Doin' Time Captain
I had a chance to talk to Pat, the Capt of the subject boat, at lunch time today. The 57" fish was actually caught by his friend Dave. The fish was not as heavy as they expected and weighed in at "only" 61 lbs. Because this fish weighed less than they had hoped for, they did not go to an official weigh-in station. They cleaned and ate the fish.
The fish was caught on a 3" Panther Martin swim shad in tandem with a 6". When he showed me the bait, it was hard to believe one could land a fish that big while trolling with a bait and hook that small. The 3" shads were a gift and he only started using them this summer when he ran out of other baits. When they kept producing, he left them in the spread.
He uses various in-line weights and trolls several baits greater than 120-140 ft from the boat. He trolls very slowly and when he marks fish he slows to bare steerageway (until the planers start to lose track) and at times turns the boat. To summarize his tactics; "cover as much of the water as possible with your baits (vertically and horizontally) and go slow."
Pat has landed several big fish this year, including a 63 lb one in the spring.
The name of his boat says it all, he spends more time out on the water than anyone else I know. This in part, is the reason for his success. I should know, his boat is across from me and he gets great pleasure out of showing me a huge fish almost everytime I see him.
Mark
p.s. Pat said he would send me pictures once he has them developed and scanned. He doesn't carry a digital camera.
You have to understand, this is really not a big deal to him. As he said, "it's just a fish, we cleaned it, ate it, and it was delicious."