Reply #15: Pull up a chair. [View All]

[trof]

38 pound cobia or ling
Biggest fish I ever caught by about 35 pounds.
But...
We were fishing wrecks and artificial reefs in the Gulf of Mexico and I had already lost 3 rigs by hooking onto what we were fishing over. At first I thought this cobia was #4, and then he started to move. Took 15 minutes of hard work to get him close to the boat and then he saw the landing net and took off again.

Took another 15 minutes to get him alongside again. This time the net handler was more subtle and scooped him, but the net was rotten and he went right through. Now I'm fighting him through the aluminum hoop. Finally managed to get disentangled, but the fish has looped the line 3 or 4 times around the outdrive. My buddy was striping down to his skivvies to go overboard and CAPTURE this fish. We got the line unwrapped with a boathook and landed the fish.
Good eatin'.