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Infishing, agaff is a handheld pole with a sharphook or sideway spike on the distal end, which is used to pull large fish from the water.[1] Fishing activities that are solely done with gaffs are known asgaffing.
Gaffs are used when the size and weight of the target fish exceeds the breaking strength of thefishing line or thefishing rod, and thus typicalangling retrieval would be problematic. Likespearfishing, gaffs cannot be used if it is intended torelease the fish unharmed after capture, unless the fish is skillfully gaffed right in a non-vital part such as thelip,jaw or lowergill using a thin hook (though very difficult to perform and thus unlikely).
Aflying gaff is a specialized type of gaff used for securing and controlling very large, feisty fish. The hook part of the gaff (the head) detaches when excessive force is used, somewhat like aharpoon's dart. The head is secured to the boat with a length of heavy rope or cable, allowing the fish to remain tethered and get fatigued out before eventually retrieved.
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