Appeared to be a day not for light tackle, as I was waiting for my buds to show up at the marina I saw some jack crevelles swimming near the dock, 5 pounders. I toss out a jig and to my surprise I get slammed hard by snook, maybe 10 or so, fish landed within seconds.

Head offshore to about 100', I get hit using the same 4000 spinning reel and get spooled of 200+ yds of braid in less than 45 seconds on full drag, my guess a wahoo based on the speed. I have caught countless tarpon 50# or so on this outfit as well as big kingfish.

My buddy Howard, using a Shimano TLD, stout rod and 40# mono, gets hit, nearly spooled with maybe a 2-300 yds of line, gets cut off after a long fight. He then gets hit by another, we have to run this fish down, winds up being a jack crevelle around 35#. Wasn't the last, Howard who is the luckiest fisherman I have ever met, gets one more on the line, this one even more powerful. gets his fighting belt on and one of the guys holds him so he doesn't get pulled into the water, this is bull shark time of the year. We chased this fish down after what seemed an eternity and still nearly spooled on that TLD, Howard ran out of steam, being 75 years old, handed the rod to another guy. As I expected the guy lost the fish for Howard. Probably was a good sized Amberjack, no way to know. Didn't catch many fish, all came home sore fighting 4' waves and some good fish, but had good time, back out Monday, hopefully for a repeat performance.

Thinking about getting a Sargossa 18000 with 44# of drag and using more conventional gear, can't stop them with anything less.

Man, how I love Wahoo. They are just so stinkin' powerful.

Thinking about getting a Sargossa 18000 with 44# of drag and using more conventional gear, can't stop them with anything less.

Didn't buy the Sargossa, the 18000 is a little big for the 15-30 boat rod I was planning on using, a 40 or 50# class rod would be a better match I think. I did buy, after much research and looking at reels, a Penn Conquer 7000, 18.1 oz with 32 max drag, extremely smooth, the Sargossa of the same class was heavier with 27 max drag, also very smooth, an excellent reel as well.

If you were fishing a wreck, or at least on the bottom,

my guess would be a greater amberjack

If you were fishing offshore it definitely sounds like a wahoo,

But if you were fishing nearshore, my guess would be a king mackerel (smoker).

Now then, if you were drifting live jellyfish and the runoff was slow and steady,

it almost certainly was an ocean sunfish

Roger

Now then, if you were drifting live jellyfish and the runoff was slow and steady,

it almost certainly was an ocean sunfish

Roger

HA! Have you seen where there is a group of guys in NZ that are targeting the Sunfish effectively? Pretty hilarious, but why would you want to? They're just great big docile things.

HA! Have you seen where there is a group of guys in NZ that are targeting the Sunfish effectively? Pretty hilarious, but why would you want to? They're just great big docile things.

I've seen them within a few yards of my boat, they're eerily huge and kind of celestial in appearance.

There was an incident in New Jersey when an ocean sunfish became wedged at the Manasquan Bridge.

Sorry for going off topic.

Roger

Didn't buy the Sargossa, the 18000 is a little big for the 15-30 boat rod I was planning on using, a 40 or 50# class rod would be a better match I think. I did buy, after much research and looking at reels, a Penn Conquer 7000, 18.1 oz with 32 max drag, extremely smooth, the Sargossa of the same class was heavier with 27 max drag, also very smooth, an excellent reel as well.

How's that Conquer been treating you, Snook? I've been eyeballing a couple of them for a while now to use as general workhorse reels.

I've only used the Penn once, but so far I really like it. Had a big king on while using it but got cut-off,,,,,,,,that's king fishing.

Anything can change but right now there are only 3 spinning reels I would use off shore, Soron, Conquer & Cabo(or Boca), my latest cobia was caught using my Soron 60.

I've only used the Penn once, but so far I really like it. Had a big king on while using it but got cut-off,,,,,,,,that's king fishing.

Anything can change but right now there are only 3 spinning reels I would use off shore, Soron, Conquer & Cabo(or Boca), my latest cobia was caught using my Soron 60.

I may have to go out and grab a pair of them. Thankfully they aren't grossly expensive. I don't mind spending the two hundred bucks on a quality saltwater reel. Especially when I'm using it to catch pelagics and other hard running fish.

Probably not what it was...but I've heard of people getting spooled in seconds by Dolphin (the mammal kind).

I suppose Flipper could have done it, but most likely was as Wahoo.