Colin's talking about the videos on this page:
http://www.fishingwithrod.com/subscriber/20070400.htmlHow do you all like the new large screen and flash video setup?

Feedbacks please. Feedbacks, feedbacks, feedbacks, so there can be improvements.

The first couple minutes in the second part are unfortunately blurry because whenever there is a busy background such as a dense forest, the foreground action gets blurry, unless we apply manual focus, which I could not do as I was alone.

Back to the original questions. The blank holding is definitely not recommended. I do it from time to time, bad habit, but I know my rods intimately and have never broken one.

The story behind the video you just watched is: While fighting the fish, I realized that I only had a few minutes of tape left in the camera while it was running. I wasn't sure how many minutes left, I wasn't even sure if it was recording at the time, therefore I was trying to get the fish in with minimal fighting time (therefore the blank grabbing), in case the tape run out. Luckily, the fish was landed with still a couple minutes to spare.