The One That Got Away by James Sexton

It was a cold windy day in Martha's Vineyard and I could almost taste the salt from the ocean. My Dad and I went down to the dock hoping to catch dinner. We were the only ones at the whole dock, and I was glad because I didn't get to spend too much time with just my dad. " Whats the biggest fish you have ever caught here dad " I said. " Well one time when I was here with my dad we caught a 39 inch striped bass, it was a great day that I will never forget" He says. It was the first cast of the day and after only five casts I caught a fish. It wasn't a big fish and it sure wasn't big enough to eat for dinner. As soon as I touched the small little fish it slipped out of my hands because it was so slimy. My dad then said to me "Put it on the big rod and try to catch something bigger." At the time I didn't fully understand what he meant by bigger. I thought he meant a bigger fish than the one we already caught, little did I know that I would later catch the biggest sea creature of my life. My dad hooked the small fish onto the big rod and then casted it very far out into the ocean. After waiting about ten minutes I finally got a giant bite. As soon as it happened I screamed to my dad to come over and help me. He ran over and helped me rail in the beast, it was like we were feathers and it was a brick. It took us almost twenty minutes just to rail it in. When it was close to the dock and we were sure it was something huge. My dad and I pulled it up to the dock. Then I looked down at the water to only see the jaws of a giant six foot long brown shark. As soon as I saw those jaws I screamed " It's jaws.... Ahhhhhhhhhhh " at the top of my lungs. Then just like that the line snapped, and the shark was gone. " Nooooooooooo, that was the greatest fight I have ever had in my life" my dad said. It was like the line was a runner and it ran as fast as it could away from my dad and I. We were very upset, but after we realized that we almost just caught a six foot shark we were happy. We both laughed and talked about how great of a fight it was. Until this day I will never step foot into the water at Martha's Vineyard because I know that shark is still out there.