Finally hooked up with the big one. During my recent trip we were blessed with calm water almost every day. While perched on our elevated site we could watch fish busting bait in several places on the surface, usually over 40+ ft. of water. While bouncing jigs down a reef I had one surface on the deep side of the canoe so I winged my jig in that direction and hooked a nice laker before it dropped 10 ft. The next cast went to the bottom, 45', I felt some weight and after 30 minutes this baby came up. It took a good hour to revive and empty all the air from its bladder but all you hear about the big ones lurking in deep water near a reef is true and can't wait till next year.

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