First trip to Stellwagen

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Well we finally got the boat out to Stellwagen on Saturday.We ended up going 0 for 2.The first fish was a behemoth,we saw it smash our live pogie on top,about 50 feet from the transom.It looked to be about 9 feet long.
We were fishing my 130,and a pair of 80's,unfortunately,this was the very first time I've fished the 130,and like a dope(I hesitate to admit this on a public forum,it's pretty bad)I had no crimps for the 200 # mono it's packing.The drag at strike was set for 48/49 pounds.Since I had no crimps, I tied a beautiful 7 turn uni knot at the swivel to the 200 # leader.As soon as we dropped the pogies back,my fishing partner dropped a jig to the bottom to see what we could find there,and was jigging,while I was rigging an 80 to get a third pogie out.Well he gets hit on the jig,we were thinking cod/pollock/haddock,so I grab a gaff,and I'm standing next to him as he brings it up,when we hear something,we look over and the 130(in a swivel rodholder)is going hard right.It comes tight,I think we heard a pop,and it goes limp,then we see the fish break on top,it's immense.I run over,grab the crank,and start reeling like a madman,in case he's still attached,because he was swimming right at the second pogie,Vinnie goes to the other rod,mind you he's still got a jigging rod,with a fish on, in his right hand,and tries to back off the drag on the 80 a bit,it was literally seconds since we just dropped a monster,and we were a little shellshocked.Unfortunately,using his left hand,he went a little far with the drag lever,into freespool,and you guessed it,the fish picks up the bait,right then.He didn't birdsnest it,but he fluffed it up a little,as Vin got the reel back in gear,zzzzzzzzzz,the rod headed West in the swivel,then just came off.I took the jigging rod,and it was Vin's turn to reel like a madman,but noone was home.Since we got the leader back on that one,I had another pogie out in seconds,but they(it?)were gone.Upon reeling the jig up,we were delighted to find a big dogfish.
We found no more joy yesterday,though we did troll around a few pods of breaking tuna later in the day.
The first fish was definately well over 73,I guess we'll never know if the second hit was the same fish,or not.I guess a lot of people would be pretty disgusted with the results of our trip,but we learned some valuable lessons.We did manage to land a fish on the 130 yesterday,a 32 pound bass.We ended up with 3 stripers(released)and a doggie,and some knowledge.We'll be back next weekend,if not this week,looking for some payback.
As an aside,I'll say this,we trolled for 3-4 hours in the am,with bars,chains,birds and green machines,and came up with 3 bass.As soon as we left the fleet,and dropped over the livies,the tuna were on them in about 3 minutes.
You may now feel free to ridicule us in any way you feel is appropriate.