bluesdude71
05-23-2012, 10:50 PM
Caught on scup, amazing fish!
Congrats to Capt Blaine!
http://fishingct.com/long-island-sound-fishing/back-in-the-salt-it-only-takes-one#comments
Back in the salt… It only takes one!
By Captain Blaine Anderson (http://fishingct.com/author/blaine)
Wow! What an incredible day…
My river fishing lately has been a struggle to say the least. We’ve fished from Hartford to Old Saybrook with very little to show for our efforts. There are quite a few bass along with plenty of bait in the river but they have been very hard to hook with big lures. I informed a couple of clients I had booked for this week of the recent lack of action and we decided to reschedule for the salt water once things picked up there. So, today was to be a day for scouting my favorite haunts in hopes of finding enough bait and quality bass to make the switch back to Niantic. There have been lots of great reports from the eastern end of Long Island Sound of mid to upper 30″ fish but I was anxious to see if the bigger fish I target were here yet. Porgy season is now open, the question was would I be able to scrape enough together for bait yet???
The last few years, I’ve always brought my good luck charm Stroby with me on the forray in the salt. Why mess with what has worked so well in the past?? Stroby met me at the house at 3:45am and we shoved off for Niantic. I told Bob before we even got in the truck that I had a great feeling about today… It was pretty foggy on the way down so we took our time and were in the water by 5 headed out under the bridges.
Not really sure where to start looking for porgy, we started near my favorite drift in 15 feet of water. The plan was to move progressively deeper till we found them. As it turns out, we didn’t have to go too far. It wasn’t fast action, but we put 6 baits between 11 and 13 inches in the livewell in about 45 minutes. We decided to hit the closest rock pile while we still had some tide left and then return for more bait during the slack.
We were drifting at about .5MPH on the initial drop, so I eased the trolling motor in and gave us a little more speed. This works very well around the slack and has put some big fish in the boat before. Bob and I both had hits on the first drift, but I believe the bass were mid 30″ fish and couldn’t quite grab the scup we had on the hooks. The next drift, I moved over to a different drift lane on the other side of the rock pile. It didn’t take long for my scup to get nervous.
A few seconds of frantic dancing was quickly followed by a solid THUMP! The fish didn’t scream line off the open spool like some do,, she just slowly and steadily swam away… I lightly thumbed the spool and let the fish take the line for a 5 count and pushed the lever drag forward, fish on! Gotta love the Mustad Circle hooks… It became clear very quickly that this was a powerful fish. One of the big reasons that I like the Daiwa Saltiga braid so much is that it is color coded much like lead core line so you always know just how much line is coming off the reel.
The first 30 yards seemed to fly off the reel in the blink of an eye. 40 yards. 50 yards. 60 yards. Still no signs of slowing. I had Bob reel up and fire up the big motor to try and keep up with the fish. By the time I started gaining on the bass, it had stripped nearly 100 yards off on the initial run. Mike Laptew captured on video the only other fish that had done this to me before and that fish ended up popping off before we could get it turned. The odds were not in my favor…
We were finally gaining on the fish and I was relieved to see the angle of the line change as we were able to put more pressure on bass. My relief was short lived however as I felt the fish take me into the rocks. It was a sickening feeling, one that I’ve felt many times before. I backed off on the lever drag but still kept a slight bend in the rod and continued gaining line on the fish. Suddenly the line went slack. I let out a few choice words but kept reeling like a mad man just in case the fish was still there. There was just enough weight still on the line that I wasn’t sure if the fish was actually gone or not. I felt a slight pop as the line pulled free of whatever it had been hung on and suddenly, the line changed direction and went screaming past me. I jumped off the bow platform and followed the fish to the back of the boat. I told Bob that this was a real big bass and that we may want to break out the video camera… We got the rest of the fight on video…
After changing direction, the fish again made another run of almost 100 yards. This time, as most big fish do, she headed towards the surface. I was fairly confident that this was now a caught fish. As long as I didn’t push the drag too hard and possibly part a very frayed line we might actually land this fish. About 75 yards behind the boat, the fish finally came up, wallowing around on the surface. I could clearly see the distance between the dorsal fin and tail and knew she was a huge fish! The rest of the fight was uneventfull, steady pressure and slow pumps of the rod and she was along side the boat. WHAT A FISH. I knew it was big, but until I actually grabbed the lower jaw and tried to hoist her over the rail, I had no idea how trully massive she was…
1523915240
(http://fishingct.com/wp-content/gallery/2012-long-island-sound/5-23-12-blaine6a.jpg)I decided to put her on the Boga Grip for a quick weight but she promptly buried the scale… OK, she’s over 60 pounds, now what? My Boga is attached to a lanyard for just this reason. I put her back in the water while I cleared the deck of rods and got the camera ready. My tape measure only goes to 49″ and this was way longer than that.
We took a few quick pictures and got my spool of fluorocarbon out. I cut one piece to her length and another for girth so I could get accurate measurements off the fluoro later. We put the fish back in the water and began the revival process. In the past, I have spent upwards of 20 minutes working a fish for release but it was clear after 5 minutes that this fish was done. Totally exhausted in the fight, she rolled over.
The dorsal was down, the pectoral fins tucked in and she wasn’t pumping enough water through the gills. I don’t enjoy killing big fish like this one and I’d say that 95 percent of bass caught even on my charters are released. I felt we had done just about all we could to release the fish but in the end, she didn’t make it. I probably should have gotten an official weight on her but the closest shop didn’t have a big enough scale and the next closest shop hadn’t opened yet.
After thinking about it awhile and talking it over with Bob, I decided against hanging it on a scale for a few more photos. We had a few good ones when she was alive and kicking and I left it at that. I am working on the video now but am taking my time to make sure everything is the way I want on it as I am pretty sure that this fish is the largest striper ever faught on video…
OK… We got our hands on a bigger tape measure thanks to Captain Pat (T-Man) Renna. The length was 57.5″ and she had a girth of 32.25″ Based on the formula that the IGFA uses,
( Girth x Girth x Length / 800 =Weight) I came up with a weight of 74.75 pounds!
Congrats to Capt Blaine!
http://fishingct.com/long-island-sound-fishing/back-in-the-salt-it-only-takes-one#comments
Back in the salt… It only takes one!
By Captain Blaine Anderson (http://fishingct.com/author/blaine)
Wow! What an incredible day…
My river fishing lately has been a struggle to say the least. We’ve fished from Hartford to Old Saybrook with very little to show for our efforts. There are quite a few bass along with plenty of bait in the river but they have been very hard to hook with big lures. I informed a couple of clients I had booked for this week of the recent lack of action and we decided to reschedule for the salt water once things picked up there. So, today was to be a day for scouting my favorite haunts in hopes of finding enough bait and quality bass to make the switch back to Niantic. There have been lots of great reports from the eastern end of Long Island Sound of mid to upper 30″ fish but I was anxious to see if the bigger fish I target were here yet. Porgy season is now open, the question was would I be able to scrape enough together for bait yet???
The last few years, I’ve always brought my good luck charm Stroby with me on the forray in the salt. Why mess with what has worked so well in the past?? Stroby met me at the house at 3:45am and we shoved off for Niantic. I told Bob before we even got in the truck that I had a great feeling about today… It was pretty foggy on the way down so we took our time and were in the water by 5 headed out under the bridges.
Not really sure where to start looking for porgy, we started near my favorite drift in 15 feet of water. The plan was to move progressively deeper till we found them. As it turns out, we didn’t have to go too far. It wasn’t fast action, but we put 6 baits between 11 and 13 inches in the livewell in about 45 minutes. We decided to hit the closest rock pile while we still had some tide left and then return for more bait during the slack.
We were drifting at about .5MPH on the initial drop, so I eased the trolling motor in and gave us a little more speed. This works very well around the slack and has put some big fish in the boat before. Bob and I both had hits on the first drift, but I believe the bass were mid 30″ fish and couldn’t quite grab the scup we had on the hooks. The next drift, I moved over to a different drift lane on the other side of the rock pile. It didn’t take long for my scup to get nervous.
A few seconds of frantic dancing was quickly followed by a solid THUMP! The fish didn’t scream line off the open spool like some do,, she just slowly and steadily swam away… I lightly thumbed the spool and let the fish take the line for a 5 count and pushed the lever drag forward, fish on! Gotta love the Mustad Circle hooks… It became clear very quickly that this was a powerful fish. One of the big reasons that I like the Daiwa Saltiga braid so much is that it is color coded much like lead core line so you always know just how much line is coming off the reel.
The first 30 yards seemed to fly off the reel in the blink of an eye. 40 yards. 50 yards. 60 yards. Still no signs of slowing. I had Bob reel up and fire up the big motor to try and keep up with the fish. By the time I started gaining on the bass, it had stripped nearly 100 yards off on the initial run. Mike Laptew captured on video the only other fish that had done this to me before and that fish ended up popping off before we could get it turned. The odds were not in my favor…
We were finally gaining on the fish and I was relieved to see the angle of the line change as we were able to put more pressure on bass. My relief was short lived however as I felt the fish take me into the rocks. It was a sickening feeling, one that I’ve felt many times before. I backed off on the lever drag but still kept a slight bend in the rod and continued gaining line on the fish. Suddenly the line went slack. I let out a few choice words but kept reeling like a mad man just in case the fish was still there. There was just enough weight still on the line that I wasn’t sure if the fish was actually gone or not. I felt a slight pop as the line pulled free of whatever it had been hung on and suddenly, the line changed direction and went screaming past me. I jumped off the bow platform and followed the fish to the back of the boat. I told Bob that this was a real big bass and that we may want to break out the video camera… We got the rest of the fight on video…
After changing direction, the fish again made another run of almost 100 yards. This time, as most big fish do, she headed towards the surface. I was fairly confident that this was now a caught fish. As long as I didn’t push the drag too hard and possibly part a very frayed line we might actually land this fish. About 75 yards behind the boat, the fish finally came up, wallowing around on the surface. I could clearly see the distance between the dorsal fin and tail and knew she was a huge fish! The rest of the fight was uneventfull, steady pressure and slow pumps of the rod and she was along side the boat. WHAT A FISH. I knew it was big, but until I actually grabbed the lower jaw and tried to hoist her over the rail, I had no idea how trully massive she was…
1523915240
(http://fishingct.com/wp-content/gallery/2012-long-island-sound/5-23-12-blaine6a.jpg)I decided to put her on the Boga Grip for a quick weight but she promptly buried the scale… OK, she’s over 60 pounds, now what? My Boga is attached to a lanyard for just this reason. I put her back in the water while I cleared the deck of rods and got the camera ready. My tape measure only goes to 49″ and this was way longer than that.
We took a few quick pictures and got my spool of fluorocarbon out. I cut one piece to her length and another for girth so I could get accurate measurements off the fluoro later. We put the fish back in the water and began the revival process. In the past, I have spent upwards of 20 minutes working a fish for release but it was clear after 5 minutes that this fish was done. Totally exhausted in the fight, she rolled over.
The dorsal was down, the pectoral fins tucked in and she wasn’t pumping enough water through the gills. I don’t enjoy killing big fish like this one and I’d say that 95 percent of bass caught even on my charters are released. I felt we had done just about all we could to release the fish but in the end, she didn’t make it. I probably should have gotten an official weight on her but the closest shop didn’t have a big enough scale and the next closest shop hadn’t opened yet.
After thinking about it awhile and talking it over with Bob, I decided against hanging it on a scale for a few more photos. We had a few good ones when she was alive and kicking and I left it at that. I am working on the video now but am taking my time to make sure everything is the way I want on it as I am pretty sure that this fish is the largest striper ever faught on video…
OK… We got our hands on a bigger tape measure thanks to Captain Pat (T-Man) Renna. The length was 57.5″ and she had a girth of 32.25″ Based on the formula that the IGFA uses,
( Girth x Girth x Length / 800 =Weight) I came up with a weight of 74.75 pounds!