Like I said, there was a pickup and headshake, definitely not a fur fish. Its possible the thing was foul hooked though. I fought a 20# fish a few weeks ago that was snagged in the dorsal and it went like hell at slack tide. Swore it was real big until I saw it.
Thanks for the condolences guys. It was a funny day today. I got four phone messages from my fellow surfmen and they all sounded very somber, kind of like someone died.
Fact is though its impossible to determine exactly how big it was. My four year old was funny though. He was a bit upset that my eel got stolen. He promised me we would go back out today and get that fish. Then we would take it home and throw it in the woods for the big, bad wolf to eat.