It has been weeks since I have been on the river, so I took advantage of a newly installed fish finder to hit the water for a couple hours this evening. I spent the first hour playing with my new Eagle FishStrike 2000C. What a great unit!
With daylight waning, we decided to try trolling shad raps on leadcore in a slough that has been a good walleye producer. We ran about 100 yards when we marked a couple huge fish on bottom, and minutes later, this monster inhaled my partners jointed shad rap! The remainder of daylight and most of twilight was consumed with trying to get this fish in the boat! We where using 12# test leadcore with a 10# Trilene XT leader, so we had to go easy on her and tire her out before attempting to net her.
We did not have a scale, but the fish filled a 48" livewell. Unfortunately, her gills where seriously damaged by the trebles, so we brought her in and put her in a large water tank to see if she will survive. I believe this fish will weigh around 50 pounds, give or take 10 pounds. What an awesome battle!
I have to sing the praises of Wade and Tamara at Jolly Ann Marine. I ordered my Eagle Friday night at 6:30 p.m. from Wade who was working late. I had it by noon on Wedensday. Awesome service and the best price I found anywhere by a substantial amount. They now have a couple of new, loyal customers! Check their site before making any purchases, you will not regret it!
Nice cat John! That had to be fun. That is what is so cool about the ‘sippi all those “monsters of the deep.” You never know when you might run into one.
dd
Holy Cow what a cat. To big to eat but must of been a great fight.
It took about 15 minutes to get her under the boat, then another 10 or so to get her off bottom and netted. Other than one very large sturgeon I brought up several years ago, it was the best fight I have been involved with. My partner has a very bad back, so I was forced to take over the fight for him after 10 minutes or so, hated to do it but someone had to
. She did not fit very well in my walleye net!
Awesome Fish! Very good report…and that’s it about the river…just never know!
John,
Once you hit one of those babies your whole philosphy can change. Everything but muskies seem to be bait for me anymore.
Got the official certified scale weight, 47.5#. I understand what you mean Whiskerkev, that was one heck of a blast catching a fish that size, with all that power! If I am going to pursue them intentionally, I think I’ll have to invest in heavier tackle and line. That one was on a 10# Trilene XT leader, so patience was giving way to panic by the time we got it to the surface!
Way to go John nothing like tag teaming a big kitty.
I was wondering how much longer you were going to play with that old fish finder,nothing like a new toy.
Nice fish!
Hopefully it did survive, but if it didn’t perhaps you should get it mounted. 
Hang it in your bedroom. 
Good Fishn to ya, 
Nice cat John! Isn’t it a blast to hook into a fish that size on light tackle? I haven’t caught any larger than 15 Lbs in the past 3 or 4 years but I did have one year when I was fortunate enough to land a couple big brutes. I ruined a landing net on one of them as the aluminum handle wasn’t quite strong enough. All the catfish I have caught over 20 Lbs have been caught on deep diving cranks with 12Lb test line or less. I have lost a couple huge cats as well. At least I think they were cats. These big cats go pretty much where they want to go. The last one I caught took me over 20 minutes to land and I followed the fish a good half mile downstream before getting it in the boat.
The largest flathead I caught did not survive. It was cleaned and eaten and despite those that say large flatheads are not good to eat it was excellent table fare. Especially the cheekmeat which each were the size of large ribeyes.
Eyehunter
John and Eyehunter, I for one love eating flathead cats. They have excellent quality even in those larger sizes. While not quite as easy clean as a 16 inch walleye, they do have a large amount of white flaky meat. I always called it “belly meat”, but it might be the same as Eyehunter’s cheekmeat. Nice job landing the big one John!
Thanks Andy! Hey, when you gonna make this wind go away?
Is this an unusually windy spring, or have I forgotten what spring was like 
Makes for awfully tough fishing when it is in the 20-30 mph range!