I was the only boat on the St Croix after 2200 and it was an absolutely beautiful night. The river is rising, up about a foot in the last couple of days and forecasted to rise another two feet in the next few days. Water temp was a cool 64 degrees. There is a lot of grass floating in the current and it is a pain in the butt – you have to clean your line about every 10 minutes or so.
I had hooks in the water about 1900 but nothing was biting. I kept moving about every 30 to 45 minutes trying to find active fish. Picked up a small 22″ channel at 2200 but nothing else from that spot. I was working my way back to the marina and stopped at my last spot at 2230 and decided to fish it for 30 minutes. I missed a solid hit on cut bullhead right at 2300 so I decided to give that spot another 30 minutes. At 2325 I started to put things away in the boat and get ready to go in. Right at 2330 I heard the rod thump in the rod holder and that rod was just doubled over. As soon as I wrestled the rod out of the holder I knew I had a big fish. I just took my time with him and played him out and he was pretty tired when I finally slid him into the net. When I hoisted him out of the water he was just huge. His stomach was just bulging and he looked like he had swallowed a football. This guy has been really been chowing down for quite a while. There must be some pretty good bait in the vicinity because he is well fed. He was so tired that I was in a hurry to get him back in the water as quickly as I could. My camera will shoot a series of 4 photos on the timer so I shot 8 photos and 7 of them turned out great. You can really see the belly on this beast. He measured out at 35″ X 25″ for a score of 60. Boy, I’d like to get two more like this one for the King of the Cats contest.
