That priceless expression after a bustoff

[Warwick Joyce]

I have no photo but it would have been priceless for sure, devastation is an understatement after I was dusted last week.
It was the maiden voyage for my latest rod (Lightcast 73H) running PE 3 on a 5k Twinpower and using a well used Skipjack 60 lure (should have retired it a long time ago). It was my third cast at a rock bar when a 20kg odd fish smashed the Skipjack hard against the rocks, he must have been in only 1m of water needless to say the fight was very short lived (maybe 10 seconds) due to insufficient drag pressure and very shallow water.
My co-pilot, at first gasping at the size of the fish when it hit, proceeded to roll around in hysterics laughing at me and my expression. Gutted   Not only was it the first fish hooked on that rod but a sentimental lure donated to the GT gods

[colin parsons]

Ha! This is a priceless thread

Oh, the bitter pill of disappointment. I think fortunatley for most of us those moments of utter dispair are seldom caught on camera.

[Mark Harris]

Rather than facial expression, it is usually my choice language that gets others going. I normally don't swear very much at all..... except when a fish beats me!  That happens quite often of course.

The best example was probably early last year at my local spot when after a terrible day's fishing of nothingness, I had resorted to casting small sinking stickbaits and was about to pack up altogether. Suddenly the line started fizzing off my SOM NL 16000 spool like nothing I had experienced before. No matter what I did it would not stop. Anyone who has a SOM 16000 will know how much drag it puts down when screwed right in.  I was literally very close to being pulled off the boat before the line finally ran out.  I was swearing so loud and for so long it was echoing off the cliffs  .

For what it is worth I suspect a bus-sized Dogtooth. This was only about 1 KM from where a 70 kg doggie had been speared.

[Andre van Wyk]

For me, Bassas de India last year.....

Last light, chucking a 200gram Ulua into the surfzone on the reef, off a tiny little inflatable... my Ulua got swallowed sideways by a Behemoth of a fish.... RF 79H, PE 10 on the Stella 18K screwed down as far as it will go, and the fish never even slowed down..... ran about 40 metres till he found his freedom in a bommie and sent the 200lb leader back to me looking like it had been through a shredder..... All in all it took maybe 10 seconds....

I didn't even have time to register what had just occured, that truly mammoth GT I have been hunting for a long time, had just schooled me in a way that until it happens to you, you actually have no idea what its like...

I don't remember if I swore, or what.... I seem to remember just being bewildered.... first thing I did was check my drag to see if I had maybe not buttoned it down properly... Well, when I realised that I actually couldn't pull any line off the reel, then I started to wake up to what had just happened....

Funny thing is that bust off is what will bring me back to Bassas without a doubt.....

[Warwick Joyce]

This thread is closely tied to the thread about why we love fishing for Gt's. It's the one that beats us at the game that drives us to go back for more!

[Sam Walker]

I lost an Ulua 60 fishing off the rocks today - my first ever upmarket lure purchase from about 5 years ago snaffled by a big cod. I think it was a big cod anyway, saw a bit of brown as it powered down into the bommies, plenty of drag but it was like I'd hooked a truck !