We all hear about epic battles with a fish from time to time. I’m here to publicly state that I will never doubt what I hear about a fight that a fish has given. I’m going to keep it as short as I can. After a good day yesterday and no nap, I promptly fell asleep in my recliner at about 6:30 and woke up at midnight to go to the bed. I live on a screwy sleep schedule anyway, always up before everyone. 4:15 this morning my eyes popped open, not to close again. Instead of bugging Joan and keeping on making noise and waking her up repeatedly, I did what any self respecting fisherman would do. Left the house by 4:45 and went to Dunkin (I know I know) and got her a coffee and a couple of donuts and me something and dropped them off and went down the street to be the first one at the ramp. A few fish were found before the sun and I wasn’t keeping today since yesterday’s fillets were in the fridge. I was using a 5’6” Shakespeare micro, Shimano Sienna 1000 loaded with Stren Crappie 2lb mono and one of my tiny jigs with just a hint of floro green maribou. To cut to the chase, I pitched it into a place that I knew I shouldn’t have and felt what I thought was a mushy kind of take, not a thump mind you. I lifted the rod and it came tight and the fish was still moving along like I didn’t exist. A little more pressure and he reacted in a big way. This was no Crappie and it was a brute. No, not a catfish either. Drag sang a lot, I recovered line, and then he started going back where he came from, and I couldn’t have that. With the rod tip high, I grabbed the spool and fought him with the bend of the rod. He surged no less than a dozen times and had me going to the other end of the boat. All this time I’m trying to get a hand on my net. If it was on video it would have been a hilarious Chinese fire drill! Took at least five tries to get him in the net but he had other ideas. I finally got the timing right and got his nose coming towards me at the same time I had the net ready and I had him
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Disbelief was my reaction. Now I know why people go to Arizona for possible world record shellcracker and gills. This thing was huge compared to any other panfish I’ve ever caught. Then I put him on the scales.
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Haven’t weighed anything this big in a very long time. Just lipping this thing took concentration. I didn’t dare let him start flopping around and get gone. The rod, reel, line and most of all, my little jig with a #8 sickle hook performed better than I ever dreamed it would. I put the fish on the front deck to look at it in the net and the jig fell out and through the net. God worked overtime smiling down at me on this one. An amazing fish, but now, what to do with him. It didn’t take long to decide that he was feeding someone and it wasn’t me. I had been talking with a gent that I’ve spoken with several times and he was catching fish, but this covid thing had him fishing for family and things were slow for him. I already had 3 crappie in a bucket for him and I just added the tilapia to it. His eyes and grin got real big and he kept saying thanks. We parted a little while later and I headed home, was there just after 9. Not a bad start to a day. As I write this I can barely move after too much yard work, service the mower, and set about 200 sq ft of two inch thick paver stones. Maybe I’ll work tomorrow, not sure. I might be able to wipe this smile off my face by about Thursday. This has been a bit off the usual crappie trail, but what a ride it was. Thanks for coming along and I wish you at least one of these in your fishing lifetime. Until I see you on the water..........Skeet
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