It was early evening in the midst of July, as I ventured into the water with my small Kyak and my trusty 9 wt. The tide was flushing hard, and the waves at the end of the channel were pounding the sandbar as it came up from the depths of high tide. I followed the current out into the depths of the angry water. I was hoping to drop anchor and get some fishing in while the fish were still in the channel. What happened next was never to be expected. I had dropped my large white deceiver into the water and let it follow me for a while as I was paddling out. All of the sudden A violent tug almost ripped the 9 Wt. out from its berth in the cockpit of the kyak. I thought I grabbed bottom on the way out. No way, the line started flying out my new reel. It was a fish and it was flying out to sea with the current. I watched as the backing started to peel out and then to make things worse, the spool popped off the reel and went straight to the bottom of the channel. There I am in the middle of the channel floating out to sea, fighting the current and the fish, all my line is out, spool dragging along the bottom. I started to think that I wasn’t going to make it home this time. To make things better, the monster fish I had on was wrapping itself around the channel marker. The thought of cutting my line crossed my mind, but I did what any die hard would do, I started reeling in the spool by hand hoping that the fish wouldn’t take off while I had my hands wrapped around the backing. I fought the current, and tugged on the backing until I got the spool back onto the reel. I started reeling in the fish, still fighting hard. By the grace of God it untangled itself from the channel marker and started back out to sea. Finally, I got the whale up close to my boat. It was a sight I have never seen before, it was a huge blue fish. Bigger than any I have ever seen up close. I saw it come up close to the surface, never quitting, never at any point giving up. I didn’t know what the hell I was going to do. Then, all of the sudden, the monster broke off right where I so casually tied the fly on 30 min. earlier. It was over, the monster got away with my white 2/0, and I had to paddle in against the current without a fish. It was worth every last second, every stressful moment and I will never forget to make sure my spool is firmly attached to my reel again!