After working 12 hours yesterday I got in my truck and found a voicemail from Dhaun wanting to go fishing. Just what I needed after 12 hours of work. We met up at the Riverpark at 9AM (I wanted to sleep in a little) and we decided to try for some cats with the current off as we thought we would be able to fish the deep holes more easily. The first deep hole we hit was full of fish but they would not eat our threadfins.
So, David recommeded we hit the deep hole near where his son caught the big smallie last weekend. We did and started catching fish right away on jigging spoons: stripes, bass, bluegill, etc. After moving around the hole for an hour or so we found a part of this hole where the depth went from 30 feet to 10 feet from the front of the boat to the back. The depth finders were beeping non stop marking fish on this drop. After catching 3-4 bass I hooked into something huge. Pulls off. About 15 minutes later I do the same thing. This time I end up with a 5 minute battle with a 24lb blue cat hooked in the belly. For anyone who has not foul hooked a large fish let me tell you, they do what they want.
Well we were all excited we got a big cat on a jigging spoon. David decided to anchor on the drop and a few mintues later he sets the hook and it does not move. Well at first it did not move. The battle was on!!! About 5 minutes later we saw the huge cat. The first thing I said was "That thing is over 40!". After a masterful net job (by yours truely) we wrestled the thing onto David's boat.
Using two different scales we weighed the big cat at 53lbs. It was caught on 14lb stren. Amazing a fish that big would eat a 2-3 inch jigging spoon. After a few pics (and more wresling) the big girl was released unharmed.
Pretty hard to follow that up but we decided to run up-river to look for some striper and smallmouth. I lost about a 3lb striper drifting at the dam and I caught a 3.6lb smallmouth.
Totals for the day were: 16 bass (about 50/50 split between spots and smallies), 20 or so stripe, about 8 bluegill, 2 google eyes, and 2 blue cats - All safely released.
All in all, a perfect day. Thanks for the ride David!!!
So, David recommeded we hit the deep hole near where his son caught the big smallie last weekend. We did and started catching fish right away on jigging spoons: stripes, bass, bluegill, etc. After moving around the hole for an hour or so we found a part of this hole where the depth went from 30 feet to 10 feet from the front of the boat to the back. The depth finders were beeping non stop marking fish on this drop. After catching 3-4 bass I hooked into something huge. Pulls off. About 15 minutes later I do the same thing. This time I end up with a 5 minute battle with a 24lb blue cat hooked in the belly. For anyone who has not foul hooked a large fish let me tell you, they do what they want.
Well we were all excited we got a big cat on a jigging spoon. David decided to anchor on the drop and a few mintues later he sets the hook and it does not move. Well at first it did not move. The battle was on!!! About 5 minutes later we saw the huge cat. The first thing I said was "That thing is over 40!". After a masterful net job (by yours truely) we wrestled the thing onto David's boat.
Using two different scales we weighed the big cat at 53lbs. It was caught on 14lb stren. Amazing a fish that big would eat a 2-3 inch jigging spoon. After a few pics (and more wresling) the big girl was released unharmed.
Pretty hard to follow that up but we decided to run up-river to look for some striper and smallmouth. I lost about a 3lb striper drifting at the dam and I caught a 3.6lb smallmouth.
Totals for the day were: 16 bass (about 50/50 split between spots and smallies), 20 or so stripe, about 8 bluegill, 2 google eyes, and 2 blue cats - All safely released.
All in all, a perfect day. Thanks for the ride David!!!
