How many have you lost?

[schoolie monster]

Every year, I seem to go thru a stretch where I lose a few fish. My uncle and I dropped four straight good sized fish when he was up a couple weeks ago. It was freaky. Fish were hooked solid, fought for a couple minutes and just came undone. He had already caught a fish a hair under 20#, and these fish were in that range.

The next weekend, I nailed a 23#er and then lost the next fish, again, was in the same size range. Lost another fish a bit later... it was smaller, but mid-30 inch range is still one you want to land.

It gets frustrating when you know you aren't doing anything wrong. I'm not breaking them off with bad line... I'm not horsing them in, and I'm not babying them either. Sometimes you just go thru some bad luck.

As for the one that got away... last season on a live pollock. Towards the end of my day, this fish made a run towards a boulder field and I couldn't stop him, or her I guess. Burned the heck out of my thumb too. Finally had the fish turned and the line broke above the water line. Sounded like a fire cracker. I was so pissed. I just had that feeling in the pit of my stomach... that was a big fish, I'm sure my biggest. The line was fresh, but I must have had a nick or bad spot. I still would've liked to just see the fish.