"Not all that long. It's his first run," Wilson answered, as the
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drag on his large reel whined. When the powerful fish halted its run Wilson exhausted a loud, “Whew" and said "My reel has only a few wraps of line left on it!” He straightened his back, wiped sweat from his brow
with his elbow — but, never took either hand off the rod — and then got ready for the next round of the fight.
“I’m sure glad that critter didn’t know that you only had one wrap of line left on your reel,” Kenneth remarked, “He might have owned himself a rod ‘n’ reel! "Yeah," Wilson replied! "What ever it is, it’s heavy … like bringing in a log … If I can only get a few more feet of my line back." It didn’t happen. "Whew," he exhaled as he held onto what he had. Water churned in gigantic boils around the desperate fish. He surfaced and did an abrupt turn around; then with a wave of his tail departed for parts unknown. Frothing water trailed after the giant as he nosed down toward the bottom and disappeared.
The fish stopped. The rod relaxed. The reel gave up its whining!
“Did you lose him?” Bob asked.
“Nah, he’s still on.” Wilson caught his breath. “I’m gaining on him though … I can’t see the spool on my reel this time.” Each run of the giant ended closer and closer to the bank, until we finally got our first glimpse.
“It’s an Alligator Gar … the biggest one I ever saw!” Kenneth said. He made a few more runs before we got a rope around his nose and drug him out onto the sandbar.
