[bowguide]

What a trip......Its hard to believe but the last two days were better than the first 5. The weather on the other hand was a challenge and we decided to go for it.On thursday we were the ONLY boat on the bank which is saying alot. As soon as we stopped the captai marked fish and within 2-3 minutes we were hand feeding these incredible fish. For some silly reason I brought along my new Stella 30000 with not much intention on using it.After much belittling by my crew mates and seeing two 500lb fish consistently taking baits I thought what the heck and baited up.As luck would have it neither of the 500lb fish grabbed it and I was in for the fight of my life. I had matched this reel with my Black hole 450g Cape Cod Special.This fish, as luck would have it was like no one had ever seen before. Even with the drag screwed down as tight as I could this fish was still taking line,even with us steaming at 12 knots! This fish took us 5 miles according to the plotter and after 45 min I had the mono on the reel(of which there was only about 30 feet)but this was short lived. When the giant saw the boat he made a sudden turn and the line caught the rub rail on the boat and parted.I dont know if I was more relieved or disappointed as I was whooped,for the entire fight I went "freestyle" with only my little yellow Cush It to give me some protection from the gimbal.
After regrouping and slowly steaming back to our starting point(it took us 30 min in the rough seas)we quickly had the fish up again but this time we were prepared with an Avet 80 3 speed and Black Hole custom Giant rod. A true giant grabbed our bait right next to the boat and my buddy started the tug of war.30 min in he tapped out,in his defense I think he did a great job as just three weeks earlier he had orthroscopic knee surgery.I took over and 15 min later we were tagging a fish that the captain and mate both agreed was well over 1000# and after seeing two fish weighed in the 8-900lb range I would have to agree.
After a nice bowl of homemade chowder we decided we were ready to have some more fun.This time we decided to change it up and have some fun. After getting them all worked up again we grabbed the live mackeral we had jigged and stunned a few so they stayed on the surface and we were treated to some incredible strikes.When we had enough fun we did it with a hook in it and we were not disappointed as another 1000# fish exploded on our bait right off the transom. I was on my own this time with my acid wrapped Black Hole giant blank with my Avet TRX 50W and with a measured 75# of drag I had the fish at the leader in 52 min. We were not able to get a tag in this one as the leader broke at the hook about 8 feet below the water. Completely satisfied we took the slow ride in while enjoying some bacon wrapped scallops(they sure do feed you well up there)
Our last day the wind was predicted to lay down later in the morning(which it didnt)so again we were basically by ourselves at the bank.We were joined only by the other boat we had fished all week Tightline tours. These guys are first cousins so today we were really gonna have some fun. As had been the case after some bait was in the water here came the giants.This time we sent the kite up again and got crushed immediately and 40 min later we were sinking a tag in a 700# fish.The other boat seeing the success on the kite sent theres up and to get our attention were letting it out so it was over our boat...HAHA good one Greg but we were faster and hooked up before they did and in short order tagged our last fish for the trip which was a little bigger at an estimated 800#.
This trip is one that I doubt will ever be matched and I dont care as I have hundreds of pictures hours of video and the sore body to keep it fresh in my mind forever.
We ended up catching 17 giants,14 released(8 tagged) 3 brought to the dock