Little Angler, Big Fish

There, I said it. ;) Had the pleasure of taking out Austin and his dad Ron today. They've been dabbling at getting back into fishing, mostly for bass, but wanted to try catfishing. First hookup was a 19 pound bruiser and it kept going until we got run off the lake by a late morning thunderstorm. Close to 10 nice sized cats, and we lost a monster right at the boat which was a real bummer! Can't wait to take them out again as the fishing gets even better over the next few weeks.

While the cats are taking their sweet time coming off the spawn, had a chance to take out Ronald, Iris and Melissa for a meat hunt fishing trip. We were targeting channel cats and spotted bass for a fish fry, but instead it turned into a non stop hybrid striperpalooza. Well over 50 hybrids for the day, plus a cooler full of channel cats, spots and jumbo white perch. Melissa got so determined to catch a keeper hybrid (20+ inches) that we left biting fish for another area that has been holding some slightly bigger hybrids (and more channel cats), and the first bait drop produced a 22 inch bruiser. I had been telling her all morning how hard the bigger fish fought, and she nearly had a heart attack when the big boy bent the rod tip down into into the water.. She added a second 22 incher, and then 11 year old Iris latched onto a 23 inch drag screamer that she handled like a pro. Big hybrids on ultralight tackle are unbelievably fun to catch! Took me an hour to filet out all the fish for them, got a hook in my thumb and all sorts of cuts and scrapes from the gills and tooth pads, but wouldn't trade an outing like this for anything. What a great day of fishing. We're probably about three weeks from the height of the suspended cat season, which is by far the most fun time of the year to down line for good sized catfish. Holler if you want to go!

We missed the best part of the morning bite, but once Reggie got on the boat (after driving nearly two hours from working overnight) we made up for it quickly. First couple of drifts produced a screaming drag puller 27.5 pound blue cat, followed by a 17 pounder and a pair in the low teens. We added white perch, spotted bass, channel cat and crappie to the catch, After a couple hours of fishing, the wind changed direction and started white capping, which slowed the bite way down. Still sent Reggie home with a bag of filets for a fish fry that evening (probably after a short nap, I suspect.)