rsimms
Well-known member
rsimms, Nickajack, Catfish (HOF x2! ... Living a charmed life!), 9-10-2011, The Winlands
(SIT BACK FOR AN EPIC REPORT/TALE)
Sometimes I feel like I'm living a charmed life. I was sort of dreading Saturday's guide trip. With the exception of one trophy catfish, my previous trip was really slow. And of course we've had flooding rains and extreme high water since then, so I had absolutely no clue what the tailwater cats were up to, and I told the Winlands as much.
Dale, Matt and Mark are from Tullahoma. They had been referred by Clint Bailey who's fished with me several times, so I sure didn't want to let them down. Matt was home on a short leave from the Coast Guard. Mark is a Senior Wildlife Biology major at Tennessee Tech (my alma mater). This fishing trip was sort of a "family reunion/event," so I sure didn't want to screw it up... the pressure was on.
Within 15 minutes of the first anchor, a little guy ( 8 lber.) latches on. "OK," I thought. "We've at least broken the ice." A while later another rod bows down and Matt does battle with a bigger fish... a 28 lber.... they're very happy, and so am I (although I tried to keep wearing my, "I do this every day" face).
A while later another rod bows down hard. I suspect "Big fish!," but sadly, it was a swing and a miss for Mark. I'm heartbroken. But redemption comes a while later as another rod doubles down and Mark goes toe-to-toe with a beast. When the monster surfaced, Mark exclaimed, "Oh my Lord. I didn't know fish got that big!" It was 41 lbs. and based on their reactions, I know that no matter what happens (or doesn't happen) the rest of the day, I'm golden!
But the big bite seems good so we can't give up yet. Sure enough, in a while one of my heavy-weight spinning rods bows to the water. Matt grabs ahold and it quickly turned into a wild ride. It's a big spinning rod, but still it lacks the power of the casting tackle and this fish is having its way with Matt... and it's running upstream, dangerously close to the anchor rope. (I've got some video I'll add later) We reel everything in and haul anchor in a hurry. I get on the trolling motor to try and keep Matt on top of the fish and off the bottom. We were a long way downstream before he gets the fish boatside.
Of course since a client broke the last one, and my bum shoulder has healed, I am back to NOT carrying a net. I hate fooling with nets, and I love to watch folks do battle with fish all the way to the end. I coach a lot and teach them a lot of patience in getting big fish to the point that I can get my grabbers (plus my bloodied hand) around their lower jaw. Plus I have a HUGE amount of faith in (shameless plug) Daiichi Circle Hooks. But what a rush when you do haul a big one over the side without a net!
This fish beat the previous ... we "sized up" with every catch... 8, 28, 41 and 45... and the Winland's thought I hung the moon. I've got them fooled because I know it's not up to me... it's up to the fish.
This all transpired in about three hours but the Winlands brought a cooler and wanted to take some eaters home so we decided to break out the small tackle and start drifting. Like I said, last time out we struggled to put a half-dozen eaters in the boat in about three hours.
Saturday the first drift line I hit was absolutely on fire. Big 4-6 pound channel cats were hammering us, with the occasional blue up to 8 or 10 lbs. We went back and forth over the same 300-yard drift line for three hours, although the cooler was full after 2 hours. We switched drift lines to an area I've caught some bigger fish... a slower bite but true to form, Dale stuck a big one. It was a 20 minute battle to get the blue boatside... I guessed 25 or 30 lbs. But that one came unbuttoned before I could get grabbers on it (Guess I needed a net that time , huh? But BTW, it was NOT hooked on a Daiichi!)
We had another happening that I have NEVER seen before. One of them was fighting a hefty channel cat. He got it wore down and was bringing it to the boat when we looked down and there was a MONSTER catfish following the little guy. I don't know if the big guy wanted to eat the little one, or if he just wanted the chunk of chicken breast hanging out of it's mouth, but it was a 30 or 40 lb. fish following. That was first for me.
FYI, the big fish were caught on huge hunks of skipjack and they came from two different deep holes (three different anchors) 30 to 45 feet deep. And it seems my big fish bite lately has been an "early bite." The drift fish were all in 10 - 20 feet of water over bottom that had good "texture," caught drifting chicken breast.
TVA cranked up the generation full blast by 1 pm and that pretty much killed our bite. But it was SURE fun while it lasted... and that means life is good and gettin' better everyday!
(SIT BACK FOR AN EPIC REPORT/TALE)
Sometimes I feel like I'm living a charmed life. I was sort of dreading Saturday's guide trip. With the exception of one trophy catfish, my previous trip was really slow. And of course we've had flooding rains and extreme high water since then, so I had absolutely no clue what the tailwater cats were up to, and I told the Winlands as much.
Dale, Matt and Mark are from Tullahoma. They had been referred by Clint Bailey who's fished with me several times, so I sure didn't want to let them down. Matt was home on a short leave from the Coast Guard. Mark is a Senior Wildlife Biology major at Tennessee Tech (my alma mater). This fishing trip was sort of a "family reunion/event," so I sure didn't want to screw it up... the pressure was on.
Within 15 minutes of the first anchor, a little guy ( 8 lber.) latches on. "OK," I thought. "We've at least broken the ice." A while later another rod bows down and Matt does battle with a bigger fish... a 28 lber.... they're very happy, and so am I (although I tried to keep wearing my, "I do this every day" face).
A while later another rod bows down hard. I suspect "Big fish!," but sadly, it was a swing and a miss for Mark. I'm heartbroken. But redemption comes a while later as another rod doubles down and Mark goes toe-to-toe with a beast. When the monster surfaced, Mark exclaimed, "Oh my Lord. I didn't know fish got that big!" It was 41 lbs. and based on their reactions, I know that no matter what happens (or doesn't happen) the rest of the day, I'm golden!
But the big bite seems good so we can't give up yet. Sure enough, in a while one of my heavy-weight spinning rods bows to the water. Matt grabs ahold and it quickly turned into a wild ride. It's a big spinning rod, but still it lacks the power of the casting tackle and this fish is having its way with Matt... and it's running upstream, dangerously close to the anchor rope. (I've got some video I'll add later) We reel everything in and haul anchor in a hurry. I get on the trolling motor to try and keep Matt on top of the fish and off the bottom. We were a long way downstream before he gets the fish boatside.
Of course since a client broke the last one, and my bum shoulder has healed, I am back to NOT carrying a net. I hate fooling with nets, and I love to watch folks do battle with fish all the way to the end. I coach a lot and teach them a lot of patience in getting big fish to the point that I can get my grabbers (plus my bloodied hand) around their lower jaw. Plus I have a HUGE amount of faith in (shameless plug) Daiichi Circle Hooks. But what a rush when you do haul a big one over the side without a net!
This fish beat the previous ... we "sized up" with every catch... 8, 28, 41 and 45... and the Winland's thought I hung the moon. I've got them fooled because I know it's not up to me... it's up to the fish.
This all transpired in about three hours but the Winlands brought a cooler and wanted to take some eaters home so we decided to break out the small tackle and start drifting. Like I said, last time out we struggled to put a half-dozen eaters in the boat in about three hours.
Saturday the first drift line I hit was absolutely on fire. Big 4-6 pound channel cats were hammering us, with the occasional blue up to 8 or 10 lbs. We went back and forth over the same 300-yard drift line for three hours, although the cooler was full after 2 hours. We switched drift lines to an area I've caught some bigger fish... a slower bite but true to form, Dale stuck a big one. It was a 20 minute battle to get the blue boatside... I guessed 25 or 30 lbs. But that one came unbuttoned before I could get grabbers on it (Guess I needed a net that time , huh? But BTW, it was NOT hooked on a Daiichi!)
We had another happening that I have NEVER seen before. One of them was fighting a hefty channel cat. He got it wore down and was bringing it to the boat when we looked down and there was a MONSTER catfish following the little guy. I don't know if the big guy wanted to eat the little one, or if he just wanted the chunk of chicken breast hanging out of it's mouth, but it was a 30 or 40 lb. fish following. That was first for me.
FYI, the big fish were caught on huge hunks of skipjack and they came from two different deep holes (three different anchors) 30 to 45 feet deep. And it seems my big fish bite lately has been an "early bite." The drift fish were all in 10 - 20 feet of water over bottom that had good "texture," caught drifting chicken breast.
TVA cranked up the generation full blast by 1 pm and that pretty much killed our bite. But it was SURE fun while it lasted... and that means life is good and gettin' better everyday!
