The one that got away!

[Fish Masterson]

I always hear these stories of people losing these monster fish, so I am not going to tell you about the monster redfish that Rocket sabotaged me on today. Instead I thought I would tell you about the little guy that got away. Myself, and Rocket left the ramp about 4pm on the last of a rising tide. A short time later we arrived at what I thought was fish-able water, when I heard Rocket start whining about being in the middle of no where, and needing to be over there further. I said that we could fish our way over there quickly enough, and so it began. Two or three cast later and Rocket has a red coming to the boat, from water in the middle of no where, I'll have you know. A few cast later and he misses another. I reassessed my tackle situation, and soon I was hooking up to. We went on to boat 10 keeper reds, and missed several more, when the bite started to slow. I again reassessed my tackle situation, and started fishing hard with not much going on for awhile, when suddenly, WHAMO,BIG FISH, YEE-HAW,HANG-ON! I battled the brute for quite some time and was'nt really gaining on him, all the while, expertly guiding the boat away from structure and trying to pull the fish to deeper open waters. I led the fish to where I thought was safer, and concentrated on keeping the boat headed toward open water and trying to will the fish away from the gauntlet of oysters and rocks that he was trying to make for. Finally, I started gaining some line on the fish, and got him away from all the mess, when, I guess he finally realized that he was hooked. Off he went again on another drag burning run and then, yep you guessed it, SNAP, @#$@#$@$ @#$@$@ @%@#@'er. I reeled in my line to find it badly frayed. Seems the old boy did'nt get that big being stupid, he took me right to some submerged structure, and wrapped my line around a rock or something and then said have a nice day .
Anyhow, enough blathering about that, this was a story about the little guy. I placed a cast into a likely enough spot and soon I felt the tell-tell tap of a fish. I rared back and set the hook with great force and the little guy was pulled completely from the water. He struggled on top trying to get back into his world where he planned to show me a good fight when suddenly the hook pulled free . I could easily estimate his size and species from the look he gave me and it was a Speck of at least 6 to 7 inches. Now that is a fish that I will be lookin to catch. I just would like it to be in about ten years
I guess we had a good day, but it would have been better if the score would have went to my favor, instead of even, so that I could have bragged about putting it on 'ole Rocket like usual, but I guess I should be the bigger man and tell Rocket congratulations for finally keeping up.

[Sea Fox]

Good report Fish, and you know what I am about to say. The big one always whips my butt!

[rocket]

I've never seen someone so excited over a foul hooked gafftop in my life!
For the record, I said we were on the "edge" of the middle of nowhere.
It was a blast watching Mish Fasterson tie, and re-tie rig after rig trying to keep up. He would dig deep into his duffle bag of 7500 different baits he got on sale when TG&Y went out of business back in 1984! Some of that silly stuff worked . I can still hear "drive the boat, I need to re-rig" ringing in my ears this morning. He finally settled down, and went back to his "secret bait", and proceeded to hook a couple dozen rocks.
If this were a tournament I would have slapped him across the face, and screamed GET A HOLD AF YOURSELF MAN! He looked like a cat on a porch full of rocking chairs!
When he finally caught up to my tally for the day, he settled down. Then he threw across redfish point, and all I heard from the front of the boat was"oh my gosh, oh my gosh...raise the trolling motor, no wait I need to pilot us out to sea...raise the outboard...move dog...oh my gosh I've got a monster...get the net...no don't...which way is south...oh my...what happened...where did my Blue Marlin go?...I swear I just hooked a Blue Marlin...did you see it?" I tell my friend that catfish can pull pretty hard, but he aint hearing me. He's convinced he hung a Blue Marlin.
I proceeded to tell my friend his "Blue Marlin" took him to school on an oyster bar. Then came the tears. My friend won't admit he was crying, but it was real quiet on that boat for a while.
After he dried up, and realized that it was not to be, he listened to reason. I had to go home to my family. It was after 8:00p.m., and I knew they were waiting for me. So we headed for the hill.
Yesterday was the day Mish Fasterson could have out fished me, but as usual it was not to be. That "Blue Marlin" would have put him over the top. He only tied me, which is a personal best for him. I for one am proud of him.

[RodBow]

After coming off the boat you can tell who your friends really are!
By these two accounts - it's certainly an awesome relationship between true fishing buddies to be able to lie BIGGER than the other...

Great day! I hope we all have many more as good as this one.... AMEN

[Redfin]

Rocket- give mea call or email.. been tryin to get ahold of you.....Sent you several emails.... later... (Great Story)

[Eerman]

Do us all a favor and put a video camera on the boat.

[rocket]

Do us all a favor and put a video camera on the boat.

I aint falling for that one again!!
Last time I did that, soon there after I found Mish Fasterson fishing all my holes!!! Said he was filming some sort of documentery. Documentery my foot!:smt011

[Aucilla]

What a really great couple of stories! Thanks guys. Lies or no, it was a fun read.

[rocket]

Only one of us was lying, and it aitnt me!

[Fish Masterson]

Only one of us was lying, and it aitnt me!

[Greenbone]

They are fishermen?? YES Then they both will tell a lie