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The Big One
By Eric Griffin
Dateline 08/31/98
I went fishing the other day, and I'll never EVER forget what happened. I had tied a Rapala Original Floater onto my 4 lb. Test line, and took a few casts. "That's a great action.", I said to myself as I watched the lure glide in, gently rocking from side to side. I silently vowed then and there that there was nothing I wouldn't do or anywhere I wouldn't go to save my precious lure. After all, I was a birthday gift from my father. But the next cast would push my silent vow to the extreme.
There I was, untangling my line, when I saw a HUGE fish jump out of the water, out of the corner of my eye. I quickly finished off the tangle and thought to myself, "Could 4 lb. test bring in that fish?" Well, I decided that if I played it right with the drag, I guess I could handle it. I cast out to where the ripples were, and as soon as my precocious Rapala hit the cool water, he hit hard! I figured he was probably a bass, because of the way he jumped, and the way he took the lure, and I was right, partly. I was surprised when he didn't give any fight at all, just glided right in. When he came within my sight, I felt sick to my stomach. I was the biggest eel I had ever seen! I pulled him up on shore and quickly whipped out my pocket knife and cut the line. As he hit the water and started to swim away, I remember my Rapala on the line!
"OH NO!!!", I screamed. I figured that lure was a goner, when a bolt of lightning shot out of the heavens and across the clear, blue sky. Without a second thought, I dove into the water to save my lure. I followed the black, slimy, trail of sludge in the water, to his lair. There I saw him, and I grabbed him, and I unhooked my lure, and I swam back to shore, and I went home, and I took a shower, and I watched TV, and I went on-line to fishing.about.com, and I went to chat at 8:00pm, and I talked to Ronnie Garrison, and he told me to write a fishtale, and this is it.
