When hard effort pays off!!!

[Mike_Bennewitz]

I have had a few things on my bucket list for the past two years since I moved to my Dad's house in River Falls, WI to attend college in Inver Grove Heights, MN. One was to catch my first Flathead Catfish which I did on the 12th of August this year with a small 15" fish. But I wanted a true bruiser cat.

Now fast forward to the 16th of August. I decided to try bobber fishing from shore and quickly caught a Mooneye. I cut this up for some Channel Cat bait and didn't think twice about how big of a rig to use but noticed I wasn't the only one doing this. After getting to know some of the guys fishing near me I had a good run on my rod but missed the hook set. The next night I towed my co-worker out with me again and we had a Mooneye fiesta. Within 30 minutes we had over a dozen big Mooneye and had already landed a nice Channel Cat on the stuff. Then things got interesting...

I heard my line on a bigger setup take off. 25 minutes later we saw the Flathead and OH. MY. LORD. This fish was big. Like...enormously giant kind of big. Two older guys fishing looked and got excited saying that it was much bigger than any 60 pounder they have seen before. Then as I pulled it towards the rocks to land it, the line broke. 65 pound Power Pro. Gone. My swivel was 100lb, I had sinker bumperz to protect my knots as well. That fish was as close to a state record as I will ever see again in my life. I will admit...at first I had a number of expletives to myself for not letting the fish make that last turn. But I also was happy knowing that fish won to fight me again if I get lucky! We ended this night at 4am after Brendan (my co-worker and just as big a fishing nut as myself) landed his first Flathead around 2-25 pounds on 6 pound test line! He also lost two Sturgeon and has yet to land one. (Next fall buddy!)

Now on the 21st of August I had a tough night. I got out there at 8:40pm after spending the day looking for someone to fish with me. After an hour I hadn't caught anything until I popped a Mooneye and a nice Crappie real quick at 10pm. I set cut Mooneye out on my Abu Garcia 6500 C3 with the clicker on and took less than two bites of my Arby's before I heard that clicker fire up! It was a few clicks at first, then a pause before the fish decided to head towards Hastings like a bullet. I engaged the reel and forgot I had my drag maxed out. After feeling like I was going to swim, I started another long tug of war that lasted about 20 minutes before I saw another nice Flathead (not nearly the size of the big one I lost, but my 100lb braid would hold anything I hook now).

As I got this fish to shore I realized I forgot my tape measure so I used my rod. Butt to the second guide exactly. 48.5" According to most charts thats between the very high 40 and mid 50 pound range depending on girth. A guy who had offered to help me was going to take my picture and I went to pick up the fish, not realizing this big one had energy left and wasn't happy about her predicament. To make this short, she twisted like an oversized Channel Cat and tore my fingers up real good. That is why I did a gill-plate lift for the picture. It was very short and I set her down in the water less than 2 seconds later. She swam off perfect, and splashed me really good to show she was healthy.

I apologize for the crappy picture quality folks. I only had my phone camera available at the time. I will be bringing my digital SLR camera with me from now on.

[aanderud]

Nice fish, Mike. Looks like you're putting in the time, and you're right -- it's paying off. Good for you. Cutbait is definitely a go-to bait late in the season like this. Keep it up. Those fish will bite all the way through October until the water cools down, and sturgeon will bite throughout the fall season.

[EBass]

Awesome story thanks for sharing. Cut mooneye ya say. Hmm