So.. here’s the story… this site is all about true whopper fish tales… “the lucky few who have done the impossible and reeled in a true monster.” Yeah sure, great on the CSS animation, map and interesting way they present the stories so you see the magnitude of the catch…

But what’s more important is my “True Fish Tale”…

I’m 40 and I’ve never caught a fish. It is not for lack of trying, practice or being landlocked with not even access to an aquarium or barrel of fishes… nope. I grew up in Beaufort, South Carolina on the coast… on the water. My dad worked for a sea food company when I was a kid. We even lived on a lake at one point. I’ve had plenty of opportunities.

The closest I’ve come to catching a fish: My dad and I were shrimping in the marsh around Beaufort – I was six or so. As we were going through the inlets, casting a net to catch the shrimp (or prawns for my Aussie friends), a mullet jumped into our boat… and no, by mullet I don’t mean this dude:

I mean this type of mullet:

So the mullet jumped into the boat – but on it’s way into the boat, it hit me… in the throat. Right square in the middle of the throat so that I couldn’t talk or breathe…

My dad was laughing, but also asking me if I was ok… and then what the heck I was doing…. because the only thing in my head was “catch that damn fish!!!!!” I started moving fast towards where the fish fell down into the bow of the boat… reached for the flopping fish… had it in my fingers… then my hands… then it jumped back into the air, just like it had done to jump in the boat… it jumped straight back out of the boat…. leaving me scarred for life ever since.

So that’s my fish tale – it won’t make it onto the True Fish Tales site – and I’m sure they are very nice stories of all of these very nice people and their joy of catching their trophy fishes… but I’m not bitter… nope…. nope… …. enjoy!