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The 2009 Season is Officially Closed!!!
See You Next Year!
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Huge Thresher Shark!!!
September 13,
F/V Erin & Sarah
Click on the Picture
to Start the Video!
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Huge Thresher Shark!!!
September 13,
F/V Erin & Sarah
Bill Takes a Turn
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Brian Takes a Turn
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Pete Takes a Turn
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The 650lb Leader Breaks
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Holy Cow! Fishing took on an entire new meaning for me today! An old friend from work called awhile back
and invited me out on their 46' fishing boat, the F/V Erin and Sarah. It is a fantastic boat and they are fantastic
hosts. At about 0700 we left the dock at Merrill's Terminal in Portland with Captain Pete, Cheryl, Erin and Sarah (of course)
Brian and his daughter Brianna, and me for a day out on Casco Bay looking for tuna or sharks.
We stopped a few times to jig for mackeral and got a pretty good load of bait in the livewell and then headed offshore
to where the big fish play. Pete set the gear and we had three lines in the water. After waiting for a fish to find the
chum trail, I saw one of the styrofoam floats go under. "We have a fish!"
Pete asked me if I wanted to take the rod and I quickly accepted. Whatever was on there was making an express trip to the bottom. I put on the
fighting belt and took the rod from Pete. Wow, it was big. It was taking line with no problem.
Pretty soon, my back and arms couldn't take it. I was worried I would lose the rig and asked Pete's friend Brian to take the rod from me.
Brian put on the belt and took the rod and it just kept going. We both made and lost ground trying to reel it in. Theories and guesses about whether it was
a porbeagle or mako shark went around, but nobody guessed that it would be a HUGE thresher shark.
When I say HUGE, I'm not exagerating. Considering that the styrofoam float was about 10" long, we estimated that the
fork length (nose to notch in the tail) was about nine feet and the huge tail (from which it gets its name) was about
seven feet long. Pete guessed that the fish weighed about 350 to 400 lbs. We got video and pictures and continued to fight the fish for another 30 minutes or so. It surfaced again pretty far away from the boat.
Pete, Brian and I took a few more turns each with the monster and finally after about 40 minutes or so, the steel leader broke. It was probably bit through by the massive
pelagic predator. We were happy to get most of the rig back except for the hook, and float.
Later when I got home, I found a site that helps to estimate the weight of sharks.
According to that site the fish could have weighed around 500 lbs! This was not only the biggest fish I ever fought, it was the biggest shark I have ever seen in the wild.
We didn't see any tuna out there, but I was blown away by the spectacle we did see and this now moves to the very top of my fishing memories!
Thanks Pete and Cheryl for asking me along and I would love to go out again anytime. I don't use the word, "awesome" as casually as most folks do, but this was
truly an awesome speciman of a very large shark.
BC-out.
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Memorable Quote of the Day
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Holy #$%^, that's one big fish!
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Rouselle Boys Get Their Fish
July 12, Little Sebago Lake, ME
Click on the Picture
to Start the Video!
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Hey Folks! Check out our first PelagicZone Productions Video Report! I'm sorry about the quality, I had the
camera set for the lowest resolution so the pictures don't really come into focus unless you shrink your video player wingdow
down real small. We had a great night out on John's boat on Little Sebago and whilst I managed to catch four
pidly smallmouth bass, John and Jack did pretty well with the Larry's. Enjoy the show, we'll be back with more
video and I promise the quality will be better. I went to see Bob Marley the other night so excuse the wicked poor
Maine accent in the narration.
BC-out.
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Memorable Quote of the Day
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Nice Fish Dubbah!
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The Rain Has Finally Stopped
July 11, Highland Lake, Bridgton, ME
Saving the Shutout!
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Ain't Nothin'
but a Bulldog!
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The rain, which has been falling non-stop for all of June, and the first part of July, has finally stopped and we
have what is that we typically expect for a Maine Summer weekend. Lot's of sun, and the prettiest lakes in the nation.
Highland Lake, which is gorgeous all year long, did not disappoint us at all. From the sights in the playground
near the launch to the beautiful backdrop around the lake itself, we were in for a nice day regardless of the fishing. Luckily,
we weren't disappointed. Don Chamberlain, his son Trey, and I went out for a quick couple of hours and managed to land
a few fish. It wasn't a great day, but we weren't shut out and Don's 2#8oz "keepah" was a nice fish. We weighed it and were surprised
that it wasn't as heavy as it looked. the strange thing about this bass was that his upper jaw/lip was kind of "retracted" so that he looked kind of like
a bulldog with the classic underbite. Who knows, maybe we found a whole new strain of bass up heah Maine-way. We also calibrated the boat's speedo using Don's portable GPS unit. When we got back
to the dock, there were some kids fishing for the first time and man were they having a ball. It is so great to see
folks experiencing their first great fishing experience. Those memories will last a lifetime. We also met some kids on vacation from
Connecticut who were really into fishing. They were pretty young guys, but they knew their fishing tackle by name and
you could tell they were really into it. They'll be out there in a couple of years having the time of their life I'm sure.
BC-out.
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Memorable Quote of the Day
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I would have guessed he'd have been heavier.
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We're gonna need a bigger boat!
May 4, West Grand Lake, ME
Maine Togue
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What a way to start off the 2009 season! This is a newcomer to The Pelagic Zone and his name is David Irving (Irv).
He is holding an 18 pound lake trout he caught on West Grand Lake. Irv was alone in his Grand Laker so he
had to net this monster by himself. This isn't uncommon for Irv. Our Washington County bureau chief Dick Miles says that Irv fought it for half an hour PLUS!
Irv is the best togue fisherman that Dick knows. He hunts these monsters when he isn't guiding bass fishermen up in God's Country.
He is a retired math, physics, and chemistry teacher from Newport and Woodland high schools. Hey Irv, how much is 18 pounds in kilograms?
BC-out.
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