NJ Monster Fish!

[Chrisper4694]

headed out with my buddies captain john and pistol pete, on the seahawk out of keyport, for some bluefish mayhem and we found just that. tons of action with not many small fish, most in the 27-33" range and the biggest going 35" and all giving a great fight! a few double headers, 44 landed and many many more lost (mostly the ones hooked with eagle claw hooks :D) with the action all day and 2 kept for delicious poor mans fish cakes!

...but that wasn't the highlight of the day

Holding my rod I felt a weird hit, setting the hook I began a fight with what may as well have been a submarine! straight away from me and never slowing it just took off and my burning thumb was not much help...#30 connection so I had to be careful. as my spool thinned and reached near empty john turned on the engine and was ready to pull anchor to chase it down so I could get some line back, but fortunately it slowed and I was able to slowly very slowly start getting it back to the boat.

Finally an ENORMOUS black drum emerged and after what seemed like forever john netted the beast! we left it in the net in the water for a bit to revive as we slapped high fives like kids that just got what they asked for, for xmas haha. We then all three hauled the monster onto the boat and measured it. 44-45" forgot to take the girth in our excitement and no way we could weigh it on the boat with the little digital scale that only goes to 50lbs and we weren't killing a fish this old and huge so the weight is unknown, but feel free to guess for me. Having held it I'd say 60-70lbs but idk either way my biggest fish ever, destroying the 47" striper I caught last year in fight and weight. Thought we'd have to revive it after a fight that long but the fish took off like a tank as soon as it hit the water after some pics.

http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z379/chrisper4694/PB%20Black%20Drum%202.jpg (http://s1186.photobucket.com/user/chrisper4694/media/PB%20Black%20Drum%202.jpg.html)

http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z379/chrisper4694/image.jpg3_3.jpg (http://s1186.photobucket.com/user/chrisper4694/media/image.jpg3_3.jpg.html)

http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z379/chrisper4694/image.jpg1_3.jpg (http://s1186.photobucket.com/user/chrisper4694/media/image.jpg1_3.jpg.html)

http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z379/chrisper4694/image.jpg2_3.jpg (http://s1186.photobucket.com/user/chrisper4694/media/image.jpg2_3.jpg.html)

[hammer4reel]

looks like a great day on the water !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nice pics

[bolt]

awesome

[Joey Dah Fish]

Damn that had to be fun and a great memory

[Bucktailboys.com]

That's a great day on the water!

[shrimpman steve]

Great job on the release

[Ryelof]

What a fish!!!!!!!

[joswald53]

This is another monster fish. 820 pound mako Near-record mako kicks off shark season http://on.app.com/1HdnNir via @AsburyParkPress

[Capt.Yasar]

looks like a great fight and nice job on CPR....(catch, pic, release)...

[Hunter 2]

Nice surprise.. Congrats Good Karma on the release. Ive seen too many dead drum floating around the marinas that have been thrown away after dockside bragging..

[bunker dunker]

Congrats Chris!!!!!!!! what a fish!!!!!!!

[Walleyed]

Awesome C&R Chris....that thing is a beast!

[kcritch]

Nice job dude...That's a beast for sure. Congrats! The one caught on Papa's Angels on 5/8 measured 48" with a 32" girth and weighed just over 60lbs...So you are'nt far off with the 60 lb estimate.

That's an awesome catch bro.

This is a pic of the other fish from that report.

http://www.njfishing.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=82320&stc=1&thumb=1&d=1431124623 (http://www.njfishing.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=82320&d=1431124623)

[DoubleBarrel]

Entertaining story, great fish and perhaps most importantly kudos on releasing the fish. See way too many people and pics on here of vacuum cleaner fishing and harvesting. And people wonder why the striper fishing has fallen off the past couple years...it wasn't 20 years ago when there were no stripers around.

[1captainron]

Nice to see that Old man go back....We kept a couple once and I said never again. When I saw what was left after filleting it, I was embarrassed that I let the customer kill it.....Good Job.:)

[Chrisper4694]

Yeah I wish we took a girth measurement, but you just panic to take pics and get it back in, looks shorter but much fatter than the other one.

[FASTEDDIE29]

Great catch there buddy! Those things are tanks in the water. Slow dead powerful pull that never ends. You da man for the release!!! Just AWESOME!!!:D

[MudCat08]

My prediction was wrong, but great fish. it probably fought like a carp of the sea!
I'd guess in the 60 pound range as well.

[Chrisper4694]

that's exactly what i said...it's like a giant saltwater carp!

[dakota560]

Chrisper,

Awesome catch.! I've seen schools of drums during the spring swimming north towards Raritan Bay. Have never hooked one, they must fight like a freight train. GREAT job with the release, as Capt Ron said you get very little from a fish that size from what I've heard and I'm not sure what you do get is great table fare regardless. Little harder pull than a shad I would think! You're having a great start to the season, keep it up!

Dakota

[AndyS]

NICE fish !!!!!!