Fish goes back in the drink and lines are reset. Within 10 minutes, the same rod bounces and I reel into another, this time passing the rod to Randy. This fish worked him over pretty good but he finally succeeded in bringing him to the net for me. Randy's largest fish ever prior to last night was a 24lb steelhead on his fly rod. His largest striper was 18". This fish was a beast, definitely in the 50s and a new personal best plus first VA citation for Randy.
Reset again after kissing her goodbye. Current is really picking up now and we had to change out weights on our rigs to keep them in the zone. One of the rods starts singing, then another just as quickly, but the anchor has pulled and the lines go slack before a hook can be set. It took 6 trys to reset the anchor and I was starting to think the night was over but finnally got it to catch with 150' of rode out. Current is ripping and the anchor was to small for the boat.
Next bite comes soon after our reset in the same rod position as the others. Jamal is up on this one and makes short work of this portly 46.5inch fish.
Ok, now its my turn. It wasn't long, and I got my chance. One of the long lines bends over and i grab it. Reeled into the fish but the hook popped, I look up just in time to see Jamal set the hook on another on the other side of the boat. He passed the rod off to me and after a long battle, current is really ripping now, I get it into the net. My fish taped out at 47.5" for my release.
We had another bite soon after, but Randy missed him, having never used a lever drag reel before. Oh well, the mission was accomplished and we didn't stay any longer. The seas were getting rough and the wind had really picked up so we pulled anchor at 1030 and headed home. I was a great night of fishing, little down time, with some firsts for the elders.
