18 Sept.: R 4 - pulled 2 hooks on wire both on 12# - 30' leader sure makes a difference - wind down to 15-20 - fish starting to tail - all we need are shots!!
19 Sept.: R 1 - Broke one on wire - on wire 4 1/2 minutes - 3 for 3 to wire on 12# - wind 10 to 20+ SE - squalls at noon then calm, but back up in PM - #5 & #6 Ribbon - Cliff and Roscoe got 965 at bottom of #10 - not really full on yet.
21 Sept.: R 8-10 15-20 SE- Fish on #9 - broke off 2 on 12# and 1 on 6#
On it went. We got the wire on fish over 700 pounds on both 6- and 12-pound test. One large marlin jumped through the outrigger halyards and then broke the wire. So many times we got close, really close, in that first week.
At the end of the first week, Hooper called a team meeting over dinner and told us, "What I really want is the 30-pound record. If you boys will let me switch to 30-pound for the second week, I'll pay for the full two-week charter."
It took mere seconds to make our decision. No way! We knew we were going to get one, we had to - we had been so close so many times in the past few days.
But we didn't win. We never got Al or Jill Hooper a record that year. We didn't get paid wages, but Al paid the fuel and tipped us well - and we didn't spend a nickel for two weeks. We agreed that we would still take the bet again. We had to - the odds were in our favor! We knew we could get a record on those line classes with the new, longer leaders the rules now allowed us to use.
And we still have the memories. That two-week trip with the Hoopers turned out to be a fantastic time - and it was only just beginning.
On October 5 we raised six and tagged one in 25- to 35-knot southeast wind. I wrote that the weather was really sorry, but the waves were far apart and fishable. We pulled one hook on the wire. I do not remember the day, even when I look at the log, but I know what it was like. Nowhere else do we fish water that rough, because we don't have to run any distance at all with our mother boat anchored just inside the reef.
We learned to run south inside the reef and then troll down sea all day long. You do not just back up when you get one on, not in those seas. You learn to turn and go forward, at modest speeds, until you are in front of, and up sea from the fish. Backing the boat down sea is fine, and when the fish tires and starts to tail, you can finish the fight quickly and easily.
21 Oct.: R2 W 750 Pearl to Escape - Northerly winds - Tommo's fish yesterday on the Agincourt Reefs weighed 1,392 - took good, hot foul-hooked 750 in 8 minutes - also screwed up a rat on a backlash
I do not remember the fish we weighed this day or the names of the anglers - either ours or the one that got Capt. Frank Thompson's big fish. It was probably our guy's biggest ever, or maybe we misjudged its size. We were always trying to be safe and overestimate in those days when the big, one-ton scales were likely to deflate any over-blown estimates of size. But we missed a few. Things were different then.
27 Oct.: R10 T2 W 1014 - Also pulled hook on wire on 6# - got double header late at #7 - finally get to shave, no real beard but pretty grubby - also good action at #5, #7, #10 - not as hot down south
At the start of the season Doug, Laurie and I had all agreed not to shave until we got a grander. I don't think Law (Laurie Allen Wright) ever did shave (he has a full beard today), but I was glad to get rid of the moth-eaten looking, half-filled-in mange that I grew.
I do not remember the fish or the day, even with the logbook in hand. I do remember that we had been concerned about not having caught a 1,000-pounder this late in the season. Earlier, on October 14, a day with winds of 15 to 20 out of the southeast, I had written of my concerns over having such good wind and current but not seeing many big fish.
