BEAUTIFUL CHAOS
An recent piece in Anglers Journal by Capt. John McMurray
Small v-wakes form on a glass surface, almost unnoticeable to the untrained eye. After hours of squinting though salt-stained sunglasses, I’m unsure what I’m seeing is real. Maybe rays, maybe porpoise – don’t want another false alarm. But as we get closer dark backs materialize, and heart rates skyrocket.
“Twelve O’clock, twelve O’clock!” I scream as half-asleep anglers on beanbags, scurry to grab eight-foot rods with giant spinning reels hanging off the butt sections.
Nine-inch poppers and stick-baits fly in the direction of large pushing fish. Like someone dropping grand-piano in the water, there’s a violent explosion as a fish smashes the plug and white water erupts – and then… time stands still.
What follows is a pure adrenaline dump. One hundred-pound braid screams off a reel with the drag locked down. Line rips though the water making an inexplicably beautiful sound. The rod flexes at impossible angles. Everyone on the boat screams colorful expletives as the reel dumps two hundred yards of line before I can get the boat in gear to chase the fish. Beautiful chaos.
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