Next     Jos, 20, and his big fish.

He writes:

"We knelt on the stern, facing the sea, in between the spool and the stern. We each had by our side a tub of 250 pieces of bait with ganyons attached.

The first complication is speed. From the time a becket is snapped to the line, I had about seven seconds before I had to snap the next one. Bear in mind that there's 250 ganyons in one of these tubs and the hooks get messed up pretty frequently. There was no time to stop the line, so if one of us got stuck, the other would have to do double time.

The second complication is that a becket is not the easiest of snaps and attaching it to a line whizzing by at 3 miles an hour ain't so easy either. The rope had to be stabilized prior to snapping, which is why we wore gloves. Even with the leather glove I managed to give myself rope burn.

Now, besides all this, snapping is dangerous. ... I took this this job very seriously. What makes it dangerous is the possibility of getting hooked and taken off the boat. Once that becket is snapped, that line is going out, with a dangling hook attached. And before you think I'm joking, bear in mind that this gear is designed to catch fish that weigh over 300 pounds, compared to my paltry 180."

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