I honestly don't know how big it was, it broke 20 lb test line. I never saw it, but I do know it was that big! If I had to guess, speculate, i'd say a big Red. At some point my line may have become frayed and weakened on rocks on the bottom. Since the new bridge was built the current already quite strong and swift has gotten even more so, and the rip rap they have placed on the shoreline to prevent erosion has been washed and scattered into the inlet. It's a bit of a mess and a crap shoot as far as getting hung up. But....but, rocks are structure, and fish like structure. At times you can get hung up and you're able to reel it back in saving your rig. At those times, you might discover you've hooked a big ball of someone elses line they've lost. This is a good thing. Most is braded line, shit that is near impossible to break, so some people when they have gotten hung up just cut the line leaving yards upon yards of line in the water. Fuck that, that is one reason I don't use it. You don't shit where you eat. Those shorelines and waters are my home away from home. You can do a lot of thinking when fishing, and not to sound morbid, because it is no way a negative thought, I hope when it is my time, and one day it will be, I die there.
You ever seen as you walk towards the shore a group of gnarly Southern Live Oak trees that have withstood and endured decades upon decades of sea weather and hurricanes, perhaps even a century? Have you ever noticed how at night the little peaks and shadows all across the sand resemble little circus tents? Have you ever been out on the beach late December, 3 in the morning, temperature well below freezing, winds gusting 25 knots, one hand waving free casting over and over without a care in the world? Striper season. I wonder how it is that a guy so far inland from the middle if Minnesota knew what that was like. The city cut down most of those Oaks, paved over the sand and crushed shells where we used to park, installed restrooms, pay-to-park, etc.....literally paved a paradise and put up a parking lot. The foggy ruins of time indeed.
Take me disappearing through the smoke rings of my mind
Down the foggy ruins of time
Far past the frozen leaves
The haunted frightened trees
Out to the windy beach
Far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow
Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky
With one hand waving free
Silhouetted by the sea
Circled by the circus sands
With all memory and fate
Driven deep beneath the waves
Let me forget about today until tomorrow
-Bob Dylan