THE REWARDS OF WAKING UP EARLY. PHOTO: COURTESY MARK NELSON
TALES
AN UNFORGETTABLE MORNING
I
’ll never forget that morning! The seas were flat calm, it was overcast, misty and
a bit foggy and, as dawn and high tide ap- proached at the same time, I just knew it was a big fish morning. My adventure started with a 4 a.m. launch
from one of the beautiful harbors along the Massachusetts north shore. I decided to paddle past some productive water to get to a particular spot before dawn. After about a 20-minute paddle, I arrived. I stuck a live eel on a 4/0 circle hook. It didn’t take long to get that first hit. As
I trolled through my favorite little rocky nook, the Baitrunner started screaming. ZZZZZZZZ! Fish on! They were there and they were big. Hearing that reel scream and getting spun
on a dime never gets old. The big bass made four powerful runs, pulling drag and me each time. The first run was right into the rocks and I held my breath as I got towed in dangerously close. Finally I could feel its big tail sweeping side to side as it towed me to deeper water. After a 10-minute battle, I had the gorilla on its side and I was able to pull it aboard. For the next two hours I had constant action and landed six more gorilla bass over 40 inches! What a morning! Mark “Gorilla Killa” Nelson is an Ocean
Kayak staffer based in West Boylston, Mas- sachusetts. We’re sending the night hunter a VisiCarbon Pro LED safety light and flag combo from
YakAttack.us—now compatible with the new fits-anywhere MightyMount. Cast a line with your incredible fishing tale to
editor@kayakanglermag.com. If it prints, there’s no telling what we’ll dig out of the prize vault as a reward.
www.kayakanglermag.com… 9
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