Avenger
Well-Known Angler
It turns out the last trip wasn't the last trip after all. We didn't actually go to the Round House, but the plan was similar. Run out of Jones, look around and do some trolling. We set up and turned Southwest. There was a whale just outside the inlet that hung around for a bit. Trust me, there's a whale in the picture. They're hard to photograph.
One moron in a yellow center console kept following it around. At several points I thought he was looking to harpoon it.
Anyway, following the good advice I received in my last report this time we looked on our own and we found a lot of bunker action, but without birds to draw a crowd. We were able to snag some bunker for live lining. The captain hooked into an absolute cow. Unfortunately it had swallowed the hook quite deep so we brought it aboard for treatment. The fish was so big the captain was reaching in halfway to his elbow to try to get the hook out. Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful, and to avoid further injury ended up cutting it off and releasing the fish. I think it was fifty pounds if it was an ounce.
We were still working the same area when we ran into some aggressive dogfish. Suddenly we were covered up in these things, I reeled in one that had half my bunker in it's mouth and another dogfish harassing it all the way to the surface.
While we were stepping away from that nonsense there was a big kick up in action in front of us. We jumped on it and I tied into a freight train. This fish was taking line at a ridiculous rate. When it did slow down I put some pressure on it and there was some brief back and forth until it spit the hook.
Meanwhile, the birds showed up and so did everyone else. The bite moved on and shut off shortly afterwards.
My only analysis of losing the fish was that the circle hook probably wasn't big enough. I was using and 8/0 but on fish this big we probably needed to go 10/0 or 12/0. What does the collective think?
End of report. End of season. End of the week, the boat is coming out.
One moron in a yellow center console kept following it around. At several points I thought he was looking to harpoon it.
Anyway, following the good advice I received in my last report this time we looked on our own and we found a lot of bunker action, but without birds to draw a crowd. We were able to snag some bunker for live lining. The captain hooked into an absolute cow. Unfortunately it had swallowed the hook quite deep so we brought it aboard for treatment. The fish was so big the captain was reaching in halfway to his elbow to try to get the hook out. Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful, and to avoid further injury ended up cutting it off and releasing the fish. I think it was fifty pounds if it was an ounce.
We were still working the same area when we ran into some aggressive dogfish. Suddenly we were covered up in these things, I reeled in one that had half my bunker in it's mouth and another dogfish harassing it all the way to the surface.
While we were stepping away from that nonsense there was a big kick up in action in front of us. We jumped on it and I tied into a freight train. This fish was taking line at a ridiculous rate. When it did slow down I put some pressure on it and there was some brief back and forth until it spit the hook.
Meanwhile, the birds showed up and so did everyone else. The bite moved on and shut off shortly afterwards.
My only analysis of losing the fish was that the circle hook probably wasn't big enough. I was using and 8/0 but on fish this big we probably needed to go 10/0 or 12/0. What does the collective think?
End of report. End of season. End of the week, the boat is coming out.