fishing report 2018 11/30

[carl schenk]

Decided to fish the last night of the NY season staying in the US side of the river, even though it meant working in cloudy water. Stayed in front of Strawberry with no action and after 3 hours of working the water there I decided to finish the last hour down the east river. Started a short way down the Grand Island shoreline intending to troll up to the front of Motor and ending at midnight. Trolled into the off shore breakline and only made it about 20 yards when the lure was stopped dead. Set the hook hard and was into a battle that I knew was a solid fish. Worked it slowly to the boat and although I couldn't see the fish because of the 1-2 feet of visibility I could tell it was close enough to grab the net. The fish went past the rear of my boat while having around 12 ft of line out and kept swimming hard. I locked down on the spool and the fish spun my boat in a circle before it finally let me lift it to the surface and into view and I could see it had the rear treble in its mouth. My attempt to net it missed and the fish managed to snag the front hook on the bag as it dove under. At this point I figured it was going to end badly..again. The fish did some thrashing at the surface but I was able to turn the handle of the net and reverse the net over and onto the fish and scoop it deep into the bag. Whew! One look at the fish and I called Tom to motor down from Strawberry as witness and cameraman. His motor was acting funny and he wasn't too eager to get lower than the Sheridan launch but said he was on his way. I unhooked the fish and did a quick measurement and looked upriver in time to see John Miller pulling in toward shore just above me. I gave him a call and he was there quickly. I handed him my camera and lifted, pic, pic, measurement and back into the water she went. She stayed calm as I tagged her and swam away with no problem. Dried my hands, thanked John for being there and turned around to see Tom was almost in time to see the fish. We all did a little separation and headed upstream toward the finish of the NY season together.  

[Scott McKee]

Great story! Great fish! Great future newsletter cover!

[Scott McKee]

I believe you omitted one detail How big?