Peter Vican (right) of East Greenwich with his record 77.4 pound striped bass. Peter caught the bass Sunday using eels as bait while fishing with Don Smith (left) on the Southwest side of Block Island.Peter Vican of East Greenwich, RI caught a record 77.40 lbs. striped bass on Sunday, June 19. It is the largest fish ever caught in RI. Peter held the old record too… a 76 lbs 14 oz bass he caught off Block Island in 2008. The record fish was caught Sunday night using eels as bait on the Southwest side of the Block Island. It was just one pound shy of the world record.
Peter and his fishing friend Don Smith are arguably the best recreation striped bass fisherman on the east coast. They catch fish in the 40 and 50 pound range often, as a matter of course, where most anglers would dream of catching one in this size range.
Peter was fishing with his friend Don this Sunday when he hooked up with the record breaking fish. Here is Don’s account of their fishing outing.
“We fished an area on the Southwest side of the Island from 9:30 p.m. until after 1:00 a.m. Sunday morning. We landed more than a dozen fish apiece over 25 lbs. often doubling up on each drift. Right around midnight we doubled up on several large fish. I landed a 48 lbs. fish and Peter's was just slightly smaller. On the very next drift we duplicated the catch with both of landing fish around 45 lbs. Since I had kept the 48 lbs. bass all the others were released unharmed.
We were fishing our usual method of using light tackle, 6/0 octopus circle hooks and drifting live eels. The current was pretty strong and we used 3 oz. egg sinkers to keep the eels in the zone near the bottom.
Shortly after 1:00 a.m. the drift died and dogfish moved into the area and starting chopping up our eels… Once the tide started running again we worked our way back to the spot that had been producing large fish earlier in the night.
The drift was absolutely perfect - between 1.5 and 2 mph and with no wind we were drifting with the current so the eels were facing in the right direction. It was right around 3:30 a.m. Sunday morning when the fish hit. It took some line out but nowhere the amount you would have expected from a fish that big. It never really made any big runs like his first record (fish) made and actually swam with the boat and kept diving to the bottom. It came up to the surface behind the boat and Peter reeled it in…
I got the net ready and moved over to his side of the boat just as he got the fish to the back corner of the hull. When the fish saw the boat it rolled on its side and swam directly out to the side away from the boat. That was when I got a good look at the fish and yelled to Peter it was a monster… I don't think the fish got more than 25 or 30 feet from the boat before Peter had it turned and it swam right back at us. By then I was really excited and had the net in the water and the fish headed right into it…I was so hyped up after seeing it that I just bent over and grabbed the circular frame of the net and lifted it right out of the water and flipped it onto the deck of the boat. The fish was next to my 48 lb. bass and looked like it could have swallowed it. The fight only lasted about 10 minutes.
The fish measured 52" long with a 35" girth. But, it was 35" from its head right to its rear fins. It looked like a brick with a tail not at all like the usual striper with a crescent shape to their belly.”
Peter and his fishing friend Don Smith are arguably the best recreation striped bass fisherman on the east coast. They catch fish in the 40 and 50 pound range often, as a matter of course, where most anglers would dream of catching one in this size range.
Peter was fishing with his friend Don this Sunday when he hooked up with the record breaking fish. Here is Don’s account of their fishing outing.
“We fished an area on the Southwest side of the Island from 9:30 p.m. until after 1:00 a.m. Sunday morning. We landed more than a dozen fish apiece over 25 lbs. often doubling up on each drift. Right around midnight we doubled up on several large fish. I landed a 48 lbs. fish and Peter's was just slightly smaller. On the very next drift we duplicated the catch with both of landing fish around 45 lbs. Since I had kept the 48 lbs. bass all the others were released unharmed.
We were fishing our usual method of using light tackle, 6/0 octopus circle hooks and drifting live eels. The current was pretty strong and we used 3 oz. egg sinkers to keep the eels in the zone near the bottom.
Shortly after 1:00 a.m. the drift died and dogfish moved into the area and starting chopping up our eels… Once the tide started running again we worked our way back to the spot that had been producing large fish earlier in the night.
The drift was absolutely perfect - between 1.5 and 2 mph and with no wind we were drifting with the current so the eels were facing in the right direction. It was right around 3:30 a.m. Sunday morning when the fish hit. It took some line out but nowhere the amount you would have expected from a fish that big. It never really made any big runs like his first record (fish) made and actually swam with the boat and kept diving to the bottom. It came up to the surface behind the boat and Peter reeled it in…
I got the net ready and moved over to his side of the boat just as he got the fish to the back corner of the hull. When the fish saw the boat it rolled on its side and swam directly out to the side away from the boat. That was when I got a good look at the fish and yelled to Peter it was a monster… I don't think the fish got more than 25 or 30 feet from the boat before Peter had it turned and it swam right back at us. By then I was really excited and had the net in the water and the fish headed right into it…I was so hyped up after seeing it that I just bent over and grabbed the circular frame of the net and lifted it right out of the water and flipped it onto the deck of the boat. The fish was next to my 48 lb. bass and looked like it could have swallowed it. The fight only lasted about 10 minutes.
The fish measured 52" long with a 35" girth. But, it was 35" from its head right to its rear fins. It looked like a brick with a tail not at all like the usual striper with a crescent shape to their belly.”
No comments:
Post a Comment