06.03.07 - It was a day after tropical storm Barry. The sea was angry, my friends. It rushed into the lake 5 minutes from my new Augustine home. I had caught a 2 lb. bass just before the storm with a plastic minnow. After the storm I came up with a new strategy. I would use a worm to catch a sunfish and I'd attach without weight to line 2.

Instead I caught a weird black, rather heavy minnow. Is this a mud minnow, I asked? Straight from the sea? I attached it to line two and waited. It was ten minutes before my line went straight down. I loosened the drag. I was fighting a monster. There was trouble. I was on a wooden pier. I couldn't get him into shore. If I got whatever it was that was tearing at my line to the pier, I'd lose him.

There was a foot of possibility; a tiny patch of beach below the pier, if I lowered my rod two wooden rungs and jumped down. .That meant leaving the road slack for 10 seconds minimum. There was no choice. The monster jumped. It was huge. I had to go down. It swam deep into the weeds. I lowered my rod both rungs and jumped. I was on a foot of dry land. The fish was still on. I had to choice. I went on my knees, reeled him through the weeds and saw him.

Oh Lord, all my life I've waited for such a trophy. He was huge. He survived 10 seconds of slack line, and he had to be loose. I made my move. I reeled him through the weeds and grabbed his mouth with my thumb and index finger. He was struggling too much to pull him on shore. He was getting away. I added my middle finger to his gills.

I had him and pulled him to a foot of land and started climbing the pier. The fight was over in ten minutes.

But he was mine.

I rushed home to weigh him knowing each moment he was going to lose liquid and weight. Then I put him in the fridge for possible mounting.

9.4 lbs.

Ninety minutes later I reweighed him in front of my loving bride.

9.4 lbs of largemouth bass.

My intuition and fishing experience caught a trophy. My trips to Cyprus to visit Jim Searcy FINALLY paid off.

I learned how to catch a trophy. It may never happen again. But tonight, I starred on the pier.

Barry