On oldie but a goodie... more to come!!!
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Went out with Chuck Rollins (
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]) for a nice day a crappie catchin' with my buddies, Anthony and Jim ... little did I know what this day had in store for me! The skies were overcast making for an excellent day for fishing! We'd had some good success early in the day with crappies and sandies (white bass) and then in the early afternoon we headed over to a point that we knew held some solid brush piles in hopes of rounding out our limits for the day!
I dropped my jig and let it coast all the way to the bottom ... roughly 25-30 feet deep at this point. Gave the reel a couple of winds and then felt something 'heavy' on the line. For sure I thought I had gotten hung up in that brush pile ... but then we saw the line starting to move off to the side!!
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]I set the hook and the fight was on! What I was fighting wasn't entirely too clear but 45 minutes later I brought up my personal best flathead catfish caught on light tackle!!!! It was caught on 6-lb test line with a Shimano Sienna/Ugly Stick rod/reel ultra light combo using a 1/16oz Blakemore Crappie Thunder Road Runner Chartreuse Sparkle (1/16-oz) crappie jig. This flathead weighed in 25 pounds and was 34 inches long.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]When we brought that nice kitty into the boat we were all amazed that I was even able to bring her in! This was all for the simple fact that the jig was just barely set in her mouth! As you can see in the picture below it's a wonder that the jig stayed in at all!
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Now when we opened up the mouth to take out the jig we were presented with another amazing site! Talk about greedy! This cat had just swallowed another catfish (check it out in her gullet!) and then she turns to take in this teeny-tiny jig!!!!
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Well surely some sort of record was set right?? Definitely wasn't a lake record so the next step was what they call a line-class record. These records are maintained by the IGFA (International Game Fish Association). I called them up and gave them the facts of the catch. A couple of days later I get a return call and..... unfortunately..... it does not qualify as a line-class record. I guess my only consolation is that this catch ranks #2!!! The number one slot goes to a gentlemen from Oklahoma who brought in a flathead that weighed 45 pounds (using 6-lb test line). Oh well, it's still hard to wipe the grin off my chin!!
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