Trolled up a thresher on Friday...

[parmentj]

Got out on Friday with the Reel Therapy boys to see what we could produce south of Block Island. Shoved off of PJ just after 4am and we were on the troll prior 5. Lines went in just above the 30 fathom curve. Had the entire place to ourselves until the Marine Basin fleet showed up. The life we found was incredible and it wasn’t long before we connected. While the long ballys were getting molested by birds we had an explosion on the short bar. Swing and a miss. Before I can drop the bar back half a foot the fish is back up and we are tight. Mark makes quick work of this fish and tuna #1 south of the islands is on the deck. Fish hit 55# at the scale, not a bad fish for south of Block. Get back on the troll, we raise another but it doesn’t come tight.

With a tuna in the box we begin to get the sharking game plan together. We start heading south to get off the 30 fathom curve and hopefully avoid the dog fish. Kevin drops the speed down a hair to around 3.8 knots when we have a short run off on the xrap 15 yards off the transom. What the hell was that? Not a tuna. Bluefish? Five seconds of silence and then we are on. Five more seconds and we have a thresher airing under the starboard long. We clear lines and Tom straps in for this one. 30 minutes later we have this fish in range. With harpoon in hand I start to notice something isn’t right. The fish is coming up backwards. The fish tail hooked itself on the xrap after the second tail slap. With the fish vertical there is no practical shot with the harpoon but the 80lb mono is about to go after taking a beating from the tail. I try and find an angle to hit this fish but there isn’t much to throw at. I get to the stern corner, try and find an angle, and throw. I connect. The dart hit just below the tail, but its all cartilage and the dart didn’t butterfly. 15 seconds later the mainline pops. One brave soul comes out of right field and sticks the fish with a 4 foot gaff. That wakes her up. After taking three good shots to the face Mark has to relinquish control of the gaff and this fish is down. I watch as all 150 feet of harpoon line leaves the basket... Now its down and dirty tug a war. Not wanting to pull the dart I went easy with her at first. Tuna are busing all around the boat... Realizing that we could be here all day I up the pressure and start to make progress. After 45 minutes of dragging this fish off the bottom by its tail I have it back at the boat. The dart held. Mark comes in with the flyer, done. Brian comes in with the tail rope and we are officially done.

What the hell just happened? Must have been redemption for that 3 hour and 30 min battle we lost to a bruiser on the bank the other week. Or was it the 300lb yellowfin you boys snapped the rod on in Panama a few months back...

We were done and it was 10:30. Shot back to Snug put this fish on the scale. It went 195.

Jackson

[tunaddiction]

job well done on the story and I will see if I can get the video up as well

[keithj]

That makes for a pretty good fish story! Nice work.

[Animal 1]

Awesome!Nice work,guys.

[parmentj]

job well done on the story and I will see if I can get the video up as well

This should be good. I wish the love tap sparky received was on there...

[Clint3240]

way to go Jackson

[AlloyToy]

Very nice work, what was the water temp out there??

[parmentj]

Very nice work, what was the water temp out there??

67.5-68.3 Nice looking water. Whales, birds, porpoise, small tuna everywhere with the occasional solid mark. Typically these June fish have lock jaw... Best looking June I have seen south of Block.

[Bill_N]

Nice! I've been cut off twice by sharks in that area in the last few years on the troll. Must've been the other end of the shark.......

[striper1]

Nice report! Gotta love it when a day starts and ends like that!! Nice end game action, the difference in catching and almost boating! Gotta improvise!