Mission Accomplished

Greg was back again, along with Andrew & Kevin, looking for more of those monsters. Kevin had a taste yesterday but we were only able to fish for about 90 minutes at the end of the day. Hopefully he would get to feel the pain this time out! A light rain was falling when we reached our destination but it didn’t matter as the winds were from a good direction and light for the start. After all the lines were in, I raised the top to give us more shelter. I’m really glad that I didn’t remove it yet, as the protection it provided was perfect today! First up was Kevin and I handed him a loaded rod to do battle with something large. Now he felt the power of these fish and the burn in his arms. She was definitely heavy by the way it acted. Although there were no jumps, the runs were significant of weight and he possibly had the one we had been looking for, for the past two days. By now Kevin was in total pain but wouldn’t give up. He had been informed of how difficult it was to land these things and was now experiencing it firsthand. It was already 20 minutes into the fight before we were able to get a view of his fish and when we finally did, everyone was in shock. This was undoubtedly the largest one by far! I eventually got a shot at this goliath of a fish and somehow managed to get her in the net. Although we had caught plenty of huge fish in the last couple of days, this one dwarfed them all. It would definitely be a two person job for the pics! I readied everything while keeping her in the water, before hoisting her into the boat. Both Andrew & Kevin held this mammoth for the pics and we shot quickly to preserve her. The release was something out of Jaws 1 as she slowly swam away. We reset the lines and hurried to get them back in the water, in hopes of another one. By now the rain was no longer a mist and was falling pretty good. Thankfully being under the cover, kept us dry! They managed to get a couple more good fish soon after and then Kevin was back up. As luck would have it, Andy handed him the rod and it was game on! He was now doing battle with another giant and still suffering from the first one of the day. This fight was identical to the previous one he had and after almost 30 minutes of battling the fish, we saw why. I was netting something even larger than the one he had already caught! Although happy for Kevin, there was a little envy from the others as they had hoped for one of their own. He had flown in the day before and now had the two largest ones under his belt, in just a few short hours of fishing. Talk about winning the lottery! As with the first one, we prepped everything and shot fast before releasing the giant back to where she belonged. I’m just glad it was us that landed her as some of the other boats would have probably killed her for food. Unbelievable! After composing ourselves, we were back at it hard, waiting for more River Monsters! Although we never really got into any more of that calibre, there were plenty of other great fish landed throughout the day. The rain fell heavy at times along with the arrival of a cold front, causing the winds to increase. We managed a few more fish and eventually the anchor slipped and we were done. The guys had a long drive back home and had decided to leave a little earlier than usual, so this was a sign. They all had their fill of fighting fish and were all suffering from the battles. Kevin had been broken since before 9:30 so my work was done! I was hoping to crush him by noon but completed the job ahead of schedule! I’m sure they will have a lot to talk about in the truck, unless some of them fall asleep from the sheer exhaustion of the day. These past three days had produced high numbers of big fish and exceeded their expectations tenfold! Not in their wildest dreams did they ever imagine it would end this way. Although they had never fought and landed fish this size in fresh water, all three of them now had another check off their bucket lists. Mission accomplished!!