Tail Shakers and Heartbreakers

[Bubba_Bruiser]

With Cranks post, it got me to thinking. Let us hear of some of your epic battles that just fell an inch short. We all fish for a reason. Some of us for the competition and some just for sport. I like to use it as a reboot time to clear my head, but there is always that little something in there of gratification when lipping a big girl with that thick tough skin around her mouth. You know the kind that separate those from dinks to chunks.

I guess one of my biggest heartbreaks came in Nov of 2011 where I locked my thumb on the reel when a fish I would estimate as my first Dbl D hit less that a foot away from the tip of my rod. I have never snapped off CXX. I have straightened several hooks, including heavy flipping and super line Gammys, but never popped it or broke off a fish. I just flinched, set the hook, and had the spool pinned with my thumb and to my knees I went after the kapow!

I have a debate from time to time with a 20+ year fishing partner. He claims I knocked a hook out of a beast mouth trying to net her. I keep telling him, I didn't have the net in the water and the fish head shook at the side of the aluminum boat. I heard the bullet weight ting off the side and watched the hook fly out hahahaha. I guess we will go to the grave debating it because he isn't buying it still.