I was fishing in less than ideal conditions: cloudless bright sunny day,
45-50 degrees and windy. The water temp wasn't too bad at 65.

I finally found them under the docks on the east side of the lake (until the
sun started setting and shining under the docks). I was tossing a
watermelon seed lizard as close to the docks as possible. I landed one
right on the corner post of a solid top dock and immediately the line
started moving out. I set the hook and ended up with a nice 6-7lber at the
side of the boat. Just before I would have had my thumb on her, the line
broke.

The lesson: I knew it was time to change the line--I could feel and hear
the fray running through the rod tip guide, but I was feeling lazy and
decided to wait until after one more cast. Need I say more?

Actually, I probably would have landed it if I had a net. It took me a
while to get her into position to lip her and I would have had several
opportunities in the process when I could have netted her. That's the other
lesson for today.

She was probably closer to 5, but she'll be 8 tomorrow In any case, that
size is too hard to come by on a day like today.

Keith