Man catches 52-pound striped bass

Thursday, July 22, 2010

By GREGORY MEIGHAN

Staff Writer

The fishing duo of Steve Schonberg and Capt. Whit McMahon will be telling their epic story of reeling in the Moby Dick of striped bass that would make Ishmael and Ahab jealous.

This story has a happy ending for all, because the gargantuan striper that weighed more than 52 pounds and was 47 inches in length was let go.

“It is the biggest one I have ever seen,” McMahon said.

McMahon is a 31-year-old who works for his father, Satch, the patriarch of their charter fishing business, Captain Satch and Sons, in Wells, Maine. McMahon has been fishing with his father since he was 8 and has been a boat captain for the past 12 years.

Schonberg has vacationed for the summer in Merrimack for the past 10 years.

“I love to be out on the water, I used to be a wind surfer and sailor,” Schonberg said. “It does not really matter to me, if I am with people I love, it doesn’t matter if I am catching fish.”

Schonberg has been fishing around 20 times, and each summer for the past 10 years, he has tried to go on a one-day fishing trip. He has used the services of Captain Satch and Sons before and has pulled in many 25-inch stripers in the past.

This time, he was with his wife, brother-in-law, niece, nephew and his nephew’s friends. The six of them were accompanied by McMahon and his first mate, Capt. Tom. They caught an abundance of mackerel to use as bait. McMahon told everyone to reel their lines in because they were going to move from their spot off the shore of York and Kittery, Schonberg said. Schonberg began to bring his line in when, all of a sudden, it caught and went straight down.

“It took about 15 minutes to bring the fish in,” Schonberg said.

McMahon was driving the boat to help him out, but could not personally touch the line or pole, because that would make the catch of a trophy fish not legitimate. After the 15-minute battle to get the fish out of the water, they had to get it into the net.

“The most remarkable thing was trying to get that thing in the net,” Schonberg said. “It was bigger than his net.”

McMahon says that he had his torso off the boat with Tom holding his legs to prevent him from not going over the stern of the boat.

“I am 68 – that fish weighed more than I can pick up, especially with one arm,” Schonberg said.

All fishermen dream of the one fish that they can tell tales to their grandkids about some day. They can tell them how long the fish put up a valiant fight for, talk about the “hurricane” that laid as the backdrop for the epic duel. And ending, of course, with emphasizing the size that is coincidentally the length of their exact wingspan. Schonberg let his story fish go, and, under the exact circumstances, he would do it again.

“Once I saw the size of the fish, I said I am not going to keep that,” Schonberg said. “It was a champion fish, and I would hate to eat a champion fish. It is a survivor.”

McMahon said this fish was exhausted, but still healthy. If the hook had gone through the fish’s gills, then she likely would have been kept.

“He released her because she was a breeder, and he wanted a little kid to have a chance to catch her,” McMahon said.

The fish would have delivered between 16-20 pounds of fillet, McMahon said. He does more than 100 trips a summer and gets his excitement from his customers reeling in fish. The 2010 Maine Striped Bass Regulations state that one fish can be kept if it is between 20 to 26 inches or greater than 40 inches.

The biggest striped bass in New Hampshire was caught in 1980 by Robert Lindholm, and it was 51 inches and weighed 60 pounds. Schonberg was close to the record, but his intent of letting his champion breeder fish go is so more people can tell tales that will carry on longer than any fillet.

“I want to get the world record, which is 78 pounds,” McMahon said.

Gregory Meighan can be reached at 594-5833 or gmeighan@nashuatelegraph.com.