax out there: the tangles that fish get us in to. That is especially true of the big ones we are trying to reel to the boat.
First we (all involved, passenger and deckhand) have to get the tangle near us to be able to work on it. Don't walk or pull in the opposite direction of the tangle as it comes up! Instead, move towards the tangle. Not only do you want to walk towards a tangle, if you can see that you are crossing another anglers line, put the tips of your rods together. What this does is decrease the angle of the tangle on our end, while it increases the angle on the fish's end of things. That means the wrap or tangle comes up the line, naturally, once it comes with in reach or at least until we can see it then we can work on it. For the most part, if you can't see it you can't get it out. I admit, though, that there are some deckhands out there that literally have a second sense when it comes to this, and it seems that they do magic. Well, for the rest of us in the this world, back up, let them work their magic and be on your way, it comes from literally years of experience getting passengers out of tough situations.
Now that we have the wrap close enough to work with, take one of the two rods and hold on to the hypalon behind the reel as you unwrap the twists. You want to move the rods only, not your whole body(s)…it’s much quicker and easier. Once you are free, put the rod back in your rod belt and be on your way.
TIP: A question that commonly comes up is "how do you know if it's (the tangle) coming apart or not?", and a simple answer is that it will do one of two things, get tighter or looser. If it gets tighter, go the other way, unwrap your rods in the other direction.
Another thing is if you have one fish on and the other rod doesn't, it is the rod with the fish on it that wrapped the rod without. This may sound like common sense, but you would be surprised at how often it happens that the rod with the fish on it is trying to be unwrapped. And to take that a step further, between the two rods that are together, unwrap the lighter of the two. It is easier to flip around a 500 instead of a 50 wide. What I have been talking about really only covers two lines wrapped one around the other. Three way tangles, wraps with more than two lines coming into it, are very tough to deal with and I would suggest to passengers that they call for a deckhand to come over and alleviate the situation. Tangles with four, five, or more lines usually have to have one or more fish pulled in by hand (if they are not too big…I wouldn’t try this with a cow) and then go from there. And then there are times that you do everything right, move towards the tangle, put the rod tips together, and still the wraps don't come up the lines. This usually means one thing...the dreaded slack line. A third line…a line whose angler is not paying attention…has wrapped your line with someone else’, holding your lines together.
Slack lines can be death to multiple fish in mere seconds (the worst part about this is usually the guy that the slack line belongs too, doesn't even know he is in a tangle, now that is a GDmnit moment), what you have to do is keep your cool and keep those tips together until some one can reach down with a gaff or grab it by hand, bring it close enough to undo or cut. Many times this is the type of tangle that I enjoy cutting out. If you aren't watching your line close enough to keep it out of hooked fish, then you are going to lose some line and I'm not sorry. Now this brings up the point of crew members (and passengers too) cutting their way out of a tangle. This is like dumping your problem on your neighbor, it's fast and easy, but it will cost someone in the end. Really the last thing you want to do is cut your way out. For one thing if you don't do it right at the hook, someone or something is going to be wearing that line you just cut out. Imagine a 100 feet of 80 lb. spectra hanging off the rudders, fluttering in the current. Don't you think that is going to tangle and cause the loss of other future hook-ups including maybe yours? Yes, all deckhands carry side cutters, but they are for chopping off tag ends and emergencies. If you have the time, stand there and pull that knot apart, recover the line that is in the water, not only for yourself, but also as a steward of the oceans.
Now anchor lines, props, and sonar domes don't move, and we know where they are positioned on the boat, but that doesn't keep fishing lines (with and without fish!) from getting caught in them. Unfortunately the best way to get out of these is not to get caught up in them in the first place. That Y fork on one of gaff holders on the back deck isn't made to get you out of the props it's made to keep big fish away from the props on the inside of the circle it's making. Let me repeat that, it's not to get you out of the propellers. If you are hung on the propellers, its too late. You are pretty much of out of luck and unless you can talk a willing deckhand to jump over the side and undo your mistake, you will probably have to break your hook off,.
When a line is hung on the sonar dome a trick that works sometimes is to grab a heavy torpedo sinker, cut the brass ring on one side near the lead, open the ring enough to pass it over the line in question, close the ring, drop the sinker back over the side while freespooling the reel. At that point walk the rod and reel to the other side of the boat, engage your reel and start to wind. Usually the sinker will knock your line off the sonar dome. If you get close to the anchor line call for help. Do not jump up on the bow area of the boat and try to unwrap the line yourself, it is very dangerous up there. You need to let a deckhand handle this.
Remember, the deckhands and crew are there to help get you out of tangles, they want to save your gear. Nobody likes to cut huge balls of line off anyone's reel, it’s costly in time and money. Be patient, but most of all try to “get out” of those tangles before you get into them. Keep you eyes open and be observant of the other passengers, have an open line of communication with the people around you, and we will all come out better in the end. Not everyone will read this article and of those who do, not all will take it to heart. This may sound funny, but if you notice an angler in repeated tangles, just stay away from them! Go to the other side of the boat.
Big Fish Happen,
Bruce A. Smith
