I landed a large buck on a river that will remain unnamed so as not to offend any of you sensitive bastards on here. I was drift fishing a pink work that I got from a certain worm manufacturer before he went back into business,of which I still have a small amount of those original worms. This was before team "hey look at me I'm a guide".

I digress. So it's late March,almost April. I'm on the nunyaphukinbusiness
river in whereverthephuck USA. I hope that's better. Anyway I'm fishing downriver from a buddy who isn't very skilled at catching fish on his own,so I plunk him in some easy water and he lands a little hatchery turd on bait. I am down from him where that tailout drops into fast heavy water that spills into a big flat. Money spot.

I cast up in the heavy water and halfway through I get a big grab. I set up and it responds with a few heavy headshakes. I'm thinking I hooked a decent fish maybe mid teens ,I dunno. I call to my friend. He runs down and says "how big??" At this point I haven't seen the fish. I say " I think it's a good one,he's bulldogging me. Maybe mid teens,15 maybe? The fish comes up and rolls in front of us and he says "how big???" I say "Please don't talk to me now. It's the biggest damn fish I've ever hooked,I'll tell you that!"

So below this flat the river drops into some really swirly water and into a boulder garden in a big bend in the river. A nasty stretch to be sure. The flat is ,150 feet in length maybe. So I'm fighting this fish and it just wont give up,I gain a little,he runs back to the bottom of the river and keeps head shaking,and sliding backwards down the slot. I can't do anything with him. I was using 15 pound mainline? Maybe 12 it was long ago. I had an xmg 50 med heavy rod. So I had some backbone but that fish did whatever he wanted. Fought like a king salmon.

So I finally get him to the bank and he does exactly what I don't want,and takes off down towards no man's land. CRAP! I ended up beaching him in the last ditch effort,and a grassy bank with a 4 foot drop into swirly water. I tail him. I'm a big dude,back then 230 pounds and my hands aren't small and I can barely grab the tail wrist. The fish is not cooperating and I can barely get a hold of him. We try 3 times to get a photo but he was just unruly. After the third attempt I let him swim off and my buddy said "WTF I wanted a picture" and I said I'd rather that fish go make more,they are too special to me.

So we snapped a couple of it in the river while I was fighting it. But they don't give real scale to that fish. I was easy 39 or 40 inches. with I'm guessing a 20 inch 21 inch girth. I'm not calling it a 20. But I know how big that [Bleeeeep!] was. He fought for 20 minutes and I really hope he lived . It was fkn awesome! Anyway,I have landed some killer fish before,a 16 pound hen on the ^%$Y^&%& barbarosa river in CA beat my ass and broke me off . That one still hurts.