Got my feelings hurt

[Love of the Sport]

Let me start by saying fishermen are known for tall tales of the 1 that got away. This is not one of those tales. this is 100% truth and very fresh on my mind as it only happened a few hours ago.
Today started well with just enough wind to give the water a very slight chop, just enough to get me throwing a lipless crank. Up to this point I had caught several fish and lost several traps, around 5 so far because of sunken christmas trees and sunken piers. The bite went slow for a minute and I was carelessly reeling my bait back when boom, it stopped dead. I thought great, another pier. So I reel up all the slack and try to pull it free, no budge. Then I pull HARD to break the line and my drag starts screaming and in that instant she jumps. I was so in awe at the size of this fish that I actually froze and stopped reeling. This well might have been a new Louisiana state record or at the very least the fish of a lifetime and I missed it because of inexperiance. I must have just stood there on the back of the boat staring blankly at that spot for 15 minutes. I very literaly thought I was gonna cry.