Good morning everyone,
Ever have one of those experiences that you know no one would believe if it wasn’t caught on camera? Well today was one of those days. Every year my goal is to get the boat put in the water by end of March so I can get in before my maintenance guy gets swamped with the rush from others. It’s a quick ride from the boat yard to my dock but today I decided to extend it and go across the bay and out toward the inlet just to check things out. I am usually alone but this time my buddy came along for the ride. Weather wasn’t great, overcast, chilly, breezy but still better than being couped up in the house like we had been all winter.
As went along South beach and towards the inlet we were passing the rock pile by Democrat Pt when we both saw a large fish chasing a small flounder on the surface. Cool! We circled back and decided let’s see if we can catch something. The problem was I only had that old “boat rod” on the boat. You know the one you keep stored in the bow in case your cousin’s kid comes on the boat and suddenly wants to try fishing. No net, no tackle. Just an old light spinning rod with an old budget reel with some 20 yr old mono crusted in salt and old Salty dog lure with a rusty hook. Don’t judge me, you’ve all been there.
I backed the boat toward the rocks and my buddy cast and all I can say is it looked like he threw a slinky off the boat. Just a tight spiral that Tom Brady would be proud of. It went about 10 feet and dropped. He turned to me with that look like really? This is the best you have?
Anyway, the wind and current were pushing us toward the rocks so I popped it in gear, bumped the boat out a bit and he took and another cast. This time it went better as the line looked like it was relieved to be stretched out and wet and was willing to at least give us a chance. The old reliable Salty Dog (pink) did its thing and swam its way back to the boat. Again, I bumped the boat out to avoid the rocks and he cast it once again. As he jigged the lure back, the rod just stopped. We both thought he snagged one of the rocks and that would be the end of our fishing. The line was playing out pretty quickly and it was a few seconds before we realized our drift was TOWARD the rocks so if anything, the line would get slack not play out! FISH ON!
At this point I needed to bump the boat out away from the rocks and ever so slowly we were able to create some room between us and the rocks, but the fish was determined to head straight back for them. Was it a Bass? A Blue? We couldn’t tell, but whatever it was it was BIG. He managed to gain some line then lose some line knowing full well that ant any moment the line, the hook, the rod all could fail. Our drift brough us back to the rocks and again I slowly bumped the boat out and the fish took off again. We did this dance a few more rounds before whatever it was started to tire and give up the fight. He got the fish closer and we could see it was a HUGE BASS. 50?-60? Lbs. Neither of us had cracked the 50+ club in all our years fishing and we were not about to let this one get away. As he got the fish closer, she just gave up and rolled on her side. Her big sad eye staring right up at us. I said I feel bad and he agreed so I leaned over the gunwale, grabbed her lip and unhooked the lure and slowly pulled and pushed her to get water flowing through her gills to revive her. Her fin shook and she rolled upright, swatted the water her huge tail and swam off.
Like I said, if it wasn’t caught on camera, no one would believe us.
Well, It wasn’t
Ever have one of those experiences that you know no one would believe if it wasn’t caught on camera? Well today was one of those days. Every year my goal is to get the boat put in the water by end of March so I can get in before my maintenance guy gets swamped with the rush from others. It’s a quick ride from the boat yard to my dock but today I decided to extend it and go across the bay and out toward the inlet just to check things out. I am usually alone but this time my buddy came along for the ride. Weather wasn’t great, overcast, chilly, breezy but still better than being couped up in the house like we had been all winter.
As went along South beach and towards the inlet we were passing the rock pile by Democrat Pt when we both saw a large fish chasing a small flounder on the surface. Cool! We circled back and decided let’s see if we can catch something. The problem was I only had that old “boat rod” on the boat. You know the one you keep stored in the bow in case your cousin’s kid comes on the boat and suddenly wants to try fishing. No net, no tackle. Just an old light spinning rod with an old budget reel with some 20 yr old mono crusted in salt and old Salty dog lure with a rusty hook. Don’t judge me, you’ve all been there.
I backed the boat toward the rocks and my buddy cast and all I can say is it looked like he threw a slinky off the boat. Just a tight spiral that Tom Brady would be proud of. It went about 10 feet and dropped. He turned to me with that look like really? This is the best you have?
Anyway, the wind and current were pushing us toward the rocks so I popped it in gear, bumped the boat out a bit and he took and another cast. This time it went better as the line looked like it was relieved to be stretched out and wet and was willing to at least give us a chance. The old reliable Salty Dog (pink) did its thing and swam its way back to the boat. Again, I bumped the boat out to avoid the rocks and he cast it once again. As he jigged the lure back, the rod just stopped. We both thought he snagged one of the rocks and that would be the end of our fishing. The line was playing out pretty quickly and it was a few seconds before we realized our drift was TOWARD the rocks so if anything, the line would get slack not play out! FISH ON!
At this point I needed to bump the boat out away from the rocks and ever so slowly we were able to create some room between us and the rocks, but the fish was determined to head straight back for them. Was it a Bass? A Blue? We couldn’t tell, but whatever it was it was BIG. He managed to gain some line then lose some line knowing full well that ant any moment the line, the hook, the rod all could fail. Our drift brough us back to the rocks and again I slowly bumped the boat out and the fish took off again. We did this dance a few more rounds before whatever it was started to tire and give up the fight. He got the fish closer and we could see it was a HUGE BASS. 50?-60? Lbs. Neither of us had cracked the 50+ club in all our years fishing and we were not about to let this one get away. As he got the fish closer, she just gave up and rolled on her side. Her big sad eye staring right up at us. I said I feel bad and he agreed so I leaned over the gunwale, grabbed her lip and unhooked the lure and slowly pulled and pushed her to get water flowing through her gills to revive her. Her fin shook and she rolled upright, swatted the water her huge tail and swam off.
Like I said, if it wasn’t caught on camera, no one would believe us.
Well, It wasn’t
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