I caught this Big drum last summer, but I wanted to post the pic and tell the story.

A friend of mine , that lives in San Antonio was coming home to see about his ageing mom and dad. He called and asked if we could go and try to catch a big fish.  It was August.  The days were scorching hot and I was teaching a drivers ed class that started at 8:00 am.  So I decided a night fishing adventure was in order.

It was an adventure because we were going out in my Old Town Ambush.  the Ambush is a 2-man kayak/canoe.  The plan was to put the Ambush in the water at 1:00am and fish until 6:00 am so I could make it on time to my drivers ed class. It turned out to be a good decision.

I paddled and my friend fished.  The tackel was a 7foot gander mountain spinning rod with a Quantum salt water spinning real rigged up with 20lb braided line.  The bait was a pearl grub with a chartruese tail 1/8 oz lead head jig tipped with a little shrimp.

We were working a flat on the Louisiana side of Sabine lake.  We saw the Big drum tailing in the moonlight.  My friend casted toward the fish, and it took the bait.  The fight was on!  The 20lb braided line was the right call because it was strong enough to sloww the fish down after running of 70-100 yds of drag.  the struggle lasted for at least thirty minutes.  The big fish was pulling us like the Marlin did Santiago in the old novel "The Old Man and the Sea" by Ernest Hemingway.  After a half an hour of laughing our @$$ off while the fish seemed to try to dig a hole in the bottom of the lake, we finally got the old boy starboard the yak.

He was so heavy I couldn't lift him out of the water, so i grabbed him by the gills, and slid him onto my lap.  My friend snapped the picture, and I released the drum back into the lake.

After about 10 or 15 minutes of high-fiving we fished a little longer but time was runnin out and the sun was begiining to peek over the horizon.  So I paddled us back to the boat ramp and my friend was home before 6:ooam and I had plenty of time to make it to my class.  It was a good night.

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