I was really whupped today after fishing two long days back to back, especially with that wind and driving rain yesterday. I wasn't sure I was going to fish at all, but after falling out about 7:30 last night, I was up and wide awake at about 3:30am. I killed as much time as I could, but by 7:30 I was bored to death, and decided to head to the lake for some R&R fishing. It was to be a purely recreational day.

I was fishing a hole that's about 16 ft. deep, just slow-rolling my yellow Bucktail jig, when I got a pretty good hit. The fish was obviously strong, and kept stripping line. I just back the drag off a little because I had my 7' medium action graphite, and my 4600 Ambassador spooled with 12-pound line. I knew I was going to have to be real patient... so I was. It took about 20 minutes to get her to quit and pull her in. I was inside one of the harbors, and drew a small audience on one of the docks while I was fighting her.

I had talked to Chris Dennis a little earlier, and he was coming to get in the boat with me. I told him to call when he got close to the dock so I could pick him up. So he did. Right in the middle of the battle. I answered the phone and told him he was going to have to wait a little.

One of the guys on the dock said, "I can't believe that you'd answer the phone while fighting a fish like that!" Well... it rang, didn't it?

I finally got her to quit and roll over on her side so I could get her in the boat.

Someone asked me one time how big a fish would have to be before I mounted it. I've never come up with a solid answer. I'm not really into mounts. I didn't mount this one. I released her after shooting a few pictures. My scale only weighs to 15 pounds, so I didn't get a weight. Trust me, she was well over 15 pounds.


...Only a little more...