I don't think there was anything wrong with the gun, as I had been consistently accurate on smaller fish. I think it was simple operator error, and something that I have known myself to do before. I have whiffed shots on large fish before, when it seemed like he was so big and so close that I couldn't miss, and I didn't take the additional second or two to "aim small, miss small".
I think of it like shooting birds in a large flock. If you have ever hunted dove, or something similar that sometimes come at you in a big flock, you know what I mean. It seems like you could just shoot in the general direction, and couldn't possibly miss. But if you don't aim at a particular bird, you surely will miss.
