The art of the 'short pump' and other things you talk about at the tackle shop

The first time I saw the 'short pump' in action - I was on the Freedom out of Pierpoint Landing around 1966/1967. I had just started to go on the islands / all day trips. My dad had come home with yellowtails and halibuts, and I wanted to catch those. Tackle-wise, I was still ill equipped...not horrible, just marginal. Big spinning reels - Garcia 302's (always wanted a 402, oh well!) and Optimo with blue monofilament from Thrifty. We went to San Clemente Island - around the east end somewhere west of China Point. Big yellowtail were biting! I was in the fray in the stern, but was just a little kid getting in the way and being pushed around. Bobby Carr was running the boat and was fishing. I watched in amazement as he threw in a bait, and hooked a nice yellow. He just quickly reeled and pumped the rod in a very quick fashion and bounced a nice fat yellow. Looked big to me - but more I think about it, the fish was probably 20 pounds or so. Still a heck of a feat. He never gave the fish an inch of line. He looked at me, quickly grabbed another bait and hooked a fish....then handed it off to me. This fish just turned, pinned me to the rail and broke me off. Just like that. I don't remember what he said - something like, 'kid you need to learn how to short pump'. Took a while, but I finally got it after a while. I still see people on TV shows and on boats trying to 'short pump' - with mixed results. Mostly, I'm not sure people know how. The whole point is to not let the fish turn its head so it can take off. When you first hook the fish, the first couple of pumps on the rod and cranks on the reel are crucial. Once you get a couple of grinds and you know the fish is pointed at you, you have to continue to apply pressure and keep it coming at you. One constant pull is what the fish should feel. When you pump the rod - each pump of the rod gives you a certain amount of line. That certain amount of line has to be put onto your reel, immediately followed by another pump of the rod and repeat. Any slack in this process gives the fish an opportunity to turn its head and hence take off. Which isn't all bad - just adds more time for other potential mishaps to occur. What do you have to have in order to do this right? Well, heavier than normal line is a must. One cannot 'short pump' a 50 pound tuna on 15 pound line very well. You can however 'short pump' a 50 pound tuna on 40 pound line. I think most folks tend to fish with a light drag, afraid of breaking their line. Most line breakage occurs at the knot. Hence, use a good knot. Ask around and find the best knot. We used to sit around at Yo's shop after closing time. The usual troop that had nothing better to do than hang out at the local tackle shop. We'd have contests to see whose knot held up the best. I use a Palomar knot now. But you have to be careful not to cross the lines at the hook. If you take a magnifying glass (if you are older - and need it) and look at the two lines at the hook, you'll be able to tell if the lines are crossed or not. It makes a difference. If they are crossed, the knot will break before the uncrossed one does. This is just one of many. So once you have a favorite knot that does not break, we are good to go. Remember the more knots you have on your line the less you can pull. Just thought of a funny story. When I was working on the Fury II during the summers when I was going to college, we used to get an array of good fishermen coming on the boat fishing. I never knew Marv's last name - but he used to run one of the Catalina ferry's from San Pedro/Long Beach to Avalon. He was a good fisherman! I recall we had a good yellowtail bit going on at Farnsworth Bank. Make a tank of big greenies on the front side of the island - and off to Farnsworth. All 25 lbs+ yellows - nice ones. Marv came out fishing on one of those days. We had 25 or 30 people fishing on the boat. Most folks had no idea how to fish the big baits for these yellows. This fishing was right up Marv's alley. He had to be in his mid to late 60's by then - so he had been fishing for a long time. He was a quiet sort of guy - and lot of history on his face. I just remember seeing him bit every time I saw him. At the end of the day, we only had 15 or 20 of these jumbo yellows - and Marv.....he had 5 or 6 fish, filling two sacks! He'd fish heavy line and once he hooked the fish - did not give them an inch. That was awesome. As far as a rod goes, my preference is for a heavier parabolic type rather than a fast taper type. The long parabolic Harnells are great rods to short pump with. The first true fast taper rod I remember catching a big fish with was a Sabre 865XH. Had a nice soft tip to be able to cast an anchovy - but once you put a load on the rod, it shut off quickly. The first bigeye tuna I caught locally was 130 lbs and was caught on that rod with an old Newell 300C/500 full of 40 lb line. I don't remember if I was using Ande or Meslon. Catching that fish on that rod made me decide I liked parabolic rods better. We also discussed hooks. At that time it was all Mustads. I started with the non-forged regular hooks - 94150 I think. But soon changed to a forged hook - 9174's. For some reason, the bait swam better with these hooks. Remember, it was all anchovies then - big ones in the winter/spring, and straight 'chummers' (small 2-3" anchovies) in the summertime. I broke a few 9174's and changed to the 92677's - which were forged and slightly offset. Pretty much use these hooks all the time for dang near everything, even today. For the long range trips - I do use the fancy Gamakatsu's, but for local fishing - 94150's is it. When I think about it, I can't believe them hooks are a few bucks apiece. We were using Mustad 118H's before the fancy hooks came along - and really, we did just fine, for caballito fishing anyway. For the big baits - was a different story. 7691's were and continue to be it for me.