Mississippi River Pool 3 Personal Best Cat!!!!

This Memorial Weekend will be memorable for Mike Jensen of Hastings. We talked Mike into going out on Pool 3 Sunday night to chase around some of the large cats some have been encountering on Pools 2 through 4 recently. Fresh off my trip with my son Ben where he caught a 46 pounder as his first flathead, Mike Jensen was the new "Rookie" catter in the boat. He had never caught a flathead on the Big Sip yet. This guy is also the brother-in-law of the infamous Sauger and Burbob…the Miller boys of Hastings. So we had a mission, and that was to put Mike on his first fish. We were equipped with 3 ounce no-roll sinkers and 10-0 Gamakatszu hooks, heavy duty reels and rods to horse these large fish out of snags and skyward to the waiting over-sized net for a quick photo shoot and the return to the dark abyss.

We were greeted with crystal blue skies and a light easterly breeze that kept most of the skeeters at bay. Up and down river were campsites lit by the warm glow of fires and the giggles of kids large and small. There is nothing like camping next to water…which I will get to in a bit…

Our spot number one was a new area for me this year. New snags and topographgy after the high waters of Spring. Every year brings new underwater changes to landscapes in Cat Country. With a livewell full of bait we anchored up on a likely spot and set our lines. A few to the right, a few to the left and a few more down the middle. Tonight we had 4 guys in the boat which made things a little tight, but we were able to surround the area with baits quite well. The humor more than made up for the tighter conditions. Nick "Z" Zarbo was our 4th stick in the boat. He was trying out his new Pflueger Trion reels when at about 10:30 Z says "This River sucks!" There aren’t any fish here!" The Flathead lurking below us took that as a challenge and hit one of our starboard lines. The clicker and line let out with a blast, and a few additional clicks. Not the blistering runs that are normally characteristic of flathead bites. We handed the rod off to Big Mike…and he poured the coals to the fish! After some hand to hand combat, Mike eventually wrestled the big girl into the net. She went 41" and tipped the scale at 30 pounds. Congrats on your first Flatty! And like my son Ben a week ago, it was another hog!!

The boys and I started out our Memorial Day weekend with a trip up to Pine City and Cross Lake. We were re-living a little bit of my childhood. I used to camp here with all of my buddies when I was 12 or 13 or so. We used to set up camp and fish channel cats all night. I had always wanted my boys to experience this. It was a special time in my life and now it is going to be a part of theirs. Joining us was my brother-in-law Drew Stark and my Nephew Adam, and his cousin Mitch. We pitched a couple tents and put the boats in the water for the crappie chasing by day. We used cutbait, live suckers, and some stink bait pellets. We had three runs after 11 pm and that was about it. They had the classic doughnut ring bite around the minnow, but missed the hook. The banter aound the fire went on well past 2 AM…My hope is that these stories will be passed on to their kids.

During the day we chased crappies right in front of the campsite. Roadrunner jigs with chartruese skirts and no bait. We just drifted in the wind working the baits behind the boat. The action was fast and furious as long as we had a breeze. My brother James jumped in for the slugfest. We caught a number of "Eater" sized crappies and had a wonderful family fish fry across the street at the family farm. Even though the cats did not cooperate with us either night, the time spent with the kids was PRICELESS! It seems my older boys grew up too fast. I am really trying to enjoy every day we can toghether before the nest empties out. So looking back on the weekend, it was indeed a Memorial Day to remember. A tip of the hat and salute to all the Vet’s who have paid the ultimate price for all of us so that we may enjoy the simple pleasures like this that we may take for granted.

I hope you all had a great weekend! See ya on the water!