I sent the story of this big cat to Briank as he seems to be the expert on this topic and he asked that I share it with everyone so here goes. Last spring a buddy and I were walleye fishing on P4 near where the Cannon dumps in to to Miss. We were using a jig and minnow combination when he gets what we both think is a snag. He asks me to start the big motor up to get above the snag and get it out. Just as I am about to start it he says hang on it’s moving. It slowly starts making its way across the main channel and then down river. We think for sure he has a sturgeon on and he wants to cut the line as he had to be to work shortly. I tell him no deal, I want to see whatever this thing is. After following it down river for about an hour and forty five minutes he gets it off the bottom a couple of times, but nowhere close to the surface for me to net(we always have the salmon net in the boat and now I know why). About fifteen minutes later we are in the main channel about 100 yards down stream from where the back channel splits off and the hog surfaces and I get her in the net. Not wanting to break the net in half a carefully hoist the monster in to the boat. It is the biggest fish I have ever seen caught, a gigantic flathead. Of course we have no camera in the boat so we make a few phone calls and get someone to meet us at the launch in the back channel to snap a few pictures and get some measurements. I just moved and am trying to locate the pictures to send to Briank to post for me. There were about 6 boats that had followed us down river during this fight along with one guy that followed us for about 10 minutes and then told us we had a log and were wasting our time. Right on man. We had a scale in the boat that went to 50 lbs. and it bottomed that out. We took measurements and it was 49.5 inches long with a 36 inch girth. After a few quick pictures and measurements we let her go to fight another day. As we let her go my buddy says he hopes that someone else one day has the fortune of fightning that hog again. I called the dnr the next day to get estimates and they said most likely it was between 55 to 60 pounds. I think my favorite part of the story though is that he was about an hour late for work. When he called in and told them he was going to be late they asked why and he said he was fighting the biggest fish he had ever hooked. What could they say at that point.
~SKINEBOY~
feet sticking out of the water.
fish. If I remember, it took you guys all the way down the river.
