So anyway, just to add to this - I also caught my biggest Channel Cat at this time as well, I went w/ 2 friends, one of which got to the spot at 5:45 am, while we stayed behind catching baitfish and arrived at 7am. The 1st friend had caught 4 Carp between 20-30" in the time before we arrived w/ pix to prove it, and as I hooked on a creek chub and casted, within seconds a large fish immediately pulled my rod off the stand and into the shallows, eventually revealing itself to be a 28"L, 17.7"G Channel Cat weighing 11lbs.
Merely seconds later as I was trying to quickly rig up my 2nd rod another fish did the same thing which was a small Flathead Cat weighing 7.5lbs, 25.5" Long w/ a 15.5" Girth. Still again the fish continued bombarding me resulting in a few missed strikes but finally again hooking into quite a sizeable Flathead..........so sizeable and powerful it broke my reel-seat from the amount of pressure it was putting on it (the cuff that holds the reel-stem to the rod actually CRACKED) and my 1st friend came over and held my at 1:00 to keep pressure on the fish before finding a rocky cave like the other missed fish, while fumbled with the reel like a damn novice trying to inch some line in a little at a time while it's not even attached to the damn rod.
A little teamwork and my buddy was able to grab the fish's bottom jaw which weighed in at 23lbs, measured 36" Long and had a 22" Girth. A fishless hour or so went by and my 1st friend was talking about leaving and a few minutes later the rods went off again, returning the favor, I reeled in his other rod so he didn't get the 2 lines tangled and he drug the fish into the shallows, weighing 17lbs, at 32" Long w/ a 20.5" Girth.
My 42.5" Incher was next. Not much of a story to tell, it was just a brutal monster, yet foolish as I am, I had my 2 heaviest rods out, and I decided to take the vacant one that had received reel-seat damage earlier and try a nightcrawler for random Bass or other gamefish and when I got sick of Panfish nibbling my worm and avoiding my size #1 baitholder hook, I switched it up by rigging the live worm weedless (just like a plastic worm) then placing a small 3-4" creek chub onto the exposed barb. Minutes later the broken rod has another monster fish and I was shocked.....I guess the worm's scent attracted the fish and he decided he liked the worm/baitfish combo so here we go, right?
It was lunacy. As I had ironically "called" the lengths and weights of our previous fish rather accurately before measurements, I said "Dude, this is my biggest ever - this is over 40" and probably 40lbs" ......well, I was close. Both friends took various pictures and will be E-mailing them today so I can post up, but let me just say, this fishing trip was absolutely action-packed and electrifying.....after all this bullshit w/ going back and forth to the Vet and finding out all this bad news about my and a lousy fishless heartbreaking few weeks, it was very much what I needed......what we ALL needed.
My other friend who had never fished like this for these fish in this spot had a helluva show and a lot of excitement, but unfortunately nothing jumped on his line all day. Still , a happy ending seemed inevitable and I said "Bro, regardless if the next fish is on my rods or yours, the fish is yours, so be ready if I yell for you."
Maybe a whole 5 minutes later I was yelling for him as another Flathead took off w/ my chub, so I quickly set the hook to make sure he held tight while my friend waded over and took over from there. His 1st Flathead in a several years, 26" Long, 14.5" Girth and weighed 7lbs.
I lost 2 strikes and one fish we never saw broke my 20lb. monofilament......ironically when my 1st friend was here last week alone, he had a fish break his 50lb. braided nylon. He said the braid was several years old and may have been only down to 30-40lb strength at this point, but still.....any catfish that can break 20lb test is a MONSTER FISH in my book. Could we have both got duped by the same beast?
True story. Pics by the end of the day hopefully. Oh yea, also got sunburn reaaaaallllyyyyyy bad
Happy Memorial Day everyone.
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