Who has reached that elusive 50 mark?

[JohnR]

cause at least you used to hook a couple a year that you never had a prayer, or you screwed up, or got lazy with your terminal tackle or something

Last year I was fishing a stretch of my favorite beach. Mostly sand to the left, boulders and riprap to the right. Gorgeous spot that just creates drool. I had a real soft hit on my eel, dropped and hit the clutch and line started pouring off the reel. She paused, I set, then all hell broke loose. I was fishing a nearly new Calcutta 400 on a pretty stiff 1089 with the drag locked pretty tight and fresh 30# big game. This fish was pulling so hard so fast into that boulder field that I had my thumb on the spool too to try to get her to switch up. If she had gone left, I could play a bit more easy but she went right into the rocks and I felt my line pinging and scraping. I could feel the line dragging across the rocks and the fish just pulsing. A thousand things were going through my mind as my thumb burned and I was starting to back off the drag but the line just parted. It was like trying to stop a pickup. No chance - no dice . My biggest fishies from the beach have been mid thirty pounders and they were healthy, solid fighting fish. They weren't close to this puppy... I still get the goose bumps thinking about that night. I get those goose bumps often...

I never had a prayer... Someone with a load of experience on BIG fish? Maybe maybe not. That was leauges different from the fish I've danced with...

When it happens again will I get her?