When I was about 12 years old my family went to Carribelle, Fla with an uncle on a fishing trip. We stayed right by a canal and caught bunches of topsail catfish - had a ball doing that. The highlight of the vacation was to be a trip out on a head boat to bottom fish, but the weather kept them all ashore. We were to head home on Sunday when one captain said he was going out on Monday. My uncle decided to stay, but since my dad had to work, he said we had to go home. Somehow I talked him into letting me stay and fish with my uncle.
It was rough but we made it to the fishing area and began to catch grouper and sea bass. I hooked one that I thought would pull me in! It looked huge, and I was real proud when my name went on the tag. I was also excited - I had not seen anyone else catch one nearly that big, and I had squandered a whole dollar to get into the big fish pot! At the dock when my grouper was weighed it pulled the scales down to 12 pounds. I was ready to get my money when a bigger fish was weighed - a 13 pounder a crewman on the boat had caught. To this day I think I should have won that money!
Many years later we got a school of carp baited up under our boat docks at Clark's Hill. I caught so many I started using my ultralight rod and reel spooled with six pound line. All I could do was hold on when a 3 to 7 pound carp hit, and that was the size we were catching. Suddenly I remembered the feeling I had on the head boat - a fish almost pulled me off the dock. After a fight lasting more than 15 minutes I got the big goldfish close enought to net, and it pulled the scales down to a little over 12 pounds. These scales were not accurate to the ounce but I am sure that carp weighed between 12 and 12 1/2 pounds.
A few summers after that we were running jugs for cats at Clark's Hill. One morning we could not find one of our jugs after all the others had been collected. When we started riding we found it hundreds of yards out in the main lake, and every time we got near it the fish would pull it under. After a long chase we finally netted the blue cat, and it weighted a little over 12 pounds on the same scales as used for the carp.
Those are my three 12 pound fish. It has been a LONG time since I caught one that big. and have caught only two fish bigger - a 14 pound gar and a 21 pound big head carp!
What is your biggest fish? Tell me about it. Also, you can also post information about it for others on my message board - you must register to post but can read the board as a guest. Also, if you have thoughts you want to share about this topic, let me know about it at fishing.guide@about.com for a "Fishtale." Tell others about your catch.
