Around 2 a.m. on a very pleasant early summer day I was fishing in a bay of the Mississippi with my friend Steve. Suddenly his reel started to run out, run out FAST. He grabbed and tried to reel it in, but couldn't. Whatever it was wasn't slowed for a moment -- it stripped every bit of line (125 feet, braided nylon) from the reel, ruined the brake and gears, and kept on going.

There are some BIG suckers in them there rivers.

More recently, my nephew was fishing in an old Missouri gravel pit with my brother and a friend. Nephew got a fish on and pulled it in -- a paddlefish weighing in (by the Rangers -- it was in a MO state park) at 67 pounds 3 oz. As it was still alive they let it go, and the only explanation anyone had was that it must have been trapped when the place was last flooded by the Mississippi.