Cape Breton's Magazine

were just hyper by this time. We knew then that we had him. We were quite sure that he was hooked for good. It was 12 o'clock, exactly, that we hooked him. And after 45 minutes he started really slowing down. He kept going. And after an hour or an hour and 15 minutes, he used to stop. And he'd stop for 5 minutes, then he'd go really fast for 10 minutes, then he'd stop for 3 or 4--and each time it was getting longer and longer and longer. And finally at 2:30, he finally stopped. And we thought. He's ready to haul in now. And we were quite a ways out here--it's still a nice day on the water--and Charlie and I were still in my boat, and Lloyd and Mike and Alex were in Lloyd's--so we decided we better all go in one boat and try and take him in. And Charlie and I jumped in the boat. I left the boat out there. And when I think of it afterwards, I never even thought of putting an anchor out, nothing-- just jumped in the boat and left her in the middle of the ocean, floating around, ready for salvage. So we took the buoy--grabbed ahold of it-- and he took off with it again. We thought we should leave it for a little while yet. And he stopped again. And there was no movement whatsoever in him. So we started hauling him in. And we decided it would be just one person that would haul on the rope because we were scared that the hook, if we pulled too hard, that we might pull the hook out. I got hold of the quarter-inch rope, and I was pulling it in--maybe 30 feet of it in--and he'd go with 10 of it. Then I'd pull another 40 or 50--just all of a sudden he'd just take off with'maybe 30 feet of it. And there was no way you could hold it. And it was 45 minutes from the time I started pulling the rope to the time we saw him alongside the boat. He came up right alongside. And there was still a little bit of life in him. We put a dart in him to make sure that we wouldn't lose him. (That gave us) another rope--we were able to pull him up even more. And we got a big rope in through his mouth. We were hoping to get him in, take him into the boat. There were 5 of us. And with the exception of Charlie, I'm sure each one of us weighed over 220 pounds. And Alex was like over 300. And we were just huffing and puffing, boy, for all that was in us. We couldn't budge him. Just couldn't do a thing with him. We hooked up the trap hauler and we put a derrick on it--and we just couldn't budge him. We decided then that we'd tow him in. And it was funny, you know, all this time, like we were making guesses on the weight-- but I never once thought all the time that we were doing it--until it hit me when we were coming in the harbour: I thought, "Holy God, that fish is worth like $4.00 a pound." And here's a $4000 fish coming in behind the boat. And it was the first time that I'd even clicked that the thing was worth anything. All the time we were out there, from 10:30 in the morning to this must have been 3:30 in the afternoon--it never entered my mind that the fish was worth much. (And how much was the mackerel worth?) Oh, 15 cents a pound or something. It ended up the fish was worth $5121. It weighed 1029 pounds. And we got $5.00 a pound for it. But that was the most excit? ing day I ever had in my life on the water, I'll tell you. Just incredible. (Did Lloyd ever get a tuna before?) No. CAPE BRETON'S OWN iEngliHtf'tfllu Jfftalj 'n Cape Breton's Original English Recipe! HOME STYLE PROCESS (12 years in operation) 539-8188 76 Townsend St. Sydney 849-5150 Senator's Corner Glace Bay Antigonish Mall Antigonish 562-6745 • The Oasis" Sydney Shopping Centre 794-3555 Next to North Sydney Mall North Sydney Ttie Fish and Chips Specialists Ron May Pontiac 147 Prince Street Sydney 539-6494 Cpwtimipw Pixjtyction Plon Hawkesbury Pontiac GhAC TRUCKS 46 Paint Street Port Hawkesbury 625-3280 FRONT END ALIGNMENT -- AIR CONDITIONING SPECIALISTS NEW & USED - SALES - SERVICE - LEASING - DAILY RENTAL