I have two of these stories. One is in the more distant past, and one is a wound that has almost healed.

The older one is less painful now, only because it has been overshadowed by another lost fish, but it haunted me for a while. It was back in 2004 on the Harris Chain of Lakes down in Florida. It was a late January event, so the big fish were on beds. On Day 3 I was back in a residential canal and there was about five minutes of fishing left before I had to go in. I had just found a good group of fish that would've held me over the next day. Just before I had to go in I hooked into an honest-to-goodness 10-pounder. Read More