I haven’t been on the water in a about 1 1/2 weeks. My confidence is low and my first two spots only produce one fish. My third spot, however, kicks out a few channels right away so I decide to stick it out awhile. I get a bite on my cut bait again and this fish feels really good. Its gonna be a nice channel cat. I cleared the floor of junk while holding the rod as when hooked with a circle hook they are usually pegged good and rarily get off. All off a sudden this fish figured out he’s hooked and starts fighting hard, really hard. He’s going crazy!! Maybye its a nice flathead??!! I’ve got a lighter rod so I cant lock the drag and horse him but can still put the screws down pretty good. After about 8 minutes his head pops up by the boat and its a huge flathead!! Four tries with the net and a near heart attack and I finally got him in. Pushing 46 inches and cleared 40 lbs easily. The really funny thing was is that after I released the fish I hooked up again and got ready to cast so out comes the spotlight. The fish had drug my anchored boat down stream about 30 yards!!! I’m not kidding!! I was fishing a clean sand flat and had let out only enough anchor line to just hold the boat. Maybe one had to be there but I was quite impressed with the pulling power of that fish. Anyway, I may never fish for walleye again (till fall) and another great fishing experience is burned into memory. Oh ya Mike, also got a 34 inch channel and it was a league night for me!!!! Thanks for the cut bait tip. If I keep getting big flatheads on cut bait my live bait theory only may have to change.
August 10, 2002 at 3:09 pm
#1218867
Love “big fish” stories! 