# Giant fishing in Prince Edward Island



## ksong (Jun 30, 2004)

I experienced incredible fishing in Prince Edward Island last Tuesday while guiding Korean fishing TV team.
I plan to go back again in two weeks before commercial season start on Oct 3.
Here are general info of fishing giant in P.E.I.
*Charter rate*: about $1,000 plus tip.








*boat equipments*: they provide heavy tackle (Penn130 filled with 200 lbs dacron). If you want to fight on standup or jigging/popping, you got to bring your own gears.








*driving distance*:
about 900 miles from GW Bridge (NY/NJ) to the entrance of P.E.I.
and 100 miles from entranced of P.E.I to North Lake harbor.
*flight to P.E.I.*:
you can fly to Charottetown in the middle of P.E.I and rent a car to drive an hour (about 40 - 50 miles) to North Lake which is located at the tipof NE of the island
*lodging near North Lake*:
there is one motel right on the harbor and a few decent hotels are within 15 miles range. The three star hotel's rate is about $80-90 plus tax.
It is better to book when commercial season is closed because you might have hard time to find a boat in commercial season.
Commercial season start from Oct 3, but they expect it last only a few days before quota is filled. 
*Tackle info:*
You don't need any tackles at all if you decide to use boats tackle.
They don't have any fighting chairs or standup gears on teh boat as they normally fight by putting a heavy rod on the rod holder








Dennis Braid pioneered standup fishing for giant and he routinely landed 500 - 600 lbs within 30 minutes using heavy drag and his special technique. Any rod and reel for standup has to endure at least 35 - 40 lbs drag.
*Jigging and Popping*:
I haven't tried for jigging and popping much on the last trip, but I see the possibility of jigging and popping.
Any jigging/popping rods should be strong enough for over 35 lbs drag.
As giant usually right under the boat, I don't see any reason to use longer than 7' popping rod. It is not a bad idea to use strong spinning jigging rods for popping. 
It is an formidable task to land a giant with light jigging and popping rod, but I saw it is doable on my last trip after fighting giant about 30 minutes using 450g Black Hole Cape Cod Special jigging rod/JM PE7 reel.

























My special pull/push technique for fighting a giant.
By using this technique, you don't need a harness and don't have to worry about back problem.  After fighting about 30 minutes, I could gain 2/3 of line using the technique as you see in the video even I used only 60# Jerry Brown hollow.

YouTube - Fighting Giant with 450g Black Hole Jigging Rod


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## marlinboy (Oct 3, 2007)

So did you land the fish or not? Sure does not look like you were making much headway in the video.


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## ksong (Jun 30, 2004)

Here is a video of our trip.


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## ksong (Jun 30, 2004)

Here is another video of fighting giant with 450g Black Hole jigging rods.
I got confidence after the fight that a giant can be landed with 450g Black Hole rod using heavy lines/heavy drag. (I used #60 Jerry Brown Hollow and Varivas Avani PE8).


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## ksong (Jun 30, 2004)

Giant estimated over 600 lbs took the bait within 3 seconds.


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## gigem87 (May 19, 2006)

Nice!

you look a little undergunned with that red reel outfit!

why would you release that tuna? aren't they worth a fortune?

didn't look like a grander tuna to me, but what do I know...


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## ksong (Jun 30, 2004)

gigem87 said:


> Nice!
> 
> you look a little undergunned with that red reel outfit!
> 
> ...


No really. The JM PE7/8 reel is capable of over 40 lbs drag at strike.
I was not prepared for this trip and I used rod/reel what I have in my car.
Even with #60 Jerry Brown line on the reel, I could gain 2/3 of lines after fighting 30 minutes. the line got broken when I increased drag as I felt it would take too much time with light line.
If I had 100 lbs Jerry Brown line I could land the giant within reasonable time with the same setup.

Capt estimated the size of tuna who caught hundreds of giant for years.
Pictures and video don't do the justice to show the real size of the fish.
You can not keep any tuna up there.


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## Encinal (Jan 18, 2008)

Heh...


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