It took me about 25 minutes to land it but put up one hell of a scrap!
I'd actually had a steroid injection in my elbow before I went on holiday as I'd been suffering from 'golfer's elbow' an inflamation of the tendon. I had been resting it for weeks and taking anti-inflamatories but nothing seemed to be helping.
As this was the first fish that had taken the bait and I wasn't sure what to expect (my previous cat pb only weighed 16lb) I was extremely worried that my arm wouldn't cope. - The pain whilst playing the fish was excruciating!
I was very upset as I thought my holiday would be ruined as I doubted I would be able to fish again but when I realised the size of the beast I'd hooked I was relieved as I knew the pain was mostly due to the size of the fish rather than my gammy elbow, and any further fish I would catch (if I was lucky enough to do so) wouldn't test it as badly.
I went on to catch 5 fish in total during the week, the smallest being 105lb.
Oh, and my elbow?, and just in case you're wondering has never felt so good. It's amazing what adrenalin can do for you!