The top blue was during the CAST event over in the islands. The fish piled on a Compleat TD with a medium hoo on right rigger. We took that one on the tld50 speed. She gave us a good hot show with a lot of time in the air. Hit the scales at 479 for a first and $22,000 pay out (small tournament).
The thresher was good for 4th up in a small Jersey event and went 389. Ate a whole bluefish long on an old 80w triton and gave us one hour of shear hell. They are some kind of tough arse fish! No problems boat side but those thirty yard burst just when you were about to grab the leader get you gun shy.
The mahi's shown are typical of our daily trips over in the Bahamas. They can really be a nusiance when you're trying to get billfish. The wahoos are thick there and each year I wind up donating dozens of lures to them on that trip.
The bottom blue was a pig we Popped at Ocean City uring the WMO. She piled on a Compleat masher on the same 80 w that took the thresher. What made her a rea special one was that she did the run two hundred yards and start flopping around thing. That usually tires them out but she found a new gear box and hit the after burners! I wasn't worried at first figuring it was an eighty wide. Eventually I was testing the ZF Hurth trannies to see what they would give me at full spped backward. She gave us a good look at the spool and knot! There was enough stretch in the 800+ yards she had out though to keep her pinned on. By the time we got back to her she was done. Laying on her back and we didn't even have to stroke her with a gaff. When she hit the deck she would have been a third place fish but before we got in an 895 slob was on the scales and pushed her out of the money. We just headed back to Sunset Marina a little bummed. She showed 496 on the scale...
The biggest fish I had last year though happened to be on a tld 25. It was the last day we were at Chub. She raised and was heading to eat the masher and was fired up! As she approached she was doing those big death zig zags and suddenly she spotted a hoo with a Compleat dk sitting there on the flat. "Oh a snack!" I just shook my head as her 800 pound frame launched . You could see the rolls of fat rippling as she landed. I figured we were toast. Another fish in the 450-500 class shot across the transome and crushed the masher she had been looking at. I figured we go chase that one as it was on the eighty and we stood next to no chance on the monster. I looked back though, to see that she had turned back at us and was just flopping right for our transom. The angler wound like hell and she layed down about twenty feet off the transom. One shot of reverse put the leader in my hand and she never argued one bit as I un hooke her and let her go.
Funny thing was the smaller one on the eighty stayed green and beat the hell out of us for over an hour....
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