by Rich Ison2 » 8/12/05 2:07pm
Alright, here's a good one.....and it's not even a Bass. Me and a buddy were fishing a tournament out of the Detroit river. We were making a run up to lake St.Clair and were just spanking the Smallmouth and having a great time. Well, I hooked this GIANT Muskie...and I mean it was a GIANT. The goofy thing looked like an alligator as it opend its mouth and flared its gills in that clear water. Anyway, I played it around and around and finally had it wore out. Well, it ( - - blocked - - ) out from under the boat and was just laying on its side. I thought, 'Well, that was kind of fun'. My buddy looks at me and says, 'Now what?'. I said, 'Put it in the net'. Well, that was a stupid thing to say because it was WAY bigger than the net we had. Even though it was useless, my buddy goes to net the fish from the tail end and maybe a third of the fish goes in the net. As he's standing there scratching his head mumbling something, the fish went nuts, about jerks me and my rod in Lake St.Clair, ( - - blocked - - ) unhooked, and swam away. I just kind of stood there and laughed, but my buddy turned to me and was pale white. He says, 'There went the Big Ugly!!!.....'. Neither of us were thinking of it at the time I was fighting the fish, but at the pre- tournament meeting, the tournament director said that the biggest non-Bass species (they called it Big Ugly) brought to the scales would win $500.
Only when the Muskie was swimming away did my buddy remember that little detail. In all honesty, it would have never crossed my mind.....until the weigh in that is. Nevertheless, if my memory serves me right, I think a 7 pound Drum won the cash!!
Now that was the Big Ulgy one that got away.
Good fishing,
Rich
