Probably not too smart

[Conjuror]

Let me start by saying the water felt suprisingly warm.

My regular fishing partner (my son) was slammed by homework yesterday so I went out alone. My wife hates it when I do that, but I actually like it a lot. But yesterday was the perfect justification for her worries.

Started trolling the "Bearing Sea" from the West River to off Bloody Point where I had success Saturday. Had one board out and only six lines since I was alone. There were a lot of boats out. That plus no action and the tough seas, I decided to run with the wind south. Picked up a couple of 24's north of Herring Bay which I put back and trolled further south to the radar towers.....and that's were the fun started.

Two rods went down at once. Picked up the first and it was clearly a big fish. Felt the second and not as big, so I fought the first. I thought I had a really nice fish on, so I put the engine in neutral...fought for a couple of minutes and it jumped the hook. Reeled in the second and landed a fat 29er.

Unfortunately, by then the boat had spun in the seas and as I cleared lines I realized one of my lines had wrapped around the rudder and by that time had also snagged the bottom. Eventually the ine snapped and I thought went free.

I reset lines and trolled back up to the original spot, but before I got there I looked back and ALL of my lines were down. Turns out the line had snapped but remained connected to my running gear and tangled everything. I cleared everything and pulled in the line by hand and actually got my umbrella rig back....but now I was faced with a significant amount of line caught in my running gear.

Not knowing how bad it was, I decided to go over and clear it. Water temp 68.5 so I figured it would be like my early days on Cape Cod...when I did dumb stuff like this all the time. Set safety lines out, PFD, boarding ladder...tried to hail a sailboat nearby to stand by if I needed help, but he passed on by....so over I went. Water was pretty warm actually. Only took a few minutes to undo about 50 yards of line and then back on board.

Probably not too smart...but I didn't see a lot of options at that point.....and the 29 made a great dinner.