As posted on my home website, hope you don't mind me sharing guys.As many of you know I like to troll. But I like to do it with very light gear. No wire... no leadcore.... 40lb braid my small tubes/spoons with my keels and med/light action gear.
So ok, I'll admit it, this lighter gear has cost me some big fish over the years. I have more than my share of "big fish that got away" nightmares which a few members of this site can attest to. But the trade off is enjoying cacthing the smaller fish a lot more and releasing hundreds of fish un-harmed. So I'm not really a trophy hunter type fisherman. For me it's more about the challenge of fooling the fish and fighting them on gear that makes the odds a bit more to a big fishes favor.
On Thursday morning it happened again with Captain Eric Wilder aboard. I stuck a beauty trolling in 28ft of water with a tube & worm. The battle lasted only long enough for me to know I was screwed. I could not put the brakes on this big fish and it was headed downtide on the wrong side of a red nun in between me and the striper. Urg.... not again.... Yup, I felt the line find the chain and it was all over but the crying. Maybe some heavier gear would have allowed me to turn that fish, maybe not, but I wasn't happy that's for sure.
You see I've been playing a little game at this spot since last fall where I drop the tubes in 20-30 feet of water with 2-3 ounce eggs on my keels and pretty much stem the running tide laying the tubes or spoons right in the strike zone till I Pee some striper off enough to strike. It's resulted in some decent fish and a few heartbreaks too.
Well on Friday morning with my son Pat (bent twig)...
REVENGE WAS MINE!!! After a fine morning of catching decent fish to 40" on live baits and then plugging Plum Island for some schoolies and small blues and also trolling the tubes there, I decided to return to the seen of the crime to try and find another big fish like the one I lost. YA... sure......
But on the 2nd pass with those silly Bubblgum T-Man tubes I was into a real good fish. Only this time I was ready and had maneuvered the the boat over my spot with a plan to find safe fighting waters if I hooked up. BINGO...... before that fish stopped the 1st run I was sliding into 40ft of water with no obstructions to worry about.
OK so I'm making a bit of a dramatic deal out of a fish that many here have bettered over the years. But damn it, I've been after my first 50" tube fish on light tackle for a while and this was my day. There's something to be said about setting a goal for yourself and finally reaching it. She was a beauty taping at 51" and weighing 45lbs on my boga. It was extra cool to catch this fish with my son because he's been a great fishing buddy for nearly 20years now and I think he was more pumped than I was.
Let me share a few pics of this fish and some others we caught on Friday morning 7-11-08.
I got'cha!!
Nice fight on this fish my son caught
Bent Twig with a excellent bass. Notice he's wet from the top down. This is a result of trying to fill a 5 gallon bucket while trolling... LOL good thing he was on my side of the boat. When his flip flops hit the back of my head I was able to reach back and get him by the belt and keep him from going over. Christ that was funny, he sure didn't want to lose that bucket!
