Bridge lake still, at 6 AM the very next morning. Blair and I are out in the boat, and I get a good hit. In fact, it is way better than just a good hit, I near had my shoulder dislocated. Withinn the first 5 minutes, this fish made a run of about 90 ft and 2 more of 60 feet.

I thought I had a monster, and I did. As I fought the fish to bring it to the boat, it used every trick it knew to escape. Finally we were able to see it in the water, and there, swiming along beside it is an even larger fish, curious to see what is happening.

As the hooked fish neared the surface, the larger fish swam off, and Blair and I could concentrate on landing my big fish. I kept telling Blair, look at him, he's 30 lbs minimum, and Blair, having just caught his 28 lb 11 oz says, nope, yours is only 28 lbs 10 ozs. Thanks Blair.

We got the fish in the net, but kept the net in the water. We removed the hook, and measured the fish. 38 inches. We weighed the fish on Blairs digital scale, 28 lbs 11 oz. What are the odds of that, so we weighed it again on my digital scale, and again 28 lbs 11 oz. So then we took this picture, and released the fish back into the lake.

I wonder what he will weigh next year?