I'll be brief.
The weather was crap this afternoon. As I drove, I was thinking: "why bother"?
Here is a sad, desolate bouy. Bobbing in a bay of murky despair.
Just for fun and size comparison. Here is a wee snotty I caught Ice fishing.
(You'll notice my Dead bait of choice is a white storm lure. It out performs live bait)
Soooooooooo, I'm at my spot; it's raining, it's cold. There's nobody around. Why am I here?
I'm using a lure I got out of one of the cheap bins at the sportsman show but I'm sure it has to work.
I'm slowly reeling in, the water is like mud........and then I think I see a FOLLOW!
Indeed! It's huge!!
Here is the Mama(?) swimming.
Thank goodness for my drag. She did a bunch of runs with some good solid weight.
She followed and swallowed (easy boys).
My heart sank thinking that some dire surgery was to follow.
Turns out she hadn't bitten the lure. Instead, she had clamped down on my leader (the blood in the next photo is from my finger and a bit from her lip)
When I got her mouth open with the spreaders, the lure was hanging free in her vacuous pie-hole. No pliers needed!!!
So this is the scoop.
I was alone as usual so I did not measure her, I'm guessing over 40".
However, I did weigh her with my digital scale, 16.5 lbs!!!!!
I look like an ogre because the weight on my messed-up finger was discomforting.
Here she is
IT HAS BEGUN.............
SNOG