Strange Story...

[Arojekt]

I've been big on surf and pier fishing up in Maryland (I go there a lot in the summer) and on beaches here like Carolina Beach and Topsail. I have a ton of gear set up for the waves. About a year ago, my friend got me into freshwater fishing, and I've been doubling my tackle and rods as catfish gear. I ended up salvaging my lighter, 6-8 foot rods for catfish and leaving my 12 and 16 foot rods for saltwater.

I was at Bass Lake in Holly Springs with 3 rods in the water. I managing my cheap, low-end Berkley fitted with a catfish leader and a treble hook. I mean, I got a few hits, you could tell the fish wasn't particularly half bad, so it really kept me on edge and occupied. I snatched up my rod as soon as I felt the hit was right and hook him, however as I started to reel in, he pulled back hard and I heard a horrible almost whipping or snapping noise... It wasn't a "WOAH, BOBBY THIS IS A HUGE FISH COME 'ERE!", but like "What the $@&# just happened?"

Apparently after reeling, I came to realize that line was going out and not in. Upon closer examination of the reel, my bail had a lot of stress on it and was bent half-way up, and thus letting the line out, but when I snapped it in place it was extremely loose and just came up again. I had run out of options. I didn't have gloves, as I like to pick up fish with my bare hands even though I risk being spiked by them... That's forty pound test, thick line. So what to do? I decided to let all the line go out, and hopefully it wouldn't snap when it hit the end of the line.

A while later, I ended up lining my reel again.

After about 3 hours, on my Ugly Stick, I caught a 45 lb blue, and along with it, a red treble hook, cat-leader and a lot of line.

I wish I could throw the picture on here, but it's on my cellular phone and I don't know how to transfer it from that to the computer.