I remember fishing with Carl Newell in the old days, when Carl's "fighting belt" was a piece of conveyor belt. To my surprise, he got some very large tuna that way. But I never saw anyone else try to do that.

These days, most anglers wear a fighting belt or use a Knobie or some other sort of padded protection when playing tuna, large yellowtail, marlin or other hard-pulling fish. This is well-advised, since you can hurt your innards by putting too much pressure on them with a bent rod. It's really just common sense.

There are many good brands of belts, and I don't disparage any of them, having tried most brands over my fishing career. Lately, I've been using belts from a new series made by AFTCO. They come in three models: the Alijos, the Socorro and the Clarion belt.

The Clarion is the heavy-duty belt, meant for cow tuna and big marlin, to be worn low for maximum leverage, likely with drop straps. The Socorro model is a bit smaller, meant for medium to large game fish (the company recommends it for 50 to 80-pound tackle) and just right for 100-pound tuna. The Alijos model is the smaller type most familiar to day fishermen and multi-day anglers.

I haven't had opportunity to truly test the two larger models, but I caught numerous tuna and large yellowtail with the Alijos belt, and I like it very much. It's light, comfortable, good-looking and it works like a champ. I found I could play fish of up to 50 pounds with it, no problem. I didn't even remove the gimbal pin, and I had no trouble getting an un-gimbaled rod butt in and out of the cup. The company says it's for 20 to 50-pound line.

All these new belts have more lovable traits: they float, they snap on and off the belt, and they're made from high-quality materials, like all of AFTCO's products. So if you're looking for a belt, and you should be if you don't have one, try your local tackle store for one of these sharp and efficient AFTCO belts. You can see ???em on the site.