The big one that got away...

Some of you who know me, may have heard this "big fish tale"...the rest of you...hope you find it interesting.

When I was around 13-14 years old, I went fishing with a friend on the Hillsborough River in Tampa.
We sat on a dock with bread and our Zebco 202 rod and reel combo's...(to the non-fishermen out there...Zebco 202 is the $19.99 one push button setups...very cheap, but awesome when you are 13.)
My buddy had a pack of Black Cat firecrackers with him...we screwed around with the firecrackers while trying to catch small shiners with the bread balls we were making with our loaf of Wonder bread.
He caught a BIG shiner...about 10 inches long...very big on the shiner scale. 

Not actual shiner

Doing as boys do when left to their own devices...we stuck a Black Cat in the shiner's mouth....ran....POW!...went back to find a headless shiner....I KNOW I KNOW...we were kids...no hate mail please.

Anyhow...this was good bait...so we thought...to catch a Big Bass.  Now, I know, we were wrong...dead blown apart shiner is not good bass bait...but at 13 I did not know.   So we got out our biggest hook "made for Big Bass"...stuck the big red and white bobber on with about a 2 foot lead from the hook....Bobber "made for Big Bass" had about a 4" diameter, so it would take the Big Bass to bring it under.
I slung the whole rig all the way out to dead center of the river...where the Big Bass stay.

We waited...5 minutes...nothing....so back to shiners and firecrackers.  Eat some packed sandwiches and drank the, now very warm, grape sodas in the cooler.  My best guess is an hour and a half passed.
We didn't see the bobber dive...we heard the splash and it being dragged though the water.

I ran and grabbed my Zebco, which was just leaning on a Cyprus knee...I pulled back and set the hook....had to be pro fisherman style, wish I had a photo to show you how cool I was.

It has to be a HUGE Bass!!!

Then the moment I still see when thinking about this event...

It jumped out of the water... a good 4 feet of it, thrashing it's head back and forth.. with the tail still somewhat in the water.
The same dinosauric creatures you see above.  The Alligator Gar.
Keep in mind, it was at least 40 yards out into the middle of the river.  But I did see the dorsal fin which is right next to the tail so 4 feet long is a pretty good guess.
When we saw it we both screamed,  "GAR!!!!"

Then I stood there in kind of a shock moment as it hit me, that we have a fish with LOTS of teeth, about 4 feet long on the end of my line.
So I half-hearted pulled back on the pole, while my drag was whizzing....and as all the fishermen know...SNAP! lost the bobber and all...
we stood in silence for about 30 seconds...awestruck...
then we both yelled "did you see the size of that thing?!?!?!"

By the time we got home it was about a 6-8 foot Aligator Gar, that almost pulled me into the river.

Did not catch the fish...but that moment was talked about for years between us.

Not the cool, caught a bad ass fish tale...but it was damn cool at the time!
Besides, I know what a shiner looks like after having an explosive jammed in its mouth...not many can say that....sorry PETA, was a different age back in 1982...slingshots and marbles were fun!!!

Thanks for reading through...hope you liked it.