rrigsby
Well-known member
RSimms, MrWiskers, and others, you all might be interested in hearing this and you might be able to help me out with estimating the weight of my catch last night. I was bass fish out on a river ledge for my last stop of the day below the Sequoyah Power Plant when all of the sudden I hooked into the biggest fish of my life. The fish pulled me out to the middle of the river and then right back across the bar where I hooked him to a near point with 2 guys bass fishing on it. I called out to the guys to come see what I had on the end of my line, that is if I ever could get it up off the bottom. So, after about 20 minutes I finally had the behemoth up next to the boat with the 2 guys there in the other boat to see the sight. It was a giant blue catfish, as long as my leg or longer, that I hooked on a 3/4 oz jig with 15lb line. I tried to get a hold of the fish but was just a bit tenative in putting my hand in it's mouth or behind it's gill plate. Luckily, the guys that were in the other boat next to me said they would be glad to land it for me since they catfish all the time. After about the 3rd try the one guy was able to get both hands under each side of the head and drag this fish up and out of the water on to his deck. And, believe me this was a pretty big guy that struggled to get this fish aboard. It was the biggest fish I have ever seen around here, anyway. The fish just laid there completely worn out from the fight. Me and the other guy were alittle tired as while. The friendly guy in the boat soon took out his 22 inch golden rule and measured the fish from nose to tall while the fish proceeded to pee all over the front of his boat. Poor guy. The giant cat was roughly 44 inches long, with a girth of about 38 inches. The one guy said it was about 80 lbs but I have no idea, so please help. Can you use the same bass weighing formula for catfish? Unfortunatly, I had no camera. I wish I had a picture!!! So after a couple of high fives and hand shakes we slipped the big cat back into the water and watched Ol' Ned, as they called, slow descended to the depths of the Tennessee River. I then headed back to ramp with another great memory on the River. Thanks to the 2 gentlemen that helped me land the fish.
Now the bass fishing part. The bass fishing was fair with all the traffic and weather change. I didn't get out there until about 1:30. I caught about 20 fishing deep with DD22's being the trick for me yesterday as far as numbers go. No big fish to speak of. Only one small keeper cranking. The bass were in the deep brush pretty good, 12-13 feet or so. I had 2 keepers doing that. One on a 10" Zoom worm and the other on a Cutthroat 3/8 Bruised Melon Jig. I didn't spend as much time fishing the brush as I should have because I was on a mission to crank. The deep fishing kind of slowed around 6:00 with the east wind picking up so I went shallow and caught about 10 non keepers from grass and wood.
Now the bass fishing part. The bass fishing was fair with all the traffic and weather change. I didn't get out there until about 1:30. I caught about 20 fishing deep with DD22's being the trick for me yesterday as far as numbers go. No big fish to speak of. Only one small keeper cranking. The bass were in the deep brush pretty good, 12-13 feet or so. I had 2 keepers doing that. One on a 10" Zoom worm and the other on a Cutthroat 3/8 Bruised Melon Jig. I didn't spend as much time fishing the brush as I should have because I was on a mission to crank. The deep fishing kind of slowed around 6:00 with the east wind picking up so I went shallow and caught about 10 non keepers from grass and wood.
