I started fishing at Kingston two hours before low slack tide amongst about 15 other boats. Not much happened until an hour later when I had a decent take down and got him up to the boat. The fish measured 21 and seven eights of an inch, and I figured if I stepped on it just a little bit I’d make up the other 1/8 inch. Then I heard my dear departed father‘s voice saying “ character is who you are when no one‘s looking“. So after cussing out my dad a couple times, I slipped the black mouth back into the water and he took off like a hot torpedo straight to the bottom.

A couple more shakers then a one hour lull until I hooked up this beauty in 110 feet of water using a skinny G lure on a 25 inch leader. I guessed it’s weight to be over 8 pounds, but since my electronic scale wasn’t working as usual, I broke out the rusty analog spring loaded instrument from the late 1700s in it read 7 1/2 pounds. Who are you gonna believe? Terry Kelly.