I'm going with a big ass skate. they can pull and pull.

Physically, that's plausible - but are there any skates in PS? I've got a few BIG blue water Skates & Rays in my day and they can move and pull like a Derby horse.

There are skates in PS. Buddy used to fish for them in Hood Canal. They'd tow his little boat all over.

possibly a Salmon Shark? they can get to speeds past 40 mph...

I have been freight trained several times in Alaska. I think they are large sharks. We sometimes would actually land salmon sharks and they are VERY fast, will roll up in the line etc.

The reason I axed is that we hook into an occasional porpoise up north and I can remember hooking one in the San Juans about 20 years. They are fond of halibut gear and I've hooked them as deep as 400 feet down on the bottom. Jigs, hoochies, chunks of meat, horse herring...they will bite them all. We even doubled up on the damn things a few years ago. That was a royal cluster ##ck.

They come up so far way from the boat and their dorsal is so small you can't tell it's a porpoise at first. The fight sounds about like what you guys are describing except your mystery fish might stay downtown a bit more. Porpoise eat herring, squid, and other baitfish for a living.

We've hooked them on super heavy halibut gear and Penn 345's and you can't even begin to stop them.

Not sure if that's the beast that's been bothering ya'all on the sound, but it sure sounds like a likely culprit.

Or maybe Stam's 1,000 pound halibut decided to migrate into the Puget Sound

probably not a Harbor Porpoise, those are relatively small, Dall's Porpoise on the other hand, get alot bigger, weigh alot more, and like very deep water...

good suggestion...

I haven't got a clue as to what it could be. When I was in college,back in the late 60s, a friend and I would rent a skiff and 10hp outboard from the marina that was next to the Edmonds ferry dock. He would launch us out on a long rickety rail track. It took forever to get to possession point to do our fishing, but was always worth the trip. Ive seen a lot of stuff out in PS and Admiralty inlet. On one of our trips to possession I was looking in the water and saw a large whale shark or it may have been a basking shark pass under our boat. Whichever one has the light round spots on its back. So they.re out there. Dan out

I've had it happen twice on the same day in AK near Montague Is.

First time it pinned my rod to the rail and I could nothing, it broke off rather quickly.


An hour or so later it was hooked again, this time it stayed near the boat for a bit and then started swimming off, we couldn't even come close to stopping it. The gear on the boat was very good, 140# braid on Penn Internationals (we were out for big fish), the Captain finally put on a heavy leather glove then climbed up on the transom, put his feet on the twin 200 Yamahas, cranked down on the drag and palmed the reel with the gloved hand. He was able to stop the line from going out but didn't really slow the fish down, it became very tight, started making creaking noises, then broke the 140# braid. The Captain said, "it happens, we don't know what they are, and we don't bother trying to fight them anymore."

OK...this gives me the creeps. I wanna catch this sumbitch'.

BTW - this scene; old yeller and when Jim Brown doesn't make it are the 3 saddest scenes ever in all of dude porn. C'mon - you can't kill off Jim Brown!

I am still thinking it's a shark.

There are plenty of Big Skates in Puget Sound, I have caught them here and in California...caught them, on salmon gear. You would get them in if that's what they were.

Robbo's video of fighting a double hookup on porpoises is pretty amazing!

Fish on...

Todd

Could it be an oversize sturgeon, one of those 10 foot or longer? I've seen some big ones in Puget Sound

Six Gill.

Large salmon shark

I assume shark also.

Not in the sound but out at Neah we hooked into something BIG and fast as described. Thought it could'a been a Pelagic Thresher but that was just a WAG.

FWIW - I guess the NOAA guys didn't seem to think its a Salmon shark as there's little spring salmon in PS. Unless they've learned to follow the halibut migration or something...

This is what happens when you make pot legal.

I forgot what we're talking about.