I dream of Greenie

In 1989 during our visit to St. croix, four of us were trolling about a mile or less off the cost of the island - the same side as buck island reef .I was with my wife my good friend Gary and his wife Leona. All in anticipation of a fresh catch for the dinner table that night.

We had been out there trolling for about two hours. Having little luck and running low on patience, we decided to change course and seek out some deeper waters.
So using the depth finder, we went looking for a slope and after a short time we found one.

I don't know exactly how deep it was but our finder only went to 1000 ft. and there’s a trench that runs past Peurto rico and St. Croix that goes at least 10,000 ft. but anyway we found what we were looking for.

We set out four lines in a small pattern and before too long things started to happen. There were several very large Barracuda strikes,"man they fly like torpedos", but they were too large to keep for food [over 2 ft and you take a chance of toxic poisoning, because of what they eat.] They were all over 4 ft. We did get a couple of shcoolie dolphin and put them in the cooler.

Now is the infamous story about the one that got away - and while this is a true story - it is not a tall tale. Let me first state that I had been on this day, and many times before, coaching my good friend Gary on the benefits of using "appropriate tackle", for the areas you fish in and also for the targeted species. I was dead set against a certain type of set up, and you'll see why.

Well at one point towards the end of the trip, and down to only a few more balyhoo, I suggested we put out the biggest rod with the biggest bait, out past the swells of the boat where the water gets calm again, and pick up the speed to about 6 knots. Only a few minutes passed when the big rod went off screaming like a siren and the steam was coming off the spool in a fine mist that showed the colors of the rainbow for about two seconds. I went for the rod but Gary beat me to it and reared back to set the hook.

When he did the drag was kinda tight at first so the line went straight and started to cut throught the surface of the wake, and then snapped when it cleared.

We could tell this monster was on the top and ready to jump. By this time it had peeled off a couple hundred yards of 40lb test from the Penn 6/0 while still in the holder, and we had it out about 75 yards initailly.

When the line tightened again this fish was still stripping off line and it did a tail dance that would put Fred Astair to shame, then kept on running just below the surface, away from the boat. Gary was getting a little nervous about being stripped off so I started heading for it with my buddy winding as fast as he could.

Watching the direction and amount of line on the reel I put the boat in neutral to look for fish,
only to find that it had sounded because of the slat in the line while turning around to track it down. I guess it was about 200 ft. down below the boat now, so Gary started horsing it up.

So far the only view we had gotten of this beast was when its tail walked around 300 yards out and moving away at a fast clip.
If you've ever been in a similar spot, you know that the anticipation will send pleasure signals to the brain that mimmick your first time with [well you know what I mean, don't you?]. Theres only a few things I can think of to raise that level of excitement and this was one of them. So as the beast got closer and closer to the surface the butterflies got bigger and my hands were sweating too!

With the waters off St. Croix being crystal clear on that day I began to see color flashes, and I could begin to gage the size of the fish. It was huge and as it came closer to the surface it just flat out lit up like a Christmas tree, and the colors of the rainbow were across its side and the head was red. It was a huge "Bull Dolphin" all lit up!

Well it got to the surface and since we had this rod set up for Blue Marlin, there was a twenty ft. leader and don't you know there it was. That type of tackle set up I mentioned before,that I did'nt like, a snap swivel. So I grabbed the leader and started pulling.The fish seemed tired out and was coming up easy but when it turned and saw the boat or whatever it came alive and went for that last run to free itself. And when it did, the 2000lb. leader ripped through my hand and that snap swivel got hooked and in a split second it straightened out in my hand and that giant Bull Dolphin was gone, and so was my friendship for Gary, (in that instant I wanted to throw him over the side), but never did!

I estimated that Dolphin to be 5ft. if it was an inch, and had to weigh at least 75lbs. Let me tell you they grow em big around those islands, no doubt about it.

Now let me just say I've told some fish stories in the past, but every word is true I swear it. That’s my story and I'm sticking to it, although Gary might tell it differently (over 100lbs.) Honestly this is all true. I was there and lived to write about it. You can't make this stuff up unless you've seen it before. But I ain't seen Gary since 1992 and it happened in 1989. Let’s see you top this one partner!