Phuket Early Nov Sail Record ?

[pure spirit]

Hi New to Fish Raider so please be kind,

would like to submit this sailfish i caught off Phuket last month, was over there on a family holiday but managed to find a day to get out on the water...

Anyway the day started a bit on the rough side the flyer advertised 4 people (9 where on the boat), state of the art fish finding equipment (well on the fly bridge they had the mounts and wiring but no screens to be seen)but on the way we cruised along we with a pretty wide spread of lures and teasers we picked up a few Mahi (very small around 50cm). Around midday we raised our first sail(s), at this point i realise the young (teenages)crew had no real idea we got a few hits but no hook ups. This happened a couple more times over the next few hours. The way it seemed to work was the clients were not to touch the rods the crew would hook up and give the rod to the clients. Anyway on the way home we raised at least 4 or 5 in one go as the teases got hit the crew madly jigged the lines. With there hands full the out rigger took off... being a helpfull kind of a guy i grabbed it and started to let it run, only to have one of the deckies grab the rod from me and give me a dead one ! As he whipped the rod / hit the drag i swear he pulled the lure straight out of it's mouth (not happy). With the fishless off cast rod in my hand i had a crack at a method i'd been shown early in the year in Broome (that got me a much smaller sail) which was bringing the lure (used skirted garfish in Broome... diff bait same theory) to the teasers then free spool and using my thumb on the spool to put in a bit off action. With in a matter of seconds the line was peeling out ..I had my sail ! At about the same time the crew where pointing the rod to one of the holders. Within a 20second i would say the sail had at least 50m if not more. Feeling pretty sure it had been hooked and not just holding the skirt I engaged the reel (it screamed)at it's longest run it had about 100ms on me.

I really would have like to have taken it on stand up but after the first couple of minute and with no belt (lets just say i could not find a comfortable place for the rod butt) i moved to the chair. About 10 minutes in i passed the rod to one of the other blokes i met on the boat he kept it in check whilst i had a quick sip of water then jumped back on for about another 10minutes .

By my best guess i'd say approx 190cm as for weight i have no idea. Please see the photos, me in the chair, with the fish and the boys with it holding up the sail.

The sail was caught on the pink skirted pusher style lure fight time 20-30minutes but hard to tell (when your in the moment)

Sadly the Thai's are not into catch and release so it did not go back in !

Regards Noah

Edited December 3, 2010 by pure spirit

[MOE^MOE]

nice catch mate and awsome way 2 end the holiday

[outfisher]

Good saily i would have turned around and gone OOPs it sliped out of my hands.

Yeh i cant see them releasing anything.

cheers