We have had a busy season and on occasion we get caught short handed. Today I took a trip south on the 37 alone with our charter and headed for the south dolphin pod. We fished the ahi all day finally getting one on the tide change. We set back out and missed another one. It was late and we were far south. I had to get back but didn’t quite need to run back. I set out the lures and started trolling back. I was on the phone with a client when a big fish appeared on the short bait. The fish climbed out of the water and got all over the lure. Before I knew it we had half a spool out and we were chasing the fish down with the lines still out. The fish jumped a bunch in front of us as my charter got the other lures in. Once the lures were we were able to spin around and get to work. During the chase we recovered a third of the spool. Friends helped wind in slack as I collapsed the bellies on the line. In around 40 minutes the fish was at the boat. I looked down as a got the leader and I got looks at the fish that made me think we had a really big one on. My plan was to pull up the leader and get the lure and cut it off. I had one of guests ready with the cutters and as I pulled the fish up to the half way point I saw what looked to me like a 1000 pound fish. At that point I didn’t want anything to go wrong under the boat with no capt at the wheel or gaff man to make the shot so I let it go to take another look. I called Mat that had just finished his goat hunt and he said that if I wanted him to he could run down to help me. I though back at what I had seen and told him to come help me. Tracy Epstein jumped aboard and he brought Mat down to help me. While we waited we rolled the fish over 3 times, showing me that she was getting tired. Once Mat got there it took us another 20 minutes to get her to gaff. She was tired and we got her gaffed with no issue. We pulled her in the boat and we had a good short measurement 138inches The girth was 72 which was also good. We went to the tail and only got 17 and a half. 2 and a half more inches and we had it. It is really hard to see the inches you need when the fish are so big. At that point I knew she would make the mark. My worry the whole time the boys were running to help me was what is they are helping me with a 700 pounder. Seeing the measurements look good made me feel good that my early looks at the fish were right. I have let a ton of nice fish like this go and can never be sure how much they weight unless they go on the scale. This was one fish in a long time that we decided to gaff. She weighed 921 at the dock leaving us short of a 1000 but long in memories for our charter.Especially for angler Dan Gage with a fish of a lifetime.
