the Good Lord looks down upon an ole topwater plug
fisherman and says "let's have some real fun"....
Early Sunday am east of Anky at mouth of Peary Creek:
worked in with electric motor...slight outward current in creek
mouth...water very dark....misjudged bar on west side of
creek and quickly heard and felt crunching noise. You guessed
it, I'm stuck on the bar. Raised electric and stood on deck and
rocked and rocked but she's not budging. Lay rod (antique
Shakespeare boron with Daiwa SS 1300 spooled with five year
old power pro (10#) and some mono backing and a short
fluorocarbon leader with a dark back/orange belly Top Pup
with original hooks removed and replaced with those
really sharp Daiichi's. I ease out of boat with my sandals
on, being very careful not to destroy my feet and begin
pushing the boat off bar. Over my left shoulder there's a
huge splash and I look to see about 4-5 mullet jumping in
that many directions at once. Guess its the instinct...reach and
pick up rod and cast Top Pup to area of the splash and begin
walking motion momentarily...I think it twitched about twice
when the water exploded with a splash like I haven't seen
since a 47" northern pike exploded on an ole Devil's Horse
he was offered off the Yukon River...somewhat like throwing
a 5 gallon bucket filled with sand into the water. Fish
immediately headed toward St. Marks and only turned east
when the mono backing was showing...whew....then he
heads for Castro country at the same pace....down to
backing again. Holding the rod as high as I can with one
arm I climb back into boat and get on front casting deck so
I can get rod higher in the air. My thoughts centered on
the only possibility of getting him over the bar to boat was
to let him tire before even attempting it. After about 20
minutes of give and take and seeing him turn on the surface
numerous times he finally gave evidence of tiring and I eased
him over the bar and into the net. Awesome!
The front Daiichi treble really did its job with two of the barbs
buried so thank goodness the line and drag did it's magic.
27" on the head holding him as best I could against my
ruler on the side of boat. My largest red ever on artificial
with light tackle.
I was exhausted and he was exhausted and I still had to
get the boat off the bar.
And I believe the Good Lord smiled and said...
"that was fun."
