Headed out this morning with Custom's Mike, have to give them nick names cause there are just to many Mikes the only way to keep them straight, left the inlet at sunup and ran out to 120', a long run of about 1 mile and set up first drift, put on an ice cold sardine on a triple hook rig and they hit the water, less than 10 minutes and Mike is tight and the drag is screaming, he puts more drag on and then some more and it is still screaming. I told him not to put any more drag on there is plenty of line on my fin-nor let it run, after a little more it went slack and he thought it was gone but it was heading back to the boat then tight again and the fight was back on. After a bit it was in front of the boat and then on the other side, I told him to put the rod tip deep in the water and fight it under the boat then it came under the boat to the stern then back to the front then around the stern to the port side where it met the gaff. I pulled it in the boat and it was a slob, layed my 48" measure stick by it and it was 5 inches short of the 53" fish, weighed 40.8 pounds.

Put it in the box and lines back in the water again. Nothing for a short while so we pulled lines in and headed south a mile or so and started again, not long and my reel is singing and after a short fight my shorter king was in the box with the slob.

Drifted a while longer and decided to make another move and had some trouble starting the boat, after a while gave up and radioed for Tow Boat US to come and assist us back to the ramp.

Back at the ramp by 10 am, when I am back to the ramp at 10 am something went wrong, I am just getting warmed up around then. But the skunk wasn't with us