I did commercial fishing for around 8 years before my current job. Haven't done all that much sports fishing tho. Best I've done sports fishing was a 60 pound halibut, tasty... tasty... halibut.
Gone salmon fishing several times, I tend not to have the paitence for it, when I would spend all day trying to get one fish, when normally I could spend one day and get 2000+ fish commercial fishing.
Best fish I ever caught was a 70 lb king salmon, commerical fishing we use gill nets, which are about 300 feet long, and 12 feet tall, and full of 5 1/2 in holes, which the fish swim into and get caught on their gills. King salmon however cant fit through the holes, they also cannot swim backwards. So you would be going through the net and all the sudden see a giant shadow underwater. The king salmon would just have his tooth hooked on the webbing of the net, but still cant get away.
So we would gently pull up to the salmon, then the other person in the boat would get next to your. Then you would spring upon the salmon and try to pull it in the boat. I grabbed the tail other crewmember grabbed the head/gills. Commence pissed off fish. So of course the salmon would start flapping with all his might, and when its a 70 lb pile of muscle, that is a significant amount of force. So as quick as you can you try to throw it into the boat. Success! lands in the boat, however fish is still pissed off and flapping around. So now you have to dodge a 70lb fish who is propelling himself 3 feet into the air. A few dodges later, and the fish finnally tires out and dies.
Good stuff.
Pretty much your best bet is to go fishing with someone who knows what hes doing. They generally know the best times to go fishing, and what the best equipment are to use.
