OWNED!!

[Crafty Angler]

Originally Posted by Back Beach

Like I always say though.....catch them first and weight them after. It was a pretty good one though.....I think. Look at the pigtail on my mono. Yikes.

Sorry, BB - it wasn't an attempted hijacking just trying to inject a little humor to ease the pain. I've been there myself.

Me and a friend were slo-o-o-ow trolling eels at a UDL on his boat - the water was relatively shallow and all of a sudden the clicker on my conventional started going off. I grabbed the rod out of the holder and set the hook and the line started to go out at the same pace. Lots of lobster pots in the area, figured I snagged one. My friend at the helm drops the boat into neutral and we come to a dead stop and line keeps peeling off - I'm onto a good fish.

The drag was set loose and I looked down to tighten the star drag at the same time the fish broached in the shallow water. I never saw it, but my friend did and starting yelling "What a fish! Holy #&$%#! Don't lose him!" I looked up and all I saw was the hole in the water it left and it looked for all the world like someone had just tossed a horse off the Newport Bridge.

I set up on the fish again and it began to pick up speed - then suddenly the line goes slack and I reel it in to watch a pigtail of 50# mono leader come over the stern. My knees were shaking like a twelve year old schoolgirl. And that was it - it was over. My snell knot that I did myself had failed.

Earlier that morning we saw what we figured was a sbft in the same spot absolutely nail a bluefish in mid-air. It happened so quick you almost couldn't believe your eyes. An old-timer who owned a trap fishing company tagged a 600# bft in nearly the same spot back in the 60's.

The fish I had on was definitely a bass, my friend saw it clearly fully out of the water. Hearing about it on the somber ride to the dock wasn't exactly any consolation. But it taught me two things.

- Never #&%# with your drag in the middle of a fight.

- Never trust a #%$## snell again. Especially my own.

Like Clinton used to say, I feel your pain