[AnthonyN]

It was late september of 2001 I had just finished a days work. So like everyday before I stop home say hello grab my pluggin rod and jump in the car down to colt state park to kill some time catch some blues and talk to the regulars who I have got to know very well over the past 8 years. I see my friend frank down there with his girl and he was having fun with some skip jacks. of course me being a wise a$$ decides to poke fun at him and his skip jacks. So i grab my rod throw on a popper and start pluggin away. I am chewing the fat with my him when he hooks another skip jack it was about 10" in length. He was about 3 feet to the right of me and I look at his skipjack and laugh that its more than I caught today. So he throws it back in the drink as he threw it in the water what looked to be a 20lb+ striper came up and swollowed it!!!!(the tail on this striper was about 7") I was bringing in my popper at the same time about 5 feet out in front and the striper hits my plug!!!!! I get all nervous pull up the rod to set the hook the fish was in less than 2 feet of water there was more fish than water I have the fish on he starts to shake his head and turn for the open water me being an idiot trys to horse him in 3 seconds later he spit the plug back at me. It was a heartbreaker. I tried untill just after dusk and nothing. That all happened about 3 feet in front of us!!!! So me and frank decide to come back later on during the night and fish the current with some pogy chunks. So we set up and it was about 9PM we sat there without a bite for over an hour. All of a sudden out of no where my Baitrunners drag comes to life and starts to sing! I grab my rod wait 1 sec flip the handle and set the hook. It was a good hookset. One problem........ I don't think the fish even felt the tension of the drag it was like i never shut the BR's secondary drag off. He is taking line at an alarming rate I start getting very nervous and excited I decide I better do something to slow him down so I tightened the drag as much as I dared and begin pumping the rod in hopes of slowing the fish down. It doesn't even slow him down I am hoping the fish turns soon becuase I started running low on line on my reel all of a sudden the line went dead I reeled in the slack as quick as possible............ nothing there. I reel in my rig to find no bait and an empty hook. It probably would have been the biggest striper of my life it was gone. I was so disgusted I kept thinking of where I went wrong I figured not lettin him run tighting the drag or pumping the rod could have contributed to my loss. Then again he could have scraped it off on the bottom. I will never know.... It still haunts me till today. I ended up settling for a 34" bass that night but it really didn't matter all that much..... All I wanted was another chance on that fish I lost...........