So I bail outta work early today knowing that the weather the next few days is gonna make fishing difficult at best. Head over to a popular rocky oceanfront spot here on the N. Shore and immediately see the birds working. Low tide made for a hike but I get out there and join one other dude who quickly tells me they are just school stripers. Proceeded to land several dink fish all of 15-18 inches long. I did notice that while I was bringing in one small fish that an apparently much larger fish was swimming nearby. Then it stopped- not a hit or swirl for 15 minutes. Started tossing a new favorite lure- a salt-water super-spook. I was varying the retrieve and liked the way it moved when "sloshed" through the water. So I was sloshing/stopping/repeating when WHAM- a very big bass, not even 5 feet from the rock I was standing on, exploded on the lure. She at first went straight out about 60 or so yards on the initial run that banged a hard left toward a nearby beach. There was a large rock between me and where the fish was headed and after two more solid runs, I had her stopped. I held steady and decided to go to the left a bit to avoid the big rock before tring to ease her my way. I kept tension as I carefully slid down off of the rock I was on and across a ravine. Then it happened- just as I was back on solid footing, the line went slack.
I reeled in the line thinking that she had somehow rubbed of the 50# mono leader but what I found was that one of the trebles had bent out- not straightened but just bent. That fish would most likely have been a personal best but turned out only to be a personal bust. Gonna lose sleep on this one for sure...
