The King of Minnesota Gamefish

[DTro]

So what's your vote?

I became fully convinced Fri night that the king is the Flathead Catfish. I've caught (what I would consider) a trophy of most of the major species in MN, but Fri night topped them all. This fish fought like no other. I was prepared for a fight and had all the appropriate gear, 7ft reflex rod 60lb power pro and Shimano Corsair 400 reel. Well after 40 min....yes, four zero, the fish finally gave up, just before I was ready to . I had the drag of the reel up all the way and was still thumbing it to try to gain ground. I now need a new reel, as pieces broke off during the fight (no more Corsairs for me). At this point I think the only fish that could top it would be a bigger flathead, or perhaps a monster sturgeon.

The fish measured 46" and weighed 54.6 on a 50lb rapala digital.

[fishin789]

Way to go. That is one nice fish.

[Matt Johnson]

That is a monster! Congrats, awesome fish!

Good Fishin,

Matt Johnson

[hanson]

You don't have to convince me dtro. I agree.

"But why do you want to chase those bottom feeders?" they ask.

[Deitz Dittrich]

Awesome fish.. what a beaut!!..

stupid question.. how does a fish weigh 54 lbs on a 50 lb scale?

[Fisher Dave]

might have been a 100 lb scale in the 50 lb package? We had a scale bottom out a few years ago on the rapala 50 lb scales.. I am happy to hear you got the honest weight and didnt get left guessing.. as I said before.. awesome flat.

Flats are the king in Minnesota.. at least of every day catchable species.. Muskies just dont fight, and sturgeon are too scarce.. they are in a special category of their own.

This is a 40.5 from a couple nights ago.. it looks small comparing to your monster!

[Dan Thiem]

WOW

That is a monster cat. I think Ed would call it a Sumo!

It's amazing you could even muster up enough strength to just hold it for the photo. Congrats!!

[fiskyknut]

WOW, nice Mudcat there dtro! I guess if we are talking king size wise the Lake Sturgeon would rule the kingdom of MN. Way BIG but not the most spectacular of a fighter. Pound for pound king? Smallie? Bluegill? Maybe a stocky Rainbow trout? I guess Channel Cats could rank as king maybe, they outfight anything in MN of simular weight when talking 10 to 25 pounds or so. Those King Salmon can smoke a reel good too.

fiskyknut

[woodman]

What a big Cat!

Congrats on the catch!

[Surface Tension]

Gosh, what goes bump in the night and makes your eyes all goofy. In this case its a big flathead. Nice fish.

[Quackaddict9]

Quote:

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muskies just dont fight

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ummm okay...

[Dennis Steele]

A truely monster fish!

Congratulations dtro!

How are your arms?

[DARK30]

Definitely the king of Minnesota fish in my book! I only managed one 11# this weekend....Just think, If yours ate mine it would be pushing the state record!

BTW, Your partner that night for the Belle Plaine Catfish League "River Rod" really knows his way around the river and catches a lot of nice ones every year.

[DTro]

thanks for all the compliments. Yeah, RiverRod knows the river well and I think the thing that suprised me the most is that he told me that this fish is the biggest he's ever seen, in fact at first glance when pulled into the boat the "record" word was mentioned.

I have no idea why the scale measured over 50. I'm bringing it into work today to do some tests.

[icehousebob]

dtro, Thats a heck of a fish. I've noticed that the only pictures of you are at night and that you have pink eyes. You aren't a vampire, are you?????

[MJCatfish]

That is definitely an awesome catch. What a beauty!! It may be a fish of a lifetime, but just think. . . Now that you've set the bar for yourself, you'll have to fish more to catch one bigger!

Congrats!!

MJ

[Dennis Steele]

I have a Berkley 50lb scale that will read past 50lbs. I watched it last year when I caught my largest flat, a tiny 49.7 compared to that 55!

The scale bounced to 59 when the fish was strugling but rested at 49.7.

Not sure how acurate a scale past its capacity is but just looking at that pic, you deffinately caught a solid 55. Bigger???

That is one BIG fish!

[DTro]

Now that you mention it, I think the scale I have might be the Berkely one, not Rapala. We didn't have a chance to do a calibration on it today.

Couple of strange things about this fish was that one it took a tiny bullhead (so small I almost didn't take them with) and also it never ran at all in fact I didn't even know it was on . I just happened to check my line and before you know it the fish was taking off upstream and around the other side of the boat.

Too bad I'm an honest guy, this fish could've brought a nice payday

[Captain B.R.K]

Nice fish guys....and I was thinking you were going to post a true monster "piggy" eye

[Random guy]

Ok now I'm officaly scared of the water. What does a cat like that eat? Small livestock?

[DTro]

Well, the scale turned out to more accurate then I thought. It went wacko at 55 lbs, but up to that was good. At the most +/- 1 pound. So as much as I'd like to say it was bigger, it wasn't. The scale read 54.6. I'm going with 55.

[DTro]

I came across this pic on the powerpro site. 72.5 new Oklahoma record. Not a whole lot of difference, once you get that big.

[buzzsaw]

Nothing wrong with Catfish, but I still prefer muskie fishing. I guess I never thought of Catfish as a "gamefish" more like a bottom feeder. Maybe I need to re-think that thought process and head down to the Minnesota river in search of some cats sometime... then I'd experience what you guys already know.

[bluefleck]

Catfish are a good gamefish for rivers and such , but that is just the rivers.. My dad fought a muskie for 45 minutes before he cut the line , we would use the trolling motor to catch up to it so he could reel in some line then the fish would take off agian and we repeated the processes a number of time the fish jumped 4 times it was a monster i couldn't even try to guess how long it was , Don't try and tell me that Muskies don't fight , cuz that is a load of dump ... Catfish are river fish and great fight also , but you have current to deal with also ....

[PierBridge]

Quote:

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Don't try and tell me that Muskies don't fight , cuz that is a load of

dump

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Dave was comparing the many Big cats he's landed to the many Muskies he's landed, and the Cats pound for pound fight a lot better then Muskies.

How many 30lb Cats have you caught?