June 13, 2004
I have been planning to fish with a buddy from work for sometime. I told him I was free Saturday and the venture began with his 2 of his buddies on their Bluewater. We met at the dock at 4 anticipating catching some dolphin on the way out, but it was pretty dead and we didn’t want to put anything less than 5lbs in the boat anyways.
The guys had spent Thursday night catching some nice blue runners and I picked up some squid from Custom Rod & Reel. Rocky hooked me up with a nice big one and a couple packs of the mediums along with a few of my favorite hooks. What a tackle shop!
We cleared the inlets and headed SSE from Hillsboro. Got to about the 25.58 and 50.20 and setup our first drift. The current was slower than normal at about 3.2 and there was not a breath of wind. The sea anchor was barely catching, but it did its job to keep the lines off the side of the center console boat. By 10:00 we had our first hit on a monster squid down 300. The fish was on for a few seconds but never got hooked up. Bummer. At this time, most of the boats were hooking up nicely, and a few friends of mine already missed a few bites or boated a nice fish.
We keep sailing down the line and had nice hit on the 100ft squid and released a little guy about 10 minutes later. We were chatting up front by the tip rod when we notice the line is slack, so we reeled like hell and got tight on him. Good observation by the Captain. I’m always amazed that even the little guys can rip 12lbs of drag nicely.
Now at about 2am or so we had a 100lb plus fish take a squid at about 125ft and come to the surface and dance 5 feet from the boat.. He circled the boat one and half times and we got wrapped on the sea anchors for seconds and when the line went slack the hooks pulled.
About 30 minutes later we hook up with a nice fish that we get all the way to the leader and pulled the hooks. Fought it for a good 20minutes with some serious heat. Felt like a really nice fish. This fish hit a blue runner.
I am completely out of squid now, so we fish 3 runners as it is getting late. It is now about 3am and we are at the 26.10 and 50.00 when we get smoked on live runner down 125. The fish was on a 9/0 senator with 60lb test and my 250lb leader. Absolutely smoking line from the rod holder. The reel was just on fire, we dumped fresh water on it and got “Fresh” into the belt and harness. The fish was deep and then on the surface and a seesaw battle for the next 3.5 hours. We would get to the leader and I would grab it but he was just too strong and I didn’t want to take a chance with no harpoon. So I began to do some maneuvering that I learned about in the Southeast Swordfish Club. Got some serious angles on the fish and made him uncomfortable. Made him come to the surface and we would circle him and pull the line across his body, just wearing him out nicely. When the fish settled we busted the drag up to get the weight of the fish in.
We continued to do this for about an hour and eventually tail wrapped him and brought him to the boat gulping for air. Took 3 of us to drag him in, but we did it quick incase a mako was lurking to steal our catch. Boated the fish around 7am and he took us north of Delray and out to the 45 line. We got to see the moon rise, and heard of another boat got a nice fish and someone was still hooked up. About a 3.5 hour fight was not too bad, but to the guys that fought that fish for 9 hours the other night, I salute you!
We proceeded to head to Hillsboro to weigh our fish. I am not from around that area, so the dock masters kind of took control to weigh the fish. We cranked him up out of the boat and hung the bill in the water off the scale. The scale read 478lbs. But the winch was still locked. Drew from Full Moon Adventures, Inc. gave me a call and let me know that we probably added about 200lbs to the fish by doing that. We were supposed to free spool the winch. Makes perfect sense, but I think we were fried from an all-nighter.
The measurements were a length of 81 and a girth of 52. The formula puts the fish at about 273. It’s usually pretty accurate so we will take it.
All in all and great night on the water with flat calm seas.
With only 2 weeks away from the Darkside of the Moon Tournament, the anticipation is killing me. Register today!
http://www.fullmoonadventuresinc.com/
I want to thank Doug "Fresh" for the invite, and the Captain Mark for doing a great job steering the boat and helping me rig the lines. A total team effort all night... Mark was the one who insisted on staying out after 3... I was tired as hell :lol:
Pictures to come shortly!!! Hey guys e-mail me the pictures….