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Old 01-19-2015, 12:17 PM   #14
FlyWright
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City: California Delta
Vessel Name: FlyWright
Vessel Model: 1977 Marshall Californian 34 LRC
Join Date: Apr 2008
Posts: 13,728
Yes Oliver, they're small by blue water standards, but it's pretty much normal fare in the delta. We are fishing in fresh and brackish waters that are typically 20-30 ft deep...sometimes 40 or 50, but that's rare. My target depth is 30 ft.

Oh, they fight! The big boys (5-7 ft) and can take anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes to bring to the boat. I've heard many stories of the huge ones (over 8 ft) taking 2 or more hours to bring to the boat. Many guys drop their anchor (with a buoy) to float with the fish while fighting it. A lot of these guys are fishing in 18-22 ft boats. With a relatively big boat, I don't do that, though...I bring the fish to the boat. The boat record is 90 inches in 2010.

This fish that Jenny caught at 84 inches took 15 minutes to bring to the boat, but Jenny needed help in doing it. Here are some short videos of parts of the fight. You can see where she is unable to lean over the side and keep the fish from going under the boat, so I helped her. Her arms were also getting fatigued, so I provided her some relief at times.

Keep in mind that she's 5' 2" fishing a 7 ft long fish that outweighs her by at least 80 lbs.







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