Most of us were mostly fishing with live and dead bait. However, the guy who was responsible for the largest red grouper and the second largest red snapper was fishing with slow pitch jigs exclusively. These jigs, he says are “100% guaranteed” to catch big fish. Unfortunately, these jigs are very expensive. When a big fish broke his line tears nearly started falling. I don’t remember what color the jig was, but it must’ve been gold plated and extra extra sparkly.
While I've been too busy at work to fish, I found a little time to learn about the Japanese fish handling techniques of ike jime, shinkei jime, and chinuki. These procedures are supposed work together to quickly dispatch a caught fish and improve its taste and texture.
The process starts with ike jime, which involves sticking a fish in the brain with something like an ice pick. This stops the brain from producing substances like adrenaline which harms the flesh and encourages muscle activities which also harm the flesh. Shinkei jime involves the destruction of the fish's spinal chord, the nerve running atop the spinal column, by running a piece of wire through it from head to tail or tail to head. Shenkei jime is supposed to stop the muscles from producing lactic acid and from consuming ATP, an energy source, and slow the onset of rigor mortis. When rigor mortis quickly occurs within the delicate flesh of fish, the muscles contract quickly in a way that causes the muscles to tear the flesh. Chinuki is bleeding the fish in a bucket or while spraying it with water from the raw water washdown hose. Apparently, a fish's heart will beat for a few minutes after its brain is spiked and its spinal cord destroyed. It seems that most recommend that the membrane behind a fish's gills be cut to bleed the fish, but some cut the gills or the throat. Bacteria grows quickly in blood and is responsible for some of that fishy smell.
Anyway, I couldn't figure out how to run the wire from the fish's brain and into its spinal cord. (The people on the internet make it seem so easy.) I'll try again next time. Because I was so focused on ike jime and fishing, I didn't have a chance to drop the underwater camera down for more pictures and videos from the bottom. I'll have some next time.