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Thanks for the comments guys, it was truly a epic day for team Reellax. Unfortunately I was on the camera and did a pretty shitty job of getting some proper shots to truly show the size of her.
The day was a practice day for us in between tournaments so we thought we would try some new areas as we were struggling during the previous tournaments. We left the dock at 9:15 and 40 minutes later we were on what we call the short course in Grander Land, we got 4 lines set and was just getting ready to put the shotgun in the clip when the ocean erupted on the left short and we were treated to a unbeleivable areial display as a fish about #450 attempted to write the alphabet against the Island only 2 miles in the background. After a fight of 9 minutes we released her and 22 year old Chris Petracca had his first Bermuda Blue under his belt, I could not have been happier for him as he had lost two other nice blues in the tournaments when the hooks pulled. We decide to retire the Big Breakfest after that and save it for the tournament as so far it has been our most productive lure. With high fives all around and feeling much better about ourselves we worked the area a bit more and decided to head over to Challenger Bank and work the Southern side as we exclusively worked the northern side during the tournaments as this is where the Yellowfins and Skippes were hanging out.
As we approached the Eastern turn of Challenger still in the deep water between the edge and the Bank the big girl hit the right long and there was hardly a ripple behind the lure I said to myself probably a white or a wahoo but quicky changed my mind as the Penn international was hitting notes I did not know were audible to the human ear. With Dave coaching us along myself and Mike were in warp speed getting in 4 other lines and 3 teasers, its amazing how fast you can move when line is melting like butter off the spool, It was then time for the 61 Garlington to do what she is built for and Dave did not miss a step, what felt like a eternity of backing down and filling the Reellax with water including engine room and wetting everyone in the cockpit we were able to stop the first run with about 200 yds left on the reel which sounds like alot but is not to comforting when you are sitting in a depth of 2000 fathoms. Thankfully she never dived and we were able to back and grind and get the backing on the reel at which time we upped the drag only to have her make a second run, backed the drag off as the dacron once again came to say hello and Dave once again decided to see if he could sink a 61 Garlington. With 200 yds left for the second time the drill started again with Mike finally getting his first shot at the leader and for us to get our first look at her as she never jumped, Mike made no mistakes and got the leader on his first attempt was able to take a wrap but she would not budge and did not like that extra pressure and with two powerful kicks of the tail Mike released the leader. We then had a mini celebration as she was an official release at that time. This is when I made a call that will haunt me for the rest of my fishing days. Looking 25ft down and only seeing the back of her I estimated the fish to be in the 800 to 900 lb class. Having made the release we decided to go to Maximum drag and Chris and Dave went to work getting the leader to Mike 3 more times but we were never able to turn her on her side until the very last time and that was only because the leader somehow wrapped around the bill and thats when we finally could appreciate the size of this magnificent fish. Having grown up in Grander land I have been very fortunate to have seen most of the granders caught by the greats such as Capt Alan Desilva of Mako, Captain Alan Card of Challenger and Forum member Captain James Robinson of the Wound-up. I never thought I would be able to witness what so few have been able to accomplish and Cards comments are ringing in my head each night that I attempt to sleep " It aint a Grander unless it is hanging by the tail"
To me it does not matter I enjoyed seeing her swim away able to lay many more eggs to replenish our fishery in Bermuda, however i feel bad for Dave Mike and Chris who work so hard at what they do and are obviously very good at it.
I made the wrong call when she turned on her side and I saw the girth carry all the way to a tree stump tail I was fucked it was to late. She was a easy 1200!!!!!!!
Danny | 
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