[Gerry Zagorski]

So it's spring of 2006... Just put the boat in it's slip a few days earlier and head down to the marina with a bucket of supplies and a long list of to dos. Had no intention of fishing but when I arrive at the dock my boat neihbor Bill is tempting me to go fishing... What are good neihbors for, right?

We head out for a few hours and fished on the edge of the Swash for an hour or so and only had one Rat to show for it so Bill decided to make a move into shallower water up on the Shoal. Wasn't log before we had a few fish on board. A few in the teens and one that went about 20 pounds.

Must have been around 3:30 or 4 or so when I reeled up my line to check the bait. The Rats must have picked the ribbons off the clam bait since all that I had left was the tongue. It was getting late and Bill and I talked about leaving so I didn't even bother to put a new clam on. I just threw it back over and put the pole in the rod holder in free spool with the clicker on and started getting the boat in order for the ride back home.

I was screwing around doing something and noticed my pole tip bouncing. You know… the telltale twitch-twitch you get before the clicker starts screaming. I picked up the pole, put it in the 3:00 position and let her take a little more line. Once she started running I set the hook and could feel it was a decent fish. This is the first one of the day that stayed down rather then come to the surface. She was peeling line off the little AVET SX pretty good and I said half joking to Bill "Maybe we should come off the anchor and run this fish down". We both kind of shrugged it off and I continued to gain some line here and there. Bill mentions the boat record is 28 pounds and we start to get excited. Must have been 10 minutes or so when she finally came boat side.

I couldn't believe my eyes!! I knew she was big but I had no idea how big. Bill gets the big net and I steer her into it head first. She's bigger then the net so Bill lifts the net up and she folds up into the net. He tries to lift her over the side with the end of the net handle and she's too heavy. I bend over and grab the frame of the net and horse her up over the gunnel and laid her down on the deck. WOW!! This is the biggest Striper I’ve ever caught.

Bill gets the Boga grip and the fish buries the scale..... As he goes into the cabin to look for a heavier scale I'm looking down at her think “Do I keep this fish”?? We put her on a heavier spring scale and she weights 40. We put her on the Berkley electronic scale and she's 39. After that I turn to say to Bill "Maybe we should keep her". With out hesitation Bill says "Nah we should really let her go" I thought about it and said " Yep Bill you're right". So now we set her back in the water to try and revive her.

It's not looking real good. She's tired and not really breathing. I have her by the gill plate and can't really get her in the current the way I’d like so we decide to put her in the net. She still does not seem to be recovering so Bill calls Frank Tenore who’s fishing a short distance from us. Frank suggests sticking the salt water wash down hose down her mouth. I try and tilt the net to get her head up so we can hit her with the hose. She flops out of the net and makes one strong swoosh of her broom size tail and swims off.

Man.... I'm so glad we released that fish. We were really bummed when it didn't look like she'd make it. Once the Adrenaline wore off I’m sure the ride back to the dock would have been pretty somber seeing a beautiful fish like that lying dead on the deck.

Once back at the Marinas Bill and I started commiserating…. I probably could have won the annual dock pool with that fish or maybe even had a place in the Fisherman Magazine Dream Boat standings for a month. But you know what? Returning that fish to the sea and seeing her swim off was a more of a rush then catching her.