We had a decent day at Sandheads, probably one of the better days so far this year (which isn't saying too much). Dropped lines at 8 am and before I could get the second line down the Mrs had one on. Unfortunately lost it when the flasher broke the surface. About half an hour later I was checking my side (anchovy above dummy flasher) and had one take it on the way up. Didn't feel like much at first and we kept the other rod down. Then the fish broke the surface with a big roll and headed for bottom followed by me yelling "Clear the gear!"
Had a good battle for the next 10 - 15 minutes and the first time we get it up near the boat 250 lbs of seal shows up, grabs my fish by the tale and goes for a runner. Unfortunately for Mr Seal, I wasn't going to let him get away so easy with one of the few decent fish I've had this year, so told the Admiral to grab the helm and chase that MF-er down! My theory being that if we stayed on top of him we could keep him under and/or whack him with the boat/net when he came up to catch his breath and maybe get our fish back. Finally after 30 minutes going back and forth over hells half acre, I see the leader break the surface next to the boat. Just as the Mrs grabs the net and gets ready to take a big swing, fish pops up - sans seal - and in to the net it goes while our nemesis watches in disappointment, huffing and puffing, from about 20 ft away. 22 lb white, and the best part was that there wasn't a scratch or tooth mark on the fish! Have to give credit to my better half for the awesome driving and netting, I may have had the easy job.
Had a few other long line releases and hits that didn't stick, but came home satisfied after our epic battle. Saw quite a few nets out through the day, pretty consistent really although most looked like either jack springs or coho. Saw at least five other boats get sealed, some with decent size fish on. All our action was between 45 and 70 ft.
PS, on the way back in saw the Port Authority keeping a close watch over the boats at the Cap which were all well away from shipping channel and in the confines of the new fishing permitted zone discussed elsewhere on the forum. Chatting to some other boats back at the dock, sounds like they were doing the rounds and making everyone aware of the new regs coming into effect in a couple days.