I was fishing in the Gulf of Mexico approximately 50 miles south of Freeport, Tx. I'd forgotten to check the braided line on my Penn Senator and found it was rotten when we got to our fishing spot. My backup was an Abu Garcia spinning combo with 200yds of 20 lb Ande monofilament on it. My first strike, after I'd cast the cigar minnow on the steel leader, peeled line off the reel at an alarming rate. Luckily, the owner of the 30' Grady White was quick and had the boat fired up and was chasing the fish down before he spooled me. I got 150 yds of line back when Matt stopped. The fish was still green and the spool shrank again. We chased that fish down four times before he sounded and went to the bottom. At that point he turned sideways to me and for every two inches of line I'd get back, he'd take one inch. An hour and a half after I set the hook he flashed green about 25' down. Five minutes later we decked him; a 60lb Wahoo, the biggest SW fish I've caught to date. That day we landed a 50 lb Ling (Cobia), 3 Amberjacks up to 30 lbs, several kings and various snapper (vermillion, lane, red...). I'll never forget that day, or how good that freezer full of fish was over the following months.
Mark