Hi Downhome,

Hope you will print my story: "The big one that almost, but didn't get away."

During the food fishery of July 2009, my sister Chris, her husband Tom Traverse and I decided to go out for a jig. We tried all the fishing grounds on our way to Patridge Point and beyond. We never got any fish, not even a bite. Suddenly, the weather changed; it began to rain, so we headed home.

On our way beck to Fleur-de-Lys, Tom decided we would go out on the "Northern Rock" for one jig. As soon as Tom dropped his line over the side, he got a big fish, then another, and another; each one bigger than the other. He told us he had his line on the bottom. So we did the same. Chris caught one bigger than the ones Tom had.

I thought I had hooked the bottom, as usual. Then my line began to move slowly; I could hardly move it. At one point, my line felt light; I thought I had lost my fish. Then my line felt heavy again. Finally, I hauled the biggest fish of the evening to the surface. Wouldn't you know, it fell off my hook. I couldn't hook it again; it was off from the front, and I had no gaff with me. It seemed like it was above water about five minutes, then it flipped to go under. When it flipped, its tail came close enough for me to reach out and grab it. I held on with every ounce of strength I had. By this time, the fish was closer to the boat.

Tom reached out and put his arms around the head of the fish. Between us we rolled the fish over the side of the boat (I was in the centre of the boat, and Tom was in the stern). The fish weighed 23 lbs and was over 40 inches long. I never want to catch a fish that way again.

A few days later, on the same fishing grounds, my line felt heavy again. This time I hauled up a small fish, with a shark eating off it. Needless to say, we got out of there fast.   Submitted By: NULL