Almost had a state record...
I can talk about this safely b/c at one point I did stop to fish for crappie around a blowdown..
Anyways, I was bass fishing around Deep Bottom on the James River this afternoon....I was within 100 yards of the ramp and throwing a double bladed spinner bait when I got hung up.
Or so I thought.
It felt like I'd hung my spinner bait into a log....then I saw a HUGE tail sweep and my line took off and I knew i had a monster "something" on..
When it surfaced at first I thought it was a catfish but it was fighting waaay too hard...
So yea, I'm sure you've figured out once I said "thought it was a catfish" that it was a bowfin...
Biggest freakin bowfin I have ever seen in my life....it was as long as my leg and every bit of 15lbs....Let's just put it this way, I caught a 19lbs catfish last year and this fish was just as big.
Oh and did I mention that during the fight, the handle to my reel started to come off? Nice huh?
Anyways, I got it to the boat but had no net...and no gloves...and I sure as hell wasn't sticking my hand in his mouth. I wish I'd had a camera to take a picture of him in the water because I knew swinging him over the side would break the line (8lbs test)....so yea, the line broke at the boat.
But man....almost a state record lol
