Launched at 0600 to high tide, mixed up swell, and a stiff offshore. Clear skies, water temp 55, and water vis 15. I made it past the buoy and tried to jig up some bait. I ended up with a sardine for my efforts. The sardine went down, only to be foul hooked and raked by something. I pinned on a squid I caught a couple of weeks ago, and sent it down. The clicker goes off, and it's ripped off of my hook. The same thing happened with my second (last) squid. No more bait, so I start chucking the iron. The birds started working on porpoise feeding on bait. I was in the thick of it watching these porpoise break the surface, and swim under my boat for at least a couple of minutes... At one point I was debating on just taking video, and stop working the iron. I've seen a lot of shows in LJ, but this one was one of my closest/best experiences. The porpoise move on, and down goes the Salas. A couple of cranks on the bottom, then the line goes tight. THUMP... THUMP.. SLACK.
. I continued for five more minutes, then the porpoise come back. They feed and leave. The Salas goes down again, 4-6 cranks then my 40# gets tight. This fish is heavy, and doesn't really run. It sits, moves, and then sits again. No tail thumping had me thinking Black. After letting a couple of seals pass, I start pumping the fish. I was still thinking black, until I got a shot of silver. The eight foot stick had me maneuvering the fish, for a gaff shot. My '07 birthday fish came 6 days after, at 36#. This fat fish...3 days before, at 39.1#. Good luck out there.