It was a full moon last night and that typically spells trouble… and chaos.

So, I decided to go fishing at 2:30 AM which magnified the nature of the struggle, but it was well worth the effort.

At 3:45 AM I felt the tap of a striper picking up the bait. When I set the hook, a few minor head shakes led me to believe I’d hooked a schoolie. Then a blistering run.  ZZZZZZZZ… ZZZZZZ…ZZZZZZZZ. This was NO schoolie. The fish turned and headed for open ocean taking a couple hundred yards of line off the spool in a mater of seconds. Whoa!

This initial run was complicated by the fact the striper headed around the only lobster pot in the vicinity, then proceeded to chug and splash around.

We jumped into the boat and headed out to untangle the line from the lobster pot. The fish had gone completely around the pot warp, but unbelievably it was still on.

After a few minutes of friggin, we got the line untangled, the kelp off the leader and put the fish back on the spool. Our head lamps were on, and as the fish came up from the depths we got our first look at this behemoth. I started shaking immediately,… this was one huge striper!

As the bow of the boat beached on the shore, I jumped out and eased the fish into the shallows. She was tuckered out and beached easily. With out a doubt, this is one of the largest fish I’ve ever caught! Can the tournament organizer enter a fish?

She was 41 inches long and had a girth of 22 inches… and this time I’d brought the camera. Unfortunately the gilly wasn’t very adept at photography.

My new nickname - “Nearly Headless Nick”!