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The Old Salt’s Brag for Frank “Unequaled as a partner in battle, her reliability borders on relentless. To say she is tough is to speak an understatement of immeasurable proportions. There is nothing casual in her lines or timid in her performance.” —Contender Boats advertisement All I need is a rusty hook dangling from my ear. I’ll swim in the buck out to the Dry Tortugas, braiding a leader out of chest hair. I’ll whittle my pinky finger to the bone with a seagull beak and hone it with my heel. I’ll slit my belly with it and unravel a length of gut. I don’t need your lily-white war mistress with waxed galley and perfumed head, your Boss Magnum TwinDrag reels with Joint Strike Fighter aluminum and aerospace-grade stainless-steel bearings, your Power Butt rods, touch-screen GPS, and your polypropylene skivvies. I’d rather pluck out my good eye, snap a thumb clean, and butterfly the flesh for bait. I’ll make a rattling teaser out of fingernails. When I lure that blackfin up, I’ll pull her in hand over hand 64 and hold her lines up to your world. I’ll tuck her in the corner of my maw and sink to the bottom where we belong. 65 ...

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