i read an amazing story about fishing in a book titled Amazing But True Fish Stories...thought you guys might like to hear it...
On February 3, 1980, Capt. Al Johnston was taking fisherman Ozzie Boskie and Bo Trossbach a few miles off the shore of Boynton Beach, FL, when they came accross hundreds of sailfish in groups of six to twenty circling tightly herded balls of sardines.
The anglers decided to see how many fish they could catch and release. The fishing began in earnest at 10am after mate Pete Wright grabbed a seven foot dip net and scooped deep into a pod of sardines and came up with enough bait for the whole day.
Within an hour and a half, Boski and Trossbach had caught twenty one sails. The first blitz ended, however, when bonito moved in and the sailfish sounded. So the anglers headed north until they found more balls of baitfish off Palm Beach.
"Schools of bait were everywhere and so were the sails---literally churning the water," said Johnston.
The fisherman were pulling in sail after sail. Almost every fish, weighing from forty-five to sixty pounds each, was hooked and released within 5 minutes. The number of sails caught kept climbing...fifty...sixty...seventy.... Finally, with backs aching, fingers bleeding, and muscles straining, the fisherman called it quits.
Their incredible score: eighty-three sailfish.
"You couldn't believe it unless you were there," said Wright. Because there weren't enough red release flags on board, they penned the number 83 on a white flag and flew it from the center rigger as they headed home. Said Wright, "It was the Super Bowl of fising, the rally of all time."
Pretty unbelievable, hugh...
>mike