Shaw Grigsby finally put a keeper in the boat at 11:10 a.m., but it didn't stay there. Grigsby flipped a 2 1/2-pounder in the boat, then it came unhooked and bounced a couple of times on the front deck, right in front of the driver's console. Grigsby made quick move, especially for a man his age, as he noted later, and had his fingers on, but not around, the flopping fish before it fell back into the water.
There was dead silence in this canal off Taylor Bayou as Grigsby put his head down on the front deck and just laid there for a few seconds.
It would have been his first keeper of the day, and it was the size you want here.
"Such is life," Grigsby said, as he stood up and put a new bait on the hook.
The good news? Maybe that was a good omen. Grigsby caught another short fish a few minutes later, and just now landed his first keeper. It wasn't as thick as the one he lost, but Grigsby said, "It almost measured 13 3/4 inches."