Capt. Rich Antonino of Black Rose Fishing Charters is no stranger to large gamefish. He regularly targets giant bluefin tuna and is a master of the porbeagle shark as well. This season he has been doing a number on the mixed groundfish that have been putting on a major feed in the Gulf of Maine including haddock, pollock and most recently, cod—check out his weekly reports for details.
Well on the morning of August 18, he set out for another groundfish charter that ended with rather unexpected results. The day was going as any other with the usual suspects being boated until 26-year-old Kay Lynn Starzynski of Wheatfield, Indiana hooked into something heavy. She was fishing with an Okuma Azores jigging rod, Okuma Cedros reel and Norwegian jig with haddock being the primary target when something very heavy took the jig. Initially they thought it might be a large porbeagle shark as they have been very common on the haddock grounds, but when they finally saw color it was quite apparent that this was not a shark. Having only landed a handful of halibut over the years on the Black Rose, Capt Rich initially figured it was a large ray, but when it got closer to the surface he realized that it was in fact a very large Atlantic halibut.
The fish was eventually subdued and when back at the dock later that day, the fish taped out at 59.5 inches and weighed 102 pounds. This fish easily moves into the top spot in the annual Massachusetts saltwater weigh-in derby and bumps a 73-pound fish landed by Matthew Watts from the top spot.
A huge congratulation goes out to both the captain and angler on the awesome catch!
