LadyFish
Admiral
- Joined
- Mar 18, 2003
- Messages
- 6,894
This is incredible...........<br /><br />---------<br /><br />It's early August and we were fishing on the Boliver side of the jetties. My friend, Chad, hooked a 28-1/2" trout and all I caught was a dogfish! And my friend, Patti (and also Cofounder of Texas Lady Anglers), wasn't having much luck either. So, we pulled anchor and went to the port side of the jetties. Chad and I were fishing toward the rocks and Patti, who is often unconventional in her fishing techniques, started fishing the deep drop off on the back of the boat. It was HOT, mid-August and now 1 p.m. . . . skin burning up!<br /><br />Anyway, she hooks and lands a REALLY nice red. So, it goes without saying, I moved to the back of the boat to fish right beside her. Then I hooked a nice red. Then the slow down . . . nada. So, I move to the front again and continue to fish the rocks with Chad. She puts her rod in the rod holder (on the back of the boat) and lies down on the seat to read a book. All of a sudden .... zzzzzzzzzzzz .. screaming drag . . . she runs to the back, picks up her rod and is just holding on . . there was nothing she could do but try to talk some sense into that fish. . . she kept saying, "Please, fish, I'll let you go ...I just want a picture!"<br /><br />It was about to spool her and Chad is pulling anchor to go chase it down. Then suddenly the thing whipped it around and started swimming right back at her . . so she's reeling, and reeling and it's almost back to the boat. Then, her whole rod just shook violently from side to side and all was quiet, but her rod tip was bent completely over. She reeled it<br />up and what was left is in the photo.<br /><br />OK, Now look at the photo.<br /><br />What a day .... I tried to convince her to mount the head to make it look like it was swimming out of the wall (I thought it was cool idea), but she kicked the head in the channel and it became crab bait! Needless to say she was frustrated. All we can figure was that that fish was off to the races and ran into a bull shark. . . turned around and boogied it back toward us ..... but just didn't quite make it. It's probably a good thing that the shark did come along, cause chances are it would have snapped off and we would have never seen how big that fish really was - isn't it amazing?!?!?<br /><br />Sounds like a big fish story and was almost the big one that got away... just glad we have the pic .... it was a good day . . . . the weight of the head . . . close to 21 lbs for just the head!<br /><br />
<br /><br />Great story and HUGE red. Looks like the giants they catch in the NC surf, where they are called channel bass. I don't remember one over 50#, though. Patti's fish must have been over 50#.<br /><br />I also like your idea of the head mount.
