When Carl Jocumsen talks about the monster that got away the professional fisherman is probably telling the truth because part of his deal to compete in the lucrative Bassmaster Elites series in the United States is accepting he can be subjected to a lie detector test.
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Next month the Queenslander will begin his campaign in the series, which offers the world's top fishermen hundreds of thousands of dollars in prizemoney.
He is the first Australian to make the cut in a competition that has made the likes of Kevin Van Dam both a household name in America and a multimillionaire.
Jocumsen will begin his 2015 campaign next month on the Sabine River in Texas, a waterway described as shallow tidal fishery with sloughs, marshes and wetlands.
However, by the time Jocumsen casts his first line he will have spent an excruciating amount of time studying the Sabine on Google Earth, trawling the internet for clues that might help him, then he will map it on his $80,000 bassboat, which apart from a 250 horsepower motor is armed with electronics that include sight imaging and provides "X-ray" vision under the water.
He will do his reconnaissance to understand how to best negotiate the logs and tree stumps that litter the river. It's painstaking but Jocumsen said it was the preparation needed to hook the winner.
It is intense, but as Jocumsen - who sold everything he owned to finance his dream - explained, the stakes are high.
"It's how the guys feed their families," he said. "In the Bassmaster series there's a marshal on board your boat and it's their job to ensure there's been no cheating. If you win there's a chance you'll do a lie detector test. I came second in a small tournament and had to do one.
"While you think, 'This is crazy', they take it very serious because of the prizemoney. They want to make sure it's legit. It's treated like any other professional sport."
And it's not cheap - Jocumsen had to raise $68,000 to pay the entry fee.
He raised the money it through the help of sponsors, fund-raisers and former MotoGP champion Casey Stoner, whom Jocumsen credited with giving him the courage to make the leap.
"Casey was a big influence in me going," he said. "At the time I was thinking of going to America I met Casey and he helped me go for it.
"He said I'd done everything I could here and because I'd been to America, seen the competition, knew the risks and the sacrifices needed, he gave me the confidence to go.
"I had a beaten-up truck and we went fishing over there and the next day he had me at the Ford dealership and I was driving around in a brand new [truck]."
