I fished last Friday and . . .

[BassyiusMaximus]

. . . here is my story.

I got down to the boat early, got my gas, got my eels and had everyone rounded up to head out. I was going to show my brothers (2) and my brother in law, his 4 year old son (my nephew) and my one of my best friends from college who moved out to Colorado 8 years ago then came back, how to catch the monster bass at night.

We shoved off around 7pm and the sea was rough. I had to tack 3-4 times and had gone about 10 miles out of my way to fight to get to the pass between the islands and into calmer water as the sun was headed to the horizon. We got on point and my brothers who are used to throwing plastics into the rocks started their thing and after a few fruitless casts since the wind was all willy-nilly Friday night, I told them to put the lures away and that we'd be going with the 13 live eels I got earlier. I threaded two onto hooks, 5/0 Gamakatsu's onto 30 lb Calcutta Floro to a B/B Penn solid ring barrel swivel then onto the 15 lb Trilene Big Game spooled onto the PT40 Boca's/7ft Boca rods. First bass to come up was 28", next up was 33, 34, 30 and some high 20's mixed in, the guys, even though they were new to slinging eels, were not new to fishing, they were getting 3-4 fish per eel since the hookups were almost always perfect, hard to believe as newbies ususally gut-hook the fish. The shoreline of which there was not a house in sight was just so that we could just drift along it within perfect casting range of the rockline and the boulders just underneath. It seemed that the fish were all around the boat and that even though it was perfectly dark outside, they were all underneath us. I got my turn when they told me that we'd make one last drift and that I hadn't caught a fish since I was tending to the boat, so on the last drift with my trusty Penn Slammer 7'/6500SS I got tight and could tell it was a big fish. I really didn't care if I got it in the boat since we had so many already, what I didn't want the fish to do was to get into the rocks and cut me off so I applied judicious tension on the line and muscled the fish away from the island, however in doing so, I pulled the fish all the way across the boat and close to a lobster bouy that materialized out of nowhere, so I had to pull on the fish to get it away from that too, all the while we were drifing at 1.5-2.2 mph. The fish was in sight of my LED headlamp and I could see its shape just under the surface of the water, the top black/brown of its body looming quite large some 9 yards out from the boat and I knew it was a big-un. I let it run about 3 more times as once I got it close once we put the 400,000 candlepower light on it and spooked it deep, it sounded 2-3 more times until I finally got it up to the boat and my brother missed with the net the first time but got it the second, me helping since I didn't want to lose this fish. When it finally got on deck and everyone marveled at the fish's size, it taped out at 38" and scaled at 36 lbs, it was a super-fat fish and what it lacked in llength it made up for in girth, my heaviest so far since I've caught longer but no way as heavy as this fish was. Earlier in June we had a 41" that was about 30 but was nowhere as thick.

The guys were happy to be able to get some keeper bass but until they had seen the one I pulled in, they didn't get to see what a real fish looks like in real life. I was able to put my hand in its mouth to get my hook out as I had it by the roof of its mouth and I could have put my other fist in as well, a candlepin bowling ball would have fit nicely in the mouth. My buddy has the pics on his digicam so as soon as he emails them to me I'll share, and so this is my first story for July 2006.

[spinncognito]

38" and 36#? Was it a round fish? Good story, any pics?

[BassyiusMaximus]

Like I said, it was the fattest, most rotund fish I have ever seen. I've been hearing for years and years that the old standard used to be 1"=1lb, but nowadays it might be rare for a 40" to be 25lbs or so, so it had shoulder and it had girth. As soon as tonight, when I get the pics emailed from my buddy, I'll post as I like to do from time to time. The fish are out there, just have to get em.

[Skitterpop]

Nice


Pogies and squid ... oh my

[clambelly]

all the reports of pogies throughout the area might be one reason why people all over are reporting fatter fish.

[BassyiusMaximus]

I have been noticing that even the smaller 20-30+ inch fish are fatter than in years past, the 25-28's are so thick they almost look like 30's when I first see them. All in all, it might be a good sign.

[protty31]

Good story,nice fish. congrats