Your Seasons Highlights???

[lunkerdo]

ronnie thats a fish he will never forget great picture

[MAKAI]

Being asked to cut fish for the P-town Vet fish and the Jimmy Fund Joe Cronin memorial tournament. Never felt so good to be so tired. It was an honor.

[Night Shift]

My season was probably one of my best ever.
To start with, I had the pleasure of ice fishing with TDF and a bass trip with Slipknot. Both trips were a blast! The ice fishing this year was incredible, the brookies were fat and the rainbows were tagged (and also fat), and the salmon fought like hell. My eyes were also opened to the wonderful world of custom plug building, and the satisfaction of actually fooling a fish with one of them. This year, I finaly accepted a standing invitation from a friend who is a hard core tuna fisherman. Before that day, I had never seen a whale breech, let alone watch one breech continuously for almost an hour. The last series left me speechless--it started directly towards us and about a quarter mile off of the starboard side and the last splash was a mere two boat lengths away. That last jump, the whale coming completely out of the water, it's white fins twisting around it's masive body, and feeling the thunder and the spray as it slammed back into the water will be etched in my mind forever. To top off the entire day, after several hits, a tuna was finnessed to the hook and I was fortunate to witness a tuna fight from start to finish. The fish was brought boatside green and dressed out at 240 pounds. Words cannot describe the controlled chaos (or the beating it gave me).
As for the bass, this year i saw some of the fattest (not neccessarily the heaviest) fish I have ever seen. For a solid 3 weeks, 1 pound per inch was the rule, and on several occasions it was surpassed. Three of my friends fished hard,as they always do, and landed fish 50 pounds or over this year. One guy in particular did it more than once, and it was an honor to be able to net them for him and share the exitement. Congrats to Joe, Gilles, and Angie, three of the hardest fishermen I know. As for me, I caught more than my fair share of fish in the lower to middle 40 pound range and a handfull between 46 and 48 pounds. The 48 pound fish ties my 5 year standing PB for the third time. This fish was the shortest at only 46 inches but made up for it in girth. And Joe, it must be illegal in at least a few states to laugh as much as we do when we fish. We have wayyyy too much fun, and it is an honor to be considered your friend.

BRING ON 2013!

[spinncognito]

Solid year for me up here on the N. Shore as well. Learned how to catch squid and used a fresh dead one to fool my PB fish. 48" but a skinny 37 pounds. Caught many fish on metal lipped swimmers which I had not had as much success on in the past. Fall was better than last year as the peanuts kept the bass close to shore for periods of time. Spent lots of time on the water with the local sharpies and thus learned quite a bit throughout the season. I pick up my new St Croix Avid and VS 150 next week(thanx Mass Lottery) so really looking to step things up next season.

[smac]

My highlight of the fishing season was on my first trip out in the boat. Was blind casting bucktails near a bunch of charter boat guys. It was to much work to keep an eye on what everyone one was doing so I motored away to a couple birds diving bombing some bait.

As I launched a BT near the birds, just before the BT hit the water the water erupted with small keep size Tuna. Before I could get "holy s!@t" out of my mouth a tuna grabs the BT and decides to head for RI. I was using an uglystick tiger and a Cabo50 spinning set up. I have never heard line come off that reel like this before. It was unreal!

I was steering, using the throttle, reeling, and pumping the rod for over an hour, trying to keep boat over the fish. Spooled 3 times and at one point I was making almost ten knots trying to keep up with the fish. I was a sweaty blob of goo.

Got the fish along side, we both stared at each other for a couple seconds until fish decided to bug out. Line parted.

The tuna bug is very real. I hope to get another chance to do battle again some day.