THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 25, 1996 TAG: 9602250048
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ROANOKE ISLAND LENGTH: Long : 150 lines
For more than a century, tuna-catching technology hadn't changed much. Watermen traditionally set long lines, trolled baits on rods and reels or harvested the popular fish with hand lines.
This winter, however, a 45-foot fiberglass pole is revolutionizing the way Wanchese watermen work - and, in some cases, helping them catch 15 times more tuna on a trip.
Charter captains, anxious to increase their fee-paying anglers' hauls, also are getting on the stick. Three Oregon Inlet-based boats already have bought the new gear to test during this spring's sportfishing season. Owners of at least eight other Outer Banks vessels have ordered ``green sticks'' in hopes of cashing in on increased catches.
Some say the innovative device developed by Japanese fishermen more than a decade ago soon could change the East Coast's entire commercial tuna industry.
``A few of the other guys had 'em out there last year. And they were getting big bites when no one else was,'' said charter boat captain Paul Spencer, who runs ``The Sizzler'' out of Oregon Inlet Fishing Center. ``Their catches were a whole lot better. I was real impressed with the way it worked. I want to have it for my parties, too.''
Manufactured only in Japan, green sticks have been used in the Pacific since the early 1980s. Wanchese waterman Charles Midgett first saw the stick in 1986 while vacationing in Hawaii. He spent the next 10 years fine-tuning the technology - and perfecting pieces of the radical rig.
``I couldn't get one over here. So I tried to build my own. But it just didn't work right,'' Midgett, 70, said from his Roanoke Island home. ``A guy from Florida had a stick I finally got ahold of. But he didn't have no bird. So I made one.
``It took us awhile to get this right,'' Midgett said. ``But now I think we've got it mastered.''
The stick itself is 34 to 45 feet long, made of fiberglass, with a metal eye at its tip. It's extremely flexible, comes in three or four sections, and can telescope down to about one-third of its full length. Most sticks weigh less than 150 pounds. In the United States, they sell for $1,950 to $2,900 each. Captains mount these poles to their boat's deck, and usually brace them on top of the cabin.
Although the gear's commercial name is green stick for the original olive tone, Midgett's son, Butch, who runs Etheridge Fishing Supply Co. in Wanchese, said he's sold black, lavender and blue sticks. Last week, he finally got some of the olive variety in stock. Of the 10 he just ordered, eight already are spoken for.
``These sticks get tuna strikes when, a lot of times, nothing else will. They're much better for catching 50- to 100-pound fish,'' Butch Midgett said. ``They're not magic sticks, though. You still gotta be a good fisherman to make them work. It's a very complicated piece of material.
``But people who know how to use them right really are able to produce with them.''
Unlike other tuna fishing methods, which troll bait beneath the surface, green sticks let lures skip above the ocean.
A main line 1,000 feet or longer, made of 800- to 1,000-pound-test monofilament, is attached to the stick with a cotton strand breakaway line. With leader lines, five to seven lures or baits are snapped to the main line.
Each leader is a different length so as the main line angles closer to the water the baits just skip across the surface. The baits are about 35 to 45 feet apart, depending on the length of the stick. A ``bird'' is attached to the end of the main line and drags up to 600 feet behind the boat.
``The bird is a key component of the rig - and that's what Mr. Midgett really perfected,'' said Wayne Wescott, an official with North Carolina State University's Sea Grant program who helped Wanchese watermen research and revise the green stick design. ``If any one person in North Carolina can be credited with bringing this new technology to town, it's Charles Midgett. I don't know where the idea originally came from. It's a very unusual, creative design.
``I think it's the most innovative gear I've seen - and it certainly will help the commercial fishermen.''
Made of two pieces of spruce that Charles Midgett glues together in his backyard, the birds really look more like primitive porpoises painted white, with red eyes and mouths. They're about 3.5 feet long, weigh 18 pounds each, and include two angled ``wings'' made from molded heavy duty aluminum that help the bird move up and down in the ocean. The primary purpose of the ``bird'' is to hold the main line taut behind the boat, so the baits dance just above the surface.
Midgett said they also serve a second purpose: attracting the tuna who think another predator is trying to get its food.
``The bait acts like a flying fish, jumping just above the water and skipping across the waves. The tuna think the porpoise-bird is chasing those fish. So they come after them so the other animals don't get the bait first,'' Midgett said.
Wescott said the situation is similar to a family dog, who leaves food in its bowl until another dog comes along. Then, that first dog will eat all the food - even if it's not hungry - just to keep the second one from eating out of its bowl.
``I've seen those tuna jump higher than my house to get at the bait,'' Midgett said. ``They just vault out of the water, trying to beat the porpoise to the punch. It's really an exciting, amazing sight.''
The bird also creates a commotion splashing behind the boat, which may help attract tuna, too.
``You can pull a plastic squid right over the water and get 20 hits as soon as it's out there - while a ballyhoo bait right beneath the water won't even get a bite,'' said Chucky Midgett, Charles' 39-year-old son who has used the green stick commercially more than any other East Coast waterman. ``I used to have to do a whole lot more scouting around for fish. Now, I don't have to look for them much. The fish sometimes seem to find me.
``With the stick, I can catch yellow fin and big eye tuna when I never would've got 'em before - as many as 72 on a daylong trip. There weren't many days last year when any other commercial boat caught more fish than I did,'' said Chucky Midgett, who runs his 36-foot boat with one other fisherman. ``I paid for that $3,000 stick with only one day of fishing it.''
Plastic squid 6- to 18-inches long with fluorescent specks and ballyhoo seem to work best as green stick bait, watermen said. Hook sizes vary. But No. 45, 50, 54 and 55 hooks all have been successful.
Commercial crews use a hydraulic reel mounted to the boat's back deck to haul in the tuna. The cotton strands break when fish strike. Then the reel starts working.
Recreational anglers have to bring in their own fish, however, if they want to be considered for International Game Fish Association citations. So Wescott, Charles and Chucky Midgett helped configure a special break-away design for the charter boats' green sticks. Each of the seven hooks is attached to its own leader, which is linked to the main line with a snap swivel and rubber band. When a fish strikes, the rubber band breaks off the main line, leaving the leader attached only to a regulation rod and reel. Then, anglers can fight the fish themselves and bring them in by hand.
``On the commercial boats, even big fish hardly fight at all,'' Wescott said. ``There's pull from the bird behind. There's pull from the hydraulic reel ahead. The tuna don't know which way to turn. That way, watermen get a much better quality fish to sell. The tuna are caught so quickly, they don't get tired in the struggle.''
Charles Midgett said that when he and Chucky first started experimenting with the green stick, ``The other commercial guys wondered why we were bothering - and the charter boat captains laughed at us.
``But those boys kept seeing Chucky catch more fish than them - sometimes, as much as 15 times more tuna. Soon, they caught on. Now, everyone wants to get on the stick.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
DREW C. WILSON/The Virginian-Pilot
Wanchese waterman Charles Midgett has spent 10 years perfecting
``green stick'' technology. Above, he displays one of the ``birds''
dragged at the end of the main line.
Graphic
VP
HOW THE SYSTEM WORKS
[For complete graphic, please see microfilm]
by CNB