Had a couple days off this week so I decided to jump into this spring bite. Monday I headed out with an old buddy and ended up with pretty good action. Got 4 phins ranging from 12-17lb's, released a sail and a small BFT. Got a monster hit on the bent butt which ended up straightening the trailer hook on the rig and came unglued. All phin were caught in between 150-550' and ate whatever we fed them.
After Monday's action I was hoping for a repeat day on Tuesday. This time I had the guys from work on board. Being the first time I had the work crew on my boat I had a little pressure to get fish for the guys! Set out on a troll around 8, and no action all morning. We were about to wrap it up around 12:30 and in about 180' the long bent butt takes a nice pull and began screaming. I knew it was a hoo by the way it hit my bait and knew it was a good one when I grabbed the shock cord and felt the resistance. The fish had some serious attitude, he tried running an additional 3 times while hand jacking him in. Stuck him with the gaff and high fives all around. The hoo saved the day since there was no other action to speak for. He hit a skirted split tail with a 24oz lead.