This is my story and I'm stickin to it! I took my RV to Dillon Beach on a beautiful Sunday morning. Fished that afternoon for surf perch and caught a few small ones. Next day, fished morning and late evening for a few more perch. Tuesday morning was a little different. The perch was really hitting! After catching about 14 perch, I hooked into a real Wopper! I have to digress for a moments folks. Remember I said I was fishing for perch? With that said, I was using an 11 ft crappie rod I got in Louisiana from Bass Pro, which I got to give the perch a fighting chance! With that fishing pole I was using an itty bitty Wally Mitchell Spinning reel with 4 pound test line. OK, now back to the story! As I said before, I hooked into a Whopper! I set the hook and my reel started singing! Holy crap, I pulled back and I couldn't stop the thing. I put a finger on the spool trying to slow the damn thing down without breaking the line. Four pound test remember! Anyway, No way was I slowing the thing down. The fish started running south with the current along the beach!
Well Hell! I also started running along the beach, (While wearing waders OK!), reeling all the while, trying to get some line back, with some success. By now, he was about 150 feet off the beach! I'm keeping the rod loaded up and making the fish work for every foot of line. We are going back and forth. I take some, he takes some. 30 minutes later and half a mile down the beach, he turns around and heads back the other way, going north now, against the current. I'm getting tired now, switching the pole from one arm to the other. We go up the beach for about a quarter of a mile when all of a sudden, a seal shows up! Damn, he's trying to get my fish! I start yelling at him, (Fat lot of good that does)! All of a sudden, I feel a slackening of pressure on the line. I start reeling like hell trying to keep some pressure on the fish to keep him from throwing the hook. Hell, he's trying to get away from the damn seal I'm guessing! The seal grabs my fish and I keep pulling. By now the fish is in shallow water and the seal lets go! Hot damn, I'm gonna get him! I use the waves to help slide the fish into shallow water where I can grab him. Damn it all, keeping pressure on the fish and reaching for him, suddenly there is no tension on my pole and I realize that the line has just snapped.
Well now, I have just been fighting this fish for 40 minutes and I wasn't going to give up that easy! Not with the fish within reach I wasn't! I jumped the SOB and I gots the pictures to prove it!
12 lbs 8 oz and 32 inches long.
Caught using a 1 3/4 inch
Motor Oil Red Flake Big Hammer™ 1¾" Perch Grub
Forever!)
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