Great night out…

Went out tonight for a couple of hours. My dad and I fished bait and nailed the bluegills – sent him home with 33 keepers and I went out to catfish. I fished for two hours and caught seven fish – lost three others in snags. I caught a nine, a ten, then another ten, and was thinking this sure is fun, but…. when one of my rods bent down reaally slow…. Had a great fight in fast current and deep water and by the time I had him to the boat, I knew I had a new personal best…

It weighed in at 52lbs. Here’s one of my lame attempts to photograph it (didn’t have my photographer along!):

Caught a 35 shortly after that. I’ll probably post a pic of that one too – easier to get in the frame.

By the way – I called my nephew to see if he wanted to go out, but he couldn’t – the biggun came from his end of the boat! Came close to having the little guy bust my record, lol.

Happy Hunting,

Matt

I guess!!!!!!!

Passing that 50 lbs mark!! Your nephew is going to be smoken!

Matt, all I can say is….AWESOME!

WOW! Look at that fin!!!! You could have wrote your name on it!

LOOK AT YOUR HAND IN HER MOUTH!!!

There’s still room to put your head in there!

Man O Man….I’m not going to get back to sleep!

WOW!!! is all I can say to that!!! It isn’t very often you find one huge fish (52 LBs.), but then throw in a couple 10’s, 35 and some lost fish. I take it this is the time of the year for the big cats huh? Nice catch FlatheadWI.

Wow man. Thats a really nice flathead. keep er comin!

Fall is definitely the time for fast action. That 52 hit when I was taking off a ten pounder, then when I got it in, and before I had it unhooked, my third pole went off – the last one in the water (another 9 pounder). I was in the boat knowing I was going to go over 100 cats for the year for the first time, but thinking that old #100 will be a ten pounder. I was right, but 101 sure made up for him! Yes, Brian, I did smile from ear to ear for quite some time, but didn’t manage to capture my mood in the pics.

Here’s the 35:

And here’s one more pic of the 52:

congrats WIFlat !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Very Well Done!

man, that fish is one helluva beast! how long was it?

rock on!

Jez Fhdwi…you sure have small hands!

Man…good thing Ben didn’t go out with you, we would have one smug kid on our hands!! We would have had some better pictures though. You need a keep sack!! I keep one in the boat for just such a reason…unfortuneately haven’t been able to use it yet. I was fishing down south this weekend…our biggest fish was a lousy 30 # blue. There is till time this year. That fish is beautiful, good to see real cat guys get the nice fish once in a while. I’ll try to post some pictures when I am less tired. Again…nice work Matt.

Jason.

Great Job That beast is awesome, I bet she put up a great fight
Good pic’s to for fishing solo, I also noticed no gloves

Cattin_Addict

gloves? we dont need no stinkin gloves!!!

I was too impressed with the size of Matt’s hands compared to the fish to notice the “no gloves” hold.

Sean, real cat guys don’t use gloves. It’s that “personal” and “intimate” feeling you get when holding them flesh to flesh. I think it would be like being intimate with your partner (not fishing partner ) and wearing gloves….generally doesn’t go over to well!

You said you sent your dad home with 33 b-gills I thought the limit was 25?

It was my dad and my son (and myself) so we could’ve gotten 75 minus the bait I kept (around 15).

Awesome, those are some really impressive fish that is forsure. Wish I could hook into something like that. Might try it tonight, will have to see what time allows.

Great ? Wondering the same myslef.

I’d have to dig out my books, but if I recall correctly…a 25 lbs fish takes about 15 years. But the growth rate changes with age…so you can’t say that a 50 pound fish took 30 years to grow….I think it would be longer…

I’ll have to look this weekend.

Even if it took 10 to 20 years to grow that large…it makes a person appreciate the catch and release fisherman. If one other person would land that thing (I said “thing” in the nicest way)…it would be two life time memories!

Now that I’ve said all of that….the life expectancy of a flat is 20 years.

I didn’t get a chance to measure it, MudCatKid. Wish I would have, but I was fumbling around trying to get some pictures and wasn’t dead sure where my tape was, so when I got done weighing and snapping, it was time to let it go. It gave a healthy lunge after about fifteen seconds by the side of the boat, which was nice – they can get a bit wore out by that current. I also had two other cats in the boat at the time – one still hooked. I was unhooking a ten pounder when the biggun hit, then after I got it in the boat my third pole got hit and I quickly reeled in another one about that size and put him off in the corner while I dealt with their grampa.

It would make sense that it was about 25-35 years old. They don’t grow too fast up here. They probably hit 25lbs somewhere between 12-15 years old, but it slows from that point on, from what I’ve read. However old he was, he’s getting older, that’s the main thing.

Here’s a collage of my lame attempts to get it on…um…memory card….

Yes, the big pic that the small ones are on has the original borders as I so expertly shot it…

Matt…bottom right hand corner! Is that a smile?! Too bad you missed the cat and it’s going in the garbage

Seriously, you did a great…no fantasitic job of picture takeing I’ve don’t it with a 25 and because I was starting to worry about the fish…sat her on my lap…although by that time I was gasping for air too!

Did you notice your hand in the big picture…or fingers rather…they need some blood in them!

Very nice cat!

I like your photo shop play also.Cool way to remember a nice catch.
Kinda looks like I am seeing it thorugh a fly’s eye.