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Believe it. Records do exist. Take for example two taken in nets ( when haul seining was legal in Massachusetts) at Orleans both weighed near 120 pounds gutted 112 ea. Photos back then were a big deal for the average commercial fisherman of 1890. Did you ever see the video of the live 80 pounder the USFWS tagged in Chesapeake Bay in the 80's? Or the video of the guy wrestling the 80 odd pounder on the deck of a heaving NOAA boat doing netting offshore of the outer banks in December? Mighty impressive fish especially when he gets whacked (the guy) by the tail and goes down on the deck still holding the fish. I believe that fish that big are still out there. Will a surfcaster or boatmen tag one? Most likely it will be caught by some cod fishermen off of Great hill dropping a jig to the bottom in late November in the channel, a catch by chance. Me and my Fishing Bud Eric LaFleur saw a fish in French Watering place on Naushon in June one year that was enormous, I mean upsetting enormous and it tried to take a danny but had so much mass as it rushed the plug in 3 feet of water it simply pushed the plug ahead of itself. Niether of us could talk for a while after seeing that fish. We caught forty pounders there that were dwarfed by this one, I will never forget that and how close Eric came to making history. It swam under the boat in gin clear water that was 3 feet deep. Unbelievable? No way, they are out there.
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