A couple of my buddies Pat Cottrell, Ronnie Frazier,and I (Robert Plummer},headed out to the Verde river just below Horseshoe Dam. We fished off he bank for a couple of hours not catching anything but a couple of small carp. It must have been around 11:30 pm. I asked Pat if he wanted to take his little boat out into the middle of the river and try our luck. We made our way out anchored and tossed our lines out and waited. About fifteen minutes later my friend Pat tells me to look at my pole it's bobbing a little. I glanced at it and told him it is probably just the current. After a couple of minutes watching it I decide to reel in some of the slack. I reeled in the slack and my line had followed the current down when I had casted out, now my line was about 20 feet in front of the boat.I jerked the pole back and nothing. It felt like a snag. So I tightened up my drag and jerked again. I could feel something ,it felt like a small carp or catfish as I reeled it in what I didn’t realize was it was swimming right toward the boat. When it got right under our boat it took my 8 foot deep sea rod and bent it right in half.I thought it was going to break my rod it two. Luckly I had put brand new Berkley big game 30# test on just before we went out. It took me about a good 15 to 20 minuets to bring him up to the boat. I plan a lot of future fishing trips to the Verde River this year.

Robert Plummer