FishRook
Paul Newman, 17, was fishing aboard the charter boat Tall Tailz out of Newport, Rhode Island on Nov. 7, when he caught a massive tautog (or blackfish), that could break a 67-year-old state record, according to the Daiwa fishing tackle company. The deep-water, bottom-dwelling tautog hit a white crab on Newman’s snafu rig and the fight was on.
“At first I thought the fish might be foul-hooked,” Newman told Daiwa. “But then the rod tip began to bounce and I realized it was a real solid fish. Once the battle got going, it cut in some heavy head shakes and made several strong runs that took it from within yards of the boat all the way back to the rocky bottom in deep water.”
Newman was fishing with Capt. Connor MacLeod, a Daiwa pro-staffer.
“It was immediately apparent that we might have a new state record when we decked that beast,” says MacLeod. “Our hand-held scale put it over 21 pounds, so we decided to put the fish in a big tub of water to keep it…
