Daily Reports From The Deck

    One year ago today, on a very slow July afternoon, Doug Kay, from Union Beach, NJ, hooked into what would be a 10 1/2 pound fluke. Doug would soon find himself thrust into the fluker celebrity limelight. After his 15 minutes were up, Doug began dreaming of recapturing the fame that had passed him by. So today, on the anniversary of his catch, he hoped to duplicate the greatness that was a double digit fluke. Doug performed well, putting 5 fish in his cooler by mid-day, however that 6th fish would prove to be elusive. On our last drift, Doug hooked into something good. As he set the hook and began to move the fish off the bottom, something happened. Equipment failure! Doug's line broke at the swivel. Something that happened only a couple hours before. As we examined the faulty swivel, Doug's friend Jimmy asked for a net. Once the fish was in the boat, we noticed that it had Doug's hook and leader in it's mouth. It wasn't a 10 pounder, but it was a quality keeper. The one that would have given Doug his limit. So after a few minutes of trying to find a loophole in the fluking rulebook, Doug gave up on his fight for ownership of the fish, and realized that today it was not going to be. No 10 pounder, and no limit.