Pole Dancer report 7-17, 71 incher C&R backside

[joshmon71]

Steve and myself. Potter 23 seacraft. East of chatham somewhere between PH and chatham inlet. 200-300 feet. 64 degree water. Pods of fish up and down for 3-4 hours, area almost to ourselves. Epic day. Some were small <59", but equally mixed in were decent size 60-70 and you would see some big'uns as well. Sonar was top to bottom fish, then up, then down.

Fishing on rec permit 23 seacraft, nothing but smiles. We have not landed a fish less than 60" this season, and all between 60-71 so far.

2 hits on the bars, first maybe about 730AM took off line at speed and as we reached for the reel and Steve clearing other lines, spat or shook the hook. 2nd bar hit was post the spinning battle, say 1030AM an explosion of a behemoth, sheared off the doubled up 300 lb mono on stinger like it was silly string right in the middle of the twisted up 300 mono. Wow. This was not a crimp fail or anything just . Almost glad as we would have been in for a battle on a standup straight butt 50W.

C&R 71" was casting into a pod as trolling since it was direct in front of bow. first cast forgot the bail. adrenaline was pumping. 2nd cast just about threw the hogy into charlies open mouth. made a critical mistake of strapping in with a black sweatshirt still on from the AM fog, had to be around 90 in the sun in the fight, needed water poured on head as was overheating big time the fish and me both. 45 minute'ish fight, with some serious drag. i tapped out to let Steve finish as back was cramping and was getting dehydrated big time. Am 39, and need to start lifting again for spinning battles with fish this size. Next year wtf, not sure I want any part of of this 3-4 year class fish when they return. stella 1800, riptide big gun, pe braid, shock leader, pr knot, solid to split ring to white double wide hogy and owner 10/0 weighted hook. But have some 60 mono backing that never thought would ever see due to losing some line in an incident last year on the bank that canot comment on a public forum about. Guess what? The first run took off the entire spool and could see gold aluminum under the 60 backing, neccesating drag reduction and chasing. Weak link was almost found! Steve chased the fish down and we gained back line. Lip gaff, tail roped, onto the engine bracket for maybe a minute, measured 5 diff times in that minute-no way was 73. Did not step on him, foot there for picture and so could clear the tail rope just after pic. Major tomato head and sweat. Swam'um for 10-15 and released a beauty back.

Best move we did all day was to leave the fleet behind and not listen to the radio.

Too tired for Sunday, 2 hours sleep on friday, hot sun saturday, spinning battle, squid bars and gear in disarray from tuna hits and bluefish last few weeks. Plus have to keep the other mistress happy!

[striper1]

Where you sailing around Gardniers Island this weekend? Because I was laughing my arse off when a guy came over the radio saying this is the "Pole Dancer coming up your stern!!!" If not, that's cool! Nice fish!

[Thynnus]

We had fish up on Sunday from 630 am to 1230 pm and they were all over the plugs. Chaffed off a high 60 inch fish 2o feet from the boat and released a 72 boatside, these fish are not easy on spinning gear. I love that shot of the empty Stella, its sick.