Ended the trophy season with a real beast - 5/20 - w pics

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Friday morning started off on the wrong foot - I was woken up by my buddy calling from the driveway at 4:30 am. Storm Thursday night caused a power outage - only a few seconds but tripped the clocks. I reset the time wrong - am instead of pm. This made my clock 12 hours off and luckily my buddy was on time. Threw us about 25 minutes behind but we still got launched at Breezy at about 6:15. Tide was up to ramp and still another hour before fully in.

Weather was predicted to be west at 5 to 10 but we found close to 15 WNW once out to #78A. John , Dallas , Jim and Gary all pitched in to set out the boards and we soon had the spread out. Made a few adjustments - putting out six rods with Storm lures in a chartruese back pattern. We hoped these would get the 18 inch to 28 inch " unders " that were now legal. Wind had some whitecaps but the boat rode across them nicely. We trolled up onto the eastern edge and swung north into the chop. Marked fish and bait around 25 feet and the downrigger with 25 feet of cable out got hit. Dallas reeled in a fat 28 3/4 incher to start the day.




It hit a white umbrella with a white 2 oz Spankin' Striper parachute.




We got near #78A and the other downrigger with 35 feet out got hit. John reeled in a fat 22 incher that inhaled the 5 inch Storm lure. We trolled west across channel as the current went slack. The meter showed nice fish and bait so we stayed in the area. It took about 2 hours before current started move and right on cue - another fish hit the Storm off the umbrella. Jim reeled up a 17 incher that went back. The meter showed a few very nice fish every now / then and we hoped one would hit. The out going current carried us south as we trolled east to west. The meter lit up in 45 feet off Parker's and I told the guys to watch the rods ( for the 100th time ). This time the fish hit - crushing a wire line outfit with a 20 oz MoJo and #21 white Tony. This reel is 30 some years old but often gets the biggest fish. Jim took the rod and had his hands full. We moved a few rods out of his way as the big fish took line and swam up current. John slowed the boat and steered to keep the fish off the starboard corner. The big fish was fighting deep but slowly was coming to the boat. The heavy rod bowed as Jim reeled in line. The swivel came into view and we saw the MoJo did not have the fish. This meant fish hit the spoon and needed to be hand lined in. The 30 foot leader to the spoon was within my grasp and I reached out to grab it. The fish pulled hard - I know I said " This is a big fish " at least a dozen times. The 60lb Ande was tight as the fish refused to be pulled to the net. One foot at a time - I got the leader in. There was a lot of heavy weight and leader cut my hands. We all saw the white glow of a huge belly and thought the fish was fouled hooked under the chin by the spoon. One more pull and we saw the beast clearly - it was a $*#@*%^ Cownose Ray.





















687 cuss words later - we wrestled the spoon free from it's wing after gaffing the POS. Not what we were hoping was hooked up. After that let down - we went back east to deeper water. Got another under - same Storm lure on downrigger. Coming back - other downrigger got hit hard and we hoped it was not another ray. Gary reeled in a very nice 38 inch Rock . He had his hands full posing for a photo.






We stayed along the western edge and got a few more unders and a couple short ones. Water color changed as current ran harder. Everything was on the downriggers except one good miss off the boards. Wind calmed down but radar showed rain showers near Breezy.




Not sure what the storm would do - we reeled in all the planer lines but left the 4 deep rods out. Had this big boy come into the wake as it passed a container ship.





We got some light drizzle but luckily storm moved east and soon sun came back out. We pulled the rods as the out going current stopped and ran back to Breezy. Nice way to end the 2011 trophy season.