Super User Bassn Blvd Posted February 2, 2008 Super User Posted February 2, 2008 Westapalmdude, Jason, and I went to my neighborhood lake this evening to have some fun catching 1-3 pounders on beetle spins with #6 mono. Let me start by describing this lake. Max depth= 34'. Water visibility= 5-10'. Vegitation= Eel grass. Springy angel hair pasta looking grass. Biggest bass I personally know of being caught and released from this lake was 13lbs. Lake is at least 25 yrs old. On to the story. I caught 2 dinks about 1/2-1lb on the beetlespin. Jason and I had a few other short strikes but nothing major. The wind was blowing from the east which blew the bait to our end of the lake. The minnows/shad would scatter across the top as our line cut through the school. I made my cast into about 10' of water and began the retrieve. My beetlespin came up the drop to about 4' when all I felt was something extremely heavy on the other end. I never had a chance to even set the hook and quite frankly didn't have to. This fish made a wake as if you were dragging a boulder behind your boat just under the surface. She headed due east along the bank about 15' from shore. The drag was SCREAMING so I tightened down a bit, actually d**n near hammered. I fill my spools to the max so I had about 105 yards of line. I looked down at my reel and could see metal through the line. OH CRAP, I'm being spooled. Now SHE jumped and made a whale of a splash and continued her run. Jason and I took off RUNNING along the bank towards her, trying to gain some line. Just as I almost have her directly parallel to me, she turns and hauls azz North to deep water and ain't slowing down. All that line I gained is now GONE and I can't turn her. She bogs down in the heavy grass and all I can feel are head shakes. I try pulling her in and managed to get about 5' of line when she pulls, taking back 7'. Now she stops and I can't budge her. She is buried in the grass and still shaking her head but I can't pull her in. Now I have caught hundreds and hundreds of Snook. This is a Snook as well as Tarpon, Sea Trout and Redfish while wading the flats using U/L gear but let me tell ya, this monster was easily double digits. Jason and I, to no avail, made every effort to get this BEAST in. Jason even tried to find a Jon boat in someone's backyard that we could use to track her down. But, no boat. It's been a good, hard 15 minutes and she still tries to make short runs. I'm able to raise about 20 yards of line up and out of the water and the line is covered in eel grass. The remaining 70 or so yards of line has tunneled through the grass. I'm done. My only chance is to swim down to her. I empty my pockets and into the water I go. I wade out a bit and realize it gets deep quick and the grass is THICK. No way a can safely go further w/out risk of drowning in the grass. I get out of the water and and slowly start walking backwards while holding the spool, testing the rod and line strength ( Loomis warranty lets you test your rod to the extreme). I can still feel her head shakes and I get a good amount of line in and then, OOPS, hook pulled. I get the beetlespin in and noticed the hook is actually bent. Man, what a disappointment. This was the biggest freshwater fish I have EVER hooked and I got my azz KICKED. I only hope she stays in this general area because Jason I are most certainly going back for a rematch. Here are a few pic's Jason took. These are me just hopelessly watching my spool and Jason as she peels line. This is me trying to get line back and thinking hard about going for a swim. She is about half way across the lake. Oh well, always tomorrow. Thanks for reading. Quote
Super User Tin Posted February 2, 2008 Super User Posted February 2, 2008 Awsome story, and what a fight. Quote
Guest Steve_P. Posted February 2, 2008 Posted February 2, 2008 Nice report. I was rooting for ya!! Had me sitting on the edge of my seat so to speak. Quote
BaitMS Posted February 2, 2008 Posted February 2, 2008 Man I hate it when the turtles do that. J/K. We want pics when you do get her in. Quote
X-Rap Posted February 2, 2008 Posted February 2, 2008 Wow man great story! Sounds like there was nothing you could do. You'll get her just keep at it Quote
Korea_Bassin Posted February 2, 2008 Posted February 2, 2008 Glad you made the choice to not take the unwarranted risk and stayed safe. Get 'er next time. Good luck. Quote
-HAWK- Posted February 2, 2008 Posted February 2, 2008 That lake/neighborhood looks very familiar, whats the name of the community? Quote
Super User KU_Bassmaster. Posted February 2, 2008 Super User Posted February 2, 2008 Great story until the end :'( :'( That's why I could never do the UL thing. Sure it would be fun for bass up to 5 and 6 lbs, but if I lived in the land of 10 lbs + I could never risk it. Quote
paul. Posted February 2, 2008 Posted February 2, 2008 wow! what a heartbreaker. great story though. i guess it's better to have fought a monster and lost than not to have fought at all. like you said, at least you know she's in there. a fish like that just makes you want to forget there's any other fish in the lake and just chase after her all year. it just sucks losing big fish. i have a couple that still haunt me to this day. i guess in a way the tradgedies make the triumphs a little bit sweeter. i know that's probably not much consolation, but it's the best i can think of. you'll get 'er next time buddy. now get back there with some braid and kick her butt! Quote
Super User Sam Posted February 2, 2008 Super User Posted February 2, 2008 Sometimes when a bass gets clogged down in the grass if you give them some slack they may swim out. I wonder if that would have worked. The good news is that she is still there so you can go out and try to catch her again. And this time I know you will ready and waiting. Great story. Thanks for sharing. Quote
Super User Bassn Blvd Posted February 2, 2008 Author Super User Posted February 2, 2008 That lake/neighborhood looks very familiar, whats the name of the community? Near Lantana and 441 in Palm Beach . Quote
Super User .dsaavedra. Posted February 2, 2008 Super User Posted February 2, 2008 wow great story. i would be devastated though. if i was gonna lose a fish, i would definitley want it to spool me lol! but yeah tha had to be a great fight. Quote
tallydude Posted February 3, 2008 Posted February 3, 2008 Just another example of why God created 30lb braid . Quote
Super User Bassn Blvd Posted February 3, 2008 Author Super User Posted February 3, 2008 Just another example of why God created 30lb braid . Yea, but you gotta give the fish a sportin chance. Quote
Low_Budget_Hooker Posted February 3, 2008 Posted February 3, 2008 Even the ones we never get to hold can leave great memories Now you have history with the old girl,....bigger rod on the next trip Quote
tallydude Posted February 4, 2008 Posted February 4, 2008 Just another example of why God created 30lb braid . Yea, but you gotta give the fish a sportin chance. YOU give the fish a sporting chance. Next time, I'm catching and you're taking pictures ;D. Quote
ba7ss3in Posted February 4, 2008 Posted February 4, 2008 Hate to hear about your loss, better luck next time. Quote
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