The Big One That Got Away
Every sportsman has one of those stories that nobody believes. A story that one doesn�t even tell to people, because they probably won�t believe them anyway. Well, here is ours. It was just another typical summer day. Being college students, Jared and I work hot, sweaty summer jobs. So after work, we like to load up the old 14� jon, and head to the river to relax. One of the easiest ways to catch fish on the river is to throw out some juglines, and float down the river with them. That�s exactly what we did.
�Fish on,� Jared said. �Lets go, lets go�, I was yelling. Jared was franticly trying to get the ol� 9.9 started so we could chase down the jug. Finally we got her going. I knew it was a good fish. We had done this quite a few times, and knew what to get excited about. Once we got close to the jug, it was heading upstream about as fast as our 9.9 would idle. I headed to the front of the boat to retrieve the jug and net the fish, while Jared manned the motor. As soon as I reached for the jug�.. It was gone. We counted in our heads��10 seconds. The fish repeatedly was able to hold the jug under for 10 seconds at a time, so we knew it was big. Finally, I got a hand on the jug, and netted a 26 pound blue cat. Pretty good for a small, shallow river that is only 15 minutes from downtown St. Louis, and only 5 minutes from our front porches.
That 26 pounder was a good fish, and the best fish we ever caught on that river. We would normally catch a fair amount of 1-5 pound cats, but nothing that big. After all that excitement, we decided we would do it again soon. So, the very next day, we headed back. I stayed up late into the night, re-making lines that could hold up to bigger fish, because until this point, we had no idea this small river could support fish like this. So we motored up river to about the same spot as the previous day, and threw out our jug lines.
�One, two, three, four, five, six, seven�..where is that eighth jug at, Ryan?� I counted them again, and there were only seven. �I don�t know, we threw out eight?� �It probably got wrapped under a log, we�ll motor upstream and check after this run, Jared said.� About an hour later, we had gotten to the end of the straight stretch of the river that we normally run our jugs. �Lets pick em� up I said.� �Ryan, Ryan, look!� �what, what, I said?� �The eighth jug, Jared yelled, the eighth jug!�
The jug that we lost was about 100 yards downstream from where the boat was. The jug had went almost a mile from its original release point, and had been underwater the whole time. �start the motor, start the motor, I screamed!� Finally we got the motor started, and we went flying down the river with everything he little 9.9 had. We finally got close to the jug. It was moving downstream so fast, it had a wake behind it. As Jared motored close to the jug, I reached down to retrieve it, and the jug went out of sight. We both looked around, and waited for it to surface, but it didn�t.
We could see that the sun was getting ready to set, and we were not prepared to stay after dark. We didn�t even have a flashlight. We were very disappointed, because we knew that if we were going to retrieve the jug, it had to be fast. Accepting defeat, we went to retrieve the other seven juglines. As we motored back upstream toward the other seven, we began counting them to make sure we didn�t have another fish on. �One, two three, four, five, six, seven, eight�.that one is moving!� The eighth jug had traveled all the way back upstream to where the others were. We continued chasing the jug around the river for a few minutes. At one point the jug had surfaced, and it was imploded, almost like someone had removed the air, and screwed the cap back on. Meanwhile, we actually had a crowd on the river bank that was beginning to form. There was a golf course that bordered the river, and the golfers were laying down their clubs, and routing us on.
As much as we wanted to recover the line, we had to leave. It was a twenty minute trip back downstream, and darkness was approaching quickly. Because we launched our boat at a county park, the ramp closed � half hour after sunset. So as upsetting as this was, it was exciting at the same time. We just couldn�t even visualize something like this until it happened. That fish was able to hold the jug under, for what we believe to be an hour. The previous day we caught a 26 pounder, and it could only hold the jug under for 10 seconds. How big was it? I don�t know. But I hope we can try it again.
