Puget Sound mystery monster fish

Writing this post to see if any of you salty dogs have had a similar experience in Puget sound.

Several board members here have explained that they have been out halibut fishing and hooked into a beast of a fish. This fish can swim at speeds of up to 15mph for a very very long time. This tells us who have spoken about it that it is not of the shark variety as they typically tire soon into a fight with properly matched gear.

I know Fishnut has seen this fish on his depthsounder while Spud was chasing it once when he hooked it. Ron said the marks on his finder looked as if this mystery beast is nearly 30 feet long. Ron if you still have that photo post it up.

Some other descriptive factors are:
-No one can catch up to this fish, as it swims very fast to the point where folks fighting it are on-step chasing it down.
-It cannot be retrieved close enough to the surface to see what it is.
-It can fight an angler at top swimming speeds for up to an hour and a half.
-It only seems to be hooked when halibut fishing at depths of over 100 FOW.
-the three or four people we know who have hooked it have all been broken off while the fish was swimming away from them at high speed.

I'm not pulling your leg here...there is something really big and fast out there. it has been hooked by several credible experienced anglers.
Has anyone ever had, or heard of a similar experience?
What could it be?

Sub....

The stuff of legend right there.
Gear up and let's have a look at this beast !

My fishing partner hooked one at Partridge in 1990. Told an old timer we fished with out of mutiny bay and he said it was a basking shark. They get to 30+ feet and can weigh 4000 lbs so you are not going to tire it out with halibut gear. He explained the speed as an effect of the current on the bottom differing from that on the surface.

Look a lot like this on the fishfinder?



Fish on...

Todd

43-8. I guess thats possible but I wouldnt think a basking shark would bite a mooched horse herring as they are filter feeders.

Todd, Sub's dont change directions really fast and produce head-shakes. This was a fish not a machine.

Foul hooked was my assumption. Filter feeders can eat bigger forage as well

I was hoping you were going to post this.

You talkin about Sharkin? Sharkin?

I can corroborate Sky-Guy's post, in that he's not pulling anyone's leg here.

The story has me so intrigued, I spent a good part of this morning researching anything remotely plausible. Apparently, some guy hooked a Great White in Tacoma a few years ago?

But...

That's not this. This thing has serious speed. Like Sailfish & Wahoo blue water speed and having caught many of those, that's damn fast for anything cold water. Great White's and Mako's jump when hooked. Nobody has ever got this thing above 60 feet and it doesn't seem to migrate far, which would put a Salmon / 6 or 7 gill shark out of the question with their huge migratory patterns. Another interesting thing is that it's hooked during halibut, when there aren't a lot of salmon in PS - so that makes me believe its resident. I've even considered the Giant Squid (3rd largest squid in the world) and found quite frequently in PS. But I don't think a squid could sustain a few miles @ 15 knots. The only thing that reminds me of how it fights is a big ol' Bluefin. Super fast, super strong and pinned to the depths. But that doesn't wash either, so who knows?

I'll find him for 5 and catch & kill him for 10.

Does anyone up here have a boat with an actual fighting chair in it? Grab the MASSIVE Goliath Grouper rod outta the show room at Batson; load up the 130 wide with 300# Dacron, drink some Apricot brandy and buckle in.

Farewell and adieu to you fair Spanish ladies...farewell and adieu, you ladies of Spain.

If yer drinkin' that schitt yer gonna puke halfway into the fight.
Could become part of the legend though...

"That fugger even made 'im puke all over himself right there in the fightin' chair."

Gotta be some kind of shark?

If it is swimming that fast, it must know it is hooked.

2nd best post of the year.

Does this mystery fish/mammal stay downtown or does it line out after it's hooked?

Fight pic....Nick goes down and the beast almost gets him...
SG lets loose a volley from the 12 gauge and saves Nick's life.

Robbo - Stays downtown WHILE it runs and lines you at 15 knots. Eats halibut offerings with a hard take, head shake and RUN! Boats have tried keeping up. Albiet Salmon boat captains aren't in tune with really, really gettin' on it and staying on top of the fish (like blue water guys do). With the right gear, bring it. More importantly, with the right captain and boat. Speed kills.

A little of Both Robbo. It goes on really long runs, stops, and takes off in another direction. Kathy, Spud's wife, has had the fish up to ~60 feet directly below the boat in 100FOW before it took off again, so fast, that they couldnt keep up to it and it broke them off.

Sperm whale?

It varies.
The one constant is the strap-on.

3rd best post of the year

I've been informed by my lawyer to STFU unless Sky-Guy & I have rod / fisherman's rights on the correct "research vessel". This is BIG blue water fish & mindset all the way. 130 wides with 300# Dacron to 500# steel. Pro tip: Crank until your arm comes off.

Sounds like a job for the River Monster Guy...

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.

Probably caught the fishing line in the prop... happens to me all the time

Porpoise or orca wouldn't stay down that long over some of the extended fights referenced.

Fought a halibut for 2+ hours in admiralty inlet when I was a kid - finally got it close enough to see it was a halibut as big as our 16' boat (width) and cut it off. But that was on heavy salmon trolling gear.

One of Sea Strikes internet sweat hogs............ya think?

Correlation is not causation.

salmon sharks in the puget sound? don't you need salmon?

Late 80's or early 90's we hooked something on a Point Wilson Dart off Possession. We followed it from there to PNP, half way back and back toward the green can. Had it on for over an hour but it didn't really swim that fast. Maybe 10 kts was the fastest I had to chase it. Would get close to the surface maybe 30-40' down before sounding and heading off another direction. We were jigging 100 fow or so.

I was a bit pissed at my brother because he got tired of playing it and broke off before I could stop him. Was thinking maybe a huge halibut but swam a bit faster than a hali.

To this day, I wish I could have seen it. Felt like head shakes rather than the big, slow throb of a foul hooked fish. Or so I thought.

Imagine a really large specimen of one of our known species, hooked in the tail. Thinking six-gill, other shark, even skate or large 'but. An average sized halibut is pretty tough when foul hooked.

Castaway Chris can tell ya what it's like to have a 200lb skate snagged in the tail. His story sounds similar

I would vote big foul hooked halibut or skate. Both can "gallop" at high speed for long distances, if foul hooked. I have landed 200 lb halibut that were easier to land than 125 pounder foul hooked.

It definitely is not a mammal as it never comes up for air. It is big and cruises. I think I have a picture somewhere of an aluminum boat running after it. It came past us and later came by going the other way. These are long runs and not slow. I know of about 4 times minimum that guys have hooked into it. Spud was killing himself trying to figure out how to land it or atleast get to see it. Big skates dont dive back down like halibut do.


It is in rock piles when hooked. My guess is a six gill as it has so much power. A fouled hooked fish is not really possible as its hooked in the same area every year or two. It takes them for a very long run. I think its the same behemoth every time.

Every angler that hooks it is changed forever trying to figure out how to land it and what it is. I dont feel that anyone that hooks it ever has any control of it. They are not working it up to the surface but it stays down and takes off.

What I have for a screenshot, was very very big.. First time I have ever heard it mentioned since I saw it on my screen.

If it was a sturgeon hooked in the mouth it would eventually come up. This doesn't.

Another "vote" for a large six-gill shark.

Decades ago while salmon fishing I hooked what turned out to be a small (6 /12 foot) six gill shark of the "windmill hole" - west end of Mutiny Bay and got it to the boat at Double bluff. Took an hour to get it to the surface and 4 mile chase.

Consider that the above fish was a small six-gill. The maximum size for the species is thought to be 15 feet with a potential weight of more than 2/3 of a ton. I would think such a fish would be more than a match for any tackle commonly used in Puget Sound fisheries; especially considering it would likely be hooked in or near deep water.

Curt

the late 60's I was a with my Dad and Uncle mooching for Kings off PNP. My uncle tied into something big that pulled us for a bit and then broke the line. He was pissed, he grabbed his bottom fishing rod, and put on a steel leader. He hooked back up to this monster and it started dragging us around the tip of PNP and heading west to the straits. For years and years later my Dad and uncle would speculate whether it was a large skate, a submarine from the base, etc.

This monster mystery fish has been around at least 40+ years. Maybe it's the west cost Nessie?

I'm going this route full speed.



Caddy, the Survivor From The Depths


Long before the arrival of Europeans on the Pacific coasts, enormous sea serpents existed in Native folklore. Rock engravings, or petroglyphs, found in many sites show this to be true.

The Cadborosaurus owes its name to Cadboro Bay, south of Vancouver Island, where there had been many sightings in the 1930’s. On October 5th, 1933, the Victoria Daily Times front page featured an observation of the Cadborosaurus. The tale of this mythical marine monster traveled around the world and became Caddy to its fans.

I like the Caddy theory, but never heard of it before.

There were 4 of us in the 1960's era wooden boat with twin 35hp Johnson on the back. I think the boat was 18ft. Whatever my Uncle hooked was towing us around PNP and up Admiralty Inlet when Dad and my uncle decided to cut the line. I think my uncle could have reeled in a shark, and it might have had more action than just towing us. They really thought it was a large skate or a submarine.

Great thread. My kid just turned two. He recently has become obsessed with fish. Every time we walk on a dock now, he peers into the water and says fish...he keeps looking, and every now and then he'll spot one.

I just realized the mystery still drives most of us. What's down there? What could it be? How big? What type? How could I see it? How could I get it to bite?

Maybe two types of people in the world. Those who wonder what's under the surface and those who don't.

This is a job for River Monsters. I'm sure he can branch out to saltwater.

maybe a Six Gill? this is certainly a big one here and I could see how it could take you for a ride, but for the times described? Up to 1.5 to 2 hours? One would think you could get this fish up to the surface eventually:



However, I want to think it's something unknown to Man.... a prehistoric beast that cant be caught

here is a story about an Irish fisherman who caught a massive sixgill, in 35 minutes: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthne...in-Ireland.html

Im not convinced yet.

Maybe this

NOAA Pacific Bluefin

Did a bit of reading today and apparently Six Gills are slow swimmers, I dont think they are our mystery monster fish...as the fish described can swim very fast, for a long period of time.

We could send one of the tribes after it and they can gill net it. Or they could poach it if they prefer. They're pretty good at both. Seriously the changing ocean currents and global warming have placed fish in places they never would have been in the past. Some of you might remember the barracuda that a guy caught on the Duwamish. There was another caught that same year on the south end on Vashon Island. Then there was the huge Marlin that someone caught in that same time frame off Vancouver Island. I remember the white shark incident in Tacoma. I know they guy. He claimed he either hooked it and it followed his flasher up or it just followed the flasher and bit it. He showed the flasher and it was tough to tell a shark did it but it did look like something munched it. He’s an old salt and not the type of guy that would BS. There was also a Mackerel caught off the Point Defiance Boathouse dock also in that same time frame.

My guess is a Killer Whale or possibly Vladimir Putin in a Russian mini sub looking for another shirtless photo opportunity in the beautiful Puget Sound.

As I recall that would have been Andy's Boathouse immediately on the south side of the ferry dock. There were two on the north side as well (Edmonds and maybe Bill's).

Don't the Makah's still have a fleet of whaling canoes and trained hunters armed with Harpoons that could go after this mysterious beast.

It may even taste better than the whale blubber they are so fond of.

About 10 years ago I had a guest hook a shark on a 16oz lead head jig on a bottom rod with 80 Tuff-line. As soon as he hooked it it took off on a full speed run that my kicker couldn't keep up with, I quickly gave up on that and fired up the main. We chased it a long ways for about 10 minutes then it seemed to slow down and we got some of our line back. As soon as we started really pulling on it and tried getting it to start coming up it took off again, this happened 3 or 4 times and went on for about an hour. Finally we got over it and started getting it to come up, foot by foot, very slowly. About half way up from 370' of water the reel seized up and I hand-lined it the rest of the way, took about an hour. It ended up being an 9'-10' shark which I'm assuming was a salmon shark, had never seen 1 before or since.
The jig was in its mouth but the tuff-line was wrapped around its tail, fought like hell for over an hour then I think we drowned it pulling it up backwards.
Over 22 seasons up there I have hooked a lot of big fish, 300+lbs halibut, and skates but none of them compared to the runs this shark took. Only other things I could compare it to were porpoise, sealions, and humpbacks, hooked a few of those (briefly) over the years.

How about bottom during a big May tide?

Obviously a 4 salt brat.

Ok, here are the facts :

2 years ago while halibut fishing an open bow 20 ft boat comes
flyin by us at about 10 with a guy in the bow hooked up. We decide to follow him as we have heard of the beast from the year prior when one of the PSA members hooked up. We followed the anglers for about 1 mile in a straight path against the tide. Then he busted off.

Later in the year, at the same spot, I hook up to the beast with a Tanicum Bull. We got up to 13-15 mph and for over an hour I could not getn any control over the beast. Wore out the drags and spooled me.

Last year, I put a 50 wide with 80 pound mono and titanium leader on the boat and headed to the same spot. Low and behold I do not hook up but Kathy does on a new Tanicum Bull with 60 lb spectra.
I fished it like a blue marlin for well over an hour and miles and miles fighting. Got it into 60 feet of water with 60 feet on the line counter. Never had a head shake or control of the fish. Speeds up to just before planing the Fishtale 2 at 16mph. Just when we had it close, it got broadside in the shallow water and cut under the boat and cut the line.

This year we will jig two 50 wides in the same area. We have caught a lot of marlin on it to close to 500 pounds and also a 435 swordfish. The mono will extend the range and the battle time.
I think that after 3-4 hours we can get it up for a photo.

You can say use an 80 wide or a 130 wide, but jigging those is almost impossible for an hour or so.

I did talk to two NOAA scientists about it and they too were baffled.

The beast does not head shake, flutter and can change course at full speed line a type of snake. Never comes up to breath and never even gives you the feeling of any control ever.

I think , time of battle with be the key not force.......photos to follow.....

Spud, if you hook up with it this summer give everyone a shout on the radio...I'd take time out of my day to come and watch!

Fish on...

Todd

Yes, while we are flying around at 15 mph with 300 yards of line out the back we plan to warn everyone out there that we are hooked up with the plesiosaur .

Let's get real here. Knock it off with the mystical creature guesses......

if there is no head shakes, its not a shark... sharks tails are like salmon, and they go from side to side, and that contorts the body side to side, hence easy feeling headshakes...

whales tails, are turned sideways, so the headshakes you are used to, would not be there at all... Orcas can swim fairly fast, for long periods of time, but, can only stay under water for like 15-20 minutes max, usually way less than that... Sperm whales on the other hand, can stay down for well over an hour, and an animal that big, you wouldnt turn, couldnt stop, and likely will never see....

the Minke, Grey, and Humpbacks are all very large whales as well, but are baleen whales, so i suppose it could be a foul hooked one, but multiple people hooking up to it, indicates that its biting something, or there is a very large population of whatever it is, to get snagged so frequently...

im now going with a Sperm Whale, they eat Squid, Octupus, other fish, and Sharks... they can swim 15-25 miles per hour for over an hour, and have been recorded stayin under water for around 2 hours...

i might just have to rig up the Hali rod with the Penn 149 and 300# spectra and go chase after it, it sounds like way too much fun not to....

Moby Brat

And we had all been playing so well.

And this is why we can't have nice things.

Looks like I'll be cracking the whip again and warming up the time out chair.

<SIGH>

Willatuk?

That's what she said. I'm going to call him "Willy".

The plot thickens...

hahahahahah

Stantz: No! It can't be!
Venkman: What is it?
Stantz: It can't be!
Venkman: What did you do, Ray?!
Zeddemore: Oh, [Bleeeeep!]! [They all see a giant cubic white head topped with a sailor hat]
Stantz: [sighs, resigned] It's the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man.

A Penn 149?


That and a Sperm Whale... Kramer and Newman couldn't have come up with a string of logic like that! It read like your were talking yourself through a question on "Who Wants to be a Millionaire."


Yes. Sperm Whale. Final answer.

All this talk of sperm whales even drug MERG out from under a roll...

The search, its starts tomorrow.

Tune into The Outdoor Line on Saturday Morning for an on-the-water update on the search for the Mystery Beast of Puget Sound.

So which reality show format is this going to take, Deadliest Catch, River Monsters, Finding BF, Mountain Monsters, Ghost hunters, Ax Men or Honey Boo Boo?

Scooby Doo.

Fish on...

Todd

No head shake? That has to be a skate! They get big but this sounds really, really big!

I'm starting to suspect a cable or other man-made type object you all are hooking on the sea floor.

No head shakes. Always in the same spot. Fast moving. That just doesn't add up to a fish - especially fish that migrate, move, or can swim.

Just like the "fish" that Stam hooked up in the Prince of Wales Sound. All fish eventually come up. The fact that we couldn't bring it up more than 50' off of the bottom tells me that it might not have been a fish.

I'd like to believe it was a halibut of epic proportions, but the odds just are not in one's favor.

I'm guessing it's a cable that swing/moves with the tides/currents and eventually get's caught up on the rock pile. Under tension, it springs back to it's normal configuration when you yank it up off of the pile with your lures. It's going to race back to it's normal configuration at a really rapid pace.

But, I'm hoping that it's a big-ass monster fish.....as I want to see the photos!!!!!!

PS. Ifsomeone emails me GPS coordinates of where this happens, I'll see if that area has been surveyed with side scan sonars, etc. If so, I bet I can find what's down there. Someone at UW Oceanography will have a photo of that location.

Sky Guy, post your halibut fishing coordinates.

There is a pinnacle off Makah Bay sticking up out of an area of sandy flat bottom that was loaded with big yellow eye rockfish and lingcod that would dive into holes as soon as they were hooked. It felt like a fish on and then a solid unmovable pull, as the tide moved you off the spot, until breaking off. The trick was to not give an inch of line on the hookup to pull them out of there. I don't really think this is what is happening from the description because of the high speed of the chase and the turns .
I have seen a 527 lb halibut hanging on the scale at Bay Fish ,1973 or there about, and can imagine that size of halibut could be quit a battle on sports gear.

Those narrows bridge monster have fooled alot of people. Pain in the ass to breK off of them too.

Are you taking RICH G fishing with you ?

Like some others, the first thing I think of with all the stories is large skate. I was on a boat in Alaska a few years ago when a huge skate was hooked. Incredibly powerful critters. I also once hooked a salmon shark while halibut fishing in Prince William Sound. Again, some similar characteristics to what's being described. Strong, fast, agile, etc. Who knows...

Scott

So...did anyone hook the mystery beast?

We can add our own chapter to the tale, kind of, I guess.

On Saturday after a long day of fishing, starting in Anacortes, fishing out around the outside of Orcas, out to Stuart Island, inside of San Juan Island, thru Cattle Pass, around Lopez, and then back up Rosario Strait to Washington Park, we ran into our own mystery fish.

We pulled over to make a couple of quick drops between Burrows and Allan Islands. My buddy Addicted was using a 6' heavy action rod, a big reel loaded with 65# PowerPro, and a 6oz. leadhead.

He was fishing to round out our lingcod limit, but had broken off his lighter lingcod rod at Lopez so picked up his light halibut jigging rod to finish off the day with.

65 FOW, he drops...I'm on the motor since the current is ripping along pretty good. Hits the bottom, bounce, bounce, and hung up. A couple of quick yanks and nothing happens, so I begin to motor upstream to get above his jig, and then it takes off...screams off, really.

I had to keep the boat at 10-12 knots to just to keep up with it, and quite a bit faster to gain line.

It would rip fast, then sit down and we would catch up and get above it...it would sulk a bit and then take off hauling ass.

At one point we got it into 30 FOW and were right on top of it...starting pulling up hard and it bailed out to deep water and we were back in 75 FOW in about two minutes, and on the chase again.

A little bit later we followed it into another shallow flat, got into 30 FOW a second time and were right on top of it, pulling straight up...and we may have been gaining a bit of line, or at least we thought we were...and the 65# braid broke off.

This took a bit over 20 minutes and while the fish did a couple of turns of just hanging out and not being budged, most the time it was swimming fast and I had to be in pursuit or it would have cleaned out his reel in a minute or two.

I'm guessing big halibut in that area, but since we never got to see it I guess we'll never know.

Thoughts?

Fish on...

Todd

I'm not...we borrowed Vedder's boat while he's in Florida

Fish on...

Todd

I've seen this before when fishing with Rico........This "Gotta be a 30 pound salmon" took about 15 minutes for him to fight and bring in.



If it was not that, than it was that Sea Lion that stole all his gear in Grays Harbor. I hear those sea lions never forget.....a dude on the bow of a boat, net in hand, screaming like a girl, doing 30MPH chasing a sea lion to get his gear back.

The boat starting part is hard to believe, but the rest sounds legit.

Ive never had a Halibut Fight like that, so I'm thinking it was a baby mystery beast..not an adult.
Halibut "runs" are typically pretty short lived and not the type that would ever make me fire up the main and give chase..they just shoot off in one direction for 10-30 yards, then stop.

Yep, I'm going with a baby mystery beast on this one.

my friend was out fishing a few days ago, didnt hook into one, but this was following his boat for quite a while i guess..

said it was 6 feet long..

To the Top!

If anyone halibut fishing hooks a Puget sound mystery beast this year, good luck landing it and get pictures if you do!

3 yrs in a row(2012-15) one of us hooked into something at Partridge that while didn't reach the speeds described, spooled away/no turning it. Always in the exact same spot+-. I had $75 worth of fresh #80(1000 yrds?) Spectra on top of a half spool of Dacron on the Diana 910 big crank....once into Dacron really wanted as much of that $75 back so took chase and maybe 30 minutes later hook pulled. I assumed big halibut, but it felt like something bigger....There were 3 pilot whales around all day so had to entertain that idea. Going down Sunday for the first time in 3 yrs to see what we see. Have totally empty 910 and if it wasn't so expensive, I'd put a whole big spool(3000 yrs) on it and just got a 610 with the beefiest rod I've seen from Fred P so could put the big guy on the most badass rod I've seen and am rigged for Pliosaur....Ha. Foul hooked a big skate in Neah last year and that was a project getting it up....I hooked a 5 ft 6-gill in the 90's at lummi rocks on lighter gear and it came to the boat. I like the pliosaur idea...good luck out there, Tom

Oh, and if I catch a pliosaur, I'm releasing it....Ha. Tom