My 1st swimbait fish was my 3rd fish over 10lbs. I was fishing a small club tournament in March, I think it was 2003. First thing in the morning I go straight to a flat where I had seen huge fish cruising in previous years. I'm all decked out with my swimbait gear, a Fenwick telescopic flipp'n stick with a Shimano Castaic reel, spooled with green 25lb big game. I would almost spool the reel on a long cast. I had my best and only swimbait tied on, a Castaic hardhead with the lip. I get to the spot and make a few casts with the swimbait with no takers. I pick up a rip bait and make a few casts again with no takers. I think to myself, it's prime swimbait time right now (I've learned a lot about time of day since then), I need to spend prime time throwing the big bait. So I pick it up and cast it a couple of more times before getting slammed and the fight is on. My state of the art swimbait rod is bent from the tip to the handle. This huge fish comes up and jumps, i'm shaking like crazy trying to get this fish too the boat. After a short fight I net the fish and let out a yell. I hadn't caught many big fish at this time so I thought this fish was alot bigger than it was. I was telling everybody in the club who heard me yell that I had about a 14lber. I put it on the scale later and it weighed 11.75lbs, a great fish for my first on a swimbait.

I'll have to see if I can find the photo, It was my first year as a Narcotics Detective and I thought I needed to look really shady. I had a shaved head and a big long goatee. I only wish I would of stuck with it in the early years, I might have caught alot of big fish before everybody else caught the swimbait bug.