Fishing Forecast
By Steve Zelck
It’s 5 A.M on August 27th and Captain Billy Monty and I are awaiting a 6-pack charter of executives. Their limo arrives, they stagger on to the boat and we head north up the Annisquam. They all look a bit tagged as they made the mistake of staying up half the night consuming too many beverages – big mistake the night before a tuna trip.
It’s a beautiful, flat, calm morning and our steam is the shortest of the season as we are only five miles from the mouth of the Annisquam. We anchor right smack in the middle of Ipswich Bay, only a stones throw from Halibut Point.
We jig up some whiting, immediately deploy them, and settle in to wait for the tide. As Billy and I are making breakfast in the galley, one of our crew members yells, “Hey… the balloons gone.” Immediately following, the rod doubles over and the line screams out as if attached to the back of a Ferrari. We bark at the crew, clear all the lines and drop the anchor – the chase is on. This fish is way into the Dacron and still going. He’s wild and all over the surface, and it’s taking everything I’ve got to get control so the charter can experience the fight. We get our first executive on, but then trouble hits as there’s a boat disabled 50 yards off our port side. Thankfully, the environmental police soon arrived on the scene and towed them away to a safe distance.
The battle is now an hour long. I jump back on the rod and we begin to back down hard. Now, off on starboard, we have a 40-foot lobster boat steaming straight at the fish and ready to set a trawl. This guy is no googan and deals with fisherman and weekend warriors all the time. Luckily, at the last minute, he notices we are hooked up, puts his boat into a hard spin, and gives us the room we need – another dodged bullet and another new guy back on the rod. The fish is still a bit wild, staying anywhere from 50 to 100 yards from the boat and streaking and rolling in the surface. Just when we think we can relax, more trouble is headed our way. A 50-foot sailboat is coming right at our stern. Billy gets on the radio, exchanges a few words, and we finally get the room we needed.
We are two hours in, and the fish has finally dragged us far enough off shore that most of the weekend boaters are inshore of us. It’s a classic tug of war. This fish is so big that his pinwheels were about 50-yard circles. Two execs really seem to have the hang of keeping the line tight and I give one the nod to stay on the rod at the end if we ever get a harpoon shot. The battle drags on, and at 3.5 hours, I get Billy’s permission to increase the drag. We had to get aggressive on this fish and close the distance. I got back on the rod and put the boots to him, and Billy brought out his best maneuvers as we started charging him and chasing him down every chance we could. We quickly closed the distance over the next 20 minutes – the end was near and the fish finally made a mistake. We got him up on plane beside the boat, got our best executive on the rod, cranked him in closer and closer and I drilled the big guy with the harpoon. Game over! We put the tail wrap on and victory was ours. At 103-inches and 750-pounds, our crew was amazed, exhausted and thrilled by the experience. Despite all the obstacles, we got the fish! It was a great day and a great ride home through the Annisquam to show off our prize.
FORECAST BY: Steve Zelck was born and raised in Gloucester. Steve’s love of the sea lured him back to pursue his fishing passion and not a day goes by without him checking the pulse of the harbor for action. If you don’t find Steve at Three Lantern Marine & Fishing, you can bet he’s out working on his lobster boat, F/V Erik and Devin, named after his kids. He also tuna fishes aboard the F/V Bounty Hunter with Captain Bill Monte from Wicked Tuna.
[easy-social-share]