Scrappy In The Dark
Bob Michener of Oxnard caught his 39th cow on an Accurate reel aboard Red Rooster III while fishing with skipper Andy Cates in the Buffer Zone. Anglers call Bob “Scrappy” from his former career as owner of a scrap metals business, but the term would apply just as well to a guy who’s battled that many tuna over 200 pounds. It’s easy to imagine how many tuna he went through that were smaller to arrive at that number.
If it weren’t enough of an achievement, Bob got his 282-pounder on a salami mackerel pinned on an old rusty hook.
“I don’t know what kind it is,” Michener told dock reporter Bill Roecker at H&M Landing December 10. “I got it from the wife of a buddy who passed away, and I welded the ring on myself.
“I tied it on because the sharks were around, but I got three fish with it and never was bothered by the sharks. I hooked the fish on the grind. He bumped it and it freespooled and he ate it then and spooled me.
“We put the backup rod on, and when I saw the spectra getting down to the bottom of the spool I was afraid it would dig in and I started yelling to throw the rod in. It went in and I got into the skiff just before sunset. The rest of the fight was in the dark.
We got to the buoy and the line was slack, so I reeled up and it came tight. He towed us around in circles for a half hour, and then I fought him at the side of the skiff for another half-hour. He was the strongest fish I ever fought.”
Scrappy won first place for his tuna. He said he tied the rusty hook on 130-pound Yo-Zuri fluorocarbon, 130-pound Izorline and 130-pound Izor spectra. He used an Accurate 50 W reel and a Calstar 770 XH rod.
Report by Bill Roecker at FishingVideos.com
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