Raised my rod tip one more time and felt a solid thump. I set the hook hard and with no movement at the other end for an instant thought rock. Then rock pulled back and the battle of a lifetime was on. The powerful first run peeled line of my reel fast as the fish headed for deep water and almost pulled the rod out of my hand. I told my partner to get the net this is a gorilla.
Suddenly the fish started up, I lowered my rod tip in an attempt to keep the fish down but it blasted out of the water a good 3 feet. My partner encouraged me to bring it to the net, but the fish felt otherwise. It made two more spectacular jumps in front of us, and a run under the boat peeling line as he went. As I struggled to get my rod up the fish jumped behind us. I was sure the run under the boat would end the battle but somehow I led the fish around the front of the boat.
The fish took three sizzling runs beside the boat and as many attempts with the net to finally end the fight. With this big Small Mouth in the bottom of the boat both my partner and I were shaking like a leaf. The pure adrenalin rush made me feel like a kid that just caught his first fish.
We had just enough time for a couple more casts before we had to leave. I quickly started retying my jig when my partner said "there he is" and from the sound of the splash, I put my gear down and headed for the net. He had several long runs and a couple of big jumps and led the fish into the net.
I hated to leave this kind of action, but had no choice. We arrived at the dock with about one minute to spare. My fish tipped the scales at 6 pounds 15 and ½ ounces, and had spit out about a couple ounces of shad in the live well. My partners fish was Just over 5 pounds with a total weight over 12 pounds, enough to win the tournament and the big fish pot.
This story tells to never give up, fight to the end and it just might pay off Big.
See page 1 for the first of the story >>>>>>>
