Fishing up in Canada on the west side of the Queen Charletts when I hooked it a rather large Hali while fishing for salmon with a mooching rod and single action reel. After about a hour and a half we finally get it to the surface and my buddy grabbs the harpoon and slamms it through the head of the hali, pulls the harpoon back and shure as Sh@t the tip is still on the poon. Man can a 150-180lb Hali make a reel sing, it runs about 100 yards out and then back down 250'. Another 45 minutes and here he is again, I told, well yelled, at my buddy to make sure he gets it all the way through and pull it back slowly so the tip comes off. He does it and HOLLY CRAP the tip is once again on the poon. Now im madd as all heck and the hali runs straight down. I pump him up as hard as I can, with 17 pound test, to the suface had the pole to my budd and gaff the thing with a 4' gaff tied to the boat. What a ride, I felt like a cowboy on a wild bull. Held on as long as I could before the dowel broke, I reach down and grabbed the sharp pointed end and tried to hang on and it swamm off to the end of the rope and sudden jerk of the boat, i pulled up the rope to find a large sized chunk of it's cheek. We told the deck hand back at the lodge what happened and he said we should have cutt the 3 cent o-ring off and it would have worked fine.
Glad I know that now