Heavy Metal Catfish

[hanson]

You ever have one of those days where you just knew something good was going to happen? That was yesterday.

I got home from work, checked the forums, looked outside, and thought to myself, "I have to hit the river tonight." A front was rolling up. Rain was on the way. It just 'felt' right for pulling a big kittie out of the river.

And what the heck, I was able to keep all my sucker minnows alive since Monday night so I had to fish with them soon.

Anyway, I arrive at the river a little later than I like and proceeded to toss my line out and get comfy. No more than 5 minutes passes, and a friend by the name of Paul shows up on his Harley. Paul likes to stop down and see how fishing is, shoot the bull, and just hang out for awhile. Paul never fishes when he stops by, just chats.

FD offered to toss a line out for him tonight with a good chunk of cutbait and guess what?

His rod gets hit!

The fish was coming upstream with the bait so the rod tip kept doing this bouncing thing. No clickers, no screaming run, just something that looked really odd. Dave yells at Paul to "Grab the rod, you have a fish on." What we previously thought to be a 4-5 pound channel cat kept getting bigger & bigger as it got close to shore. Eventually, I saw that big garbage can mouth break the surface. "Its a flattie!"

Into the net it goes. I open up the fishes mouth to unhook the line and was really surprised at this point. Not 1, not 2, not 3, but 4 HOOKS were in this fishes mouth with line wrapped in its gills. We proceeded to do some surgery and free the fish of her Excess Body Jewelry, take some photos, and get a weight. After a minute or so of reviving, she happily swam off minus some extra hooks.

We figure this fish has been picking our snagged up baits off the bottom for a little while now for its dinner. No wonder its been slow at this location, there are easy meals all over attached to the bottom. I was quite surprised to see all the hooks tangled in its mouth but was really surprised to see how well the fish was doing and the fact that it was still eating with all that metal and line tangled in its gills.

By the way, that Flattie scaled at 29-30 pounds and was our friend Paul's 1st Flathead & biggest fish ever. You got to love that!!

Hopefully, I can get some photos to follow!

[Dan Thiem]

Cool story Chris, tell F.D. we miss him.

[rushing]

When I first saw the heading "Heavy Metal Catfish" I thought I would see a pic of a catfish wearing a metallica shirt or something...maybe a jean jacket?

I have never caught a cat with another hook in its mouth except for once when a nice flattie took my bullhead and my friends and we both reeled him in.

[Mr Special]

??? Were the hooks still in good condition to reuse? If so that's a great catch. A fish and tackle. The only thing that would be better, is if it happen to have a cold six pack. Can't wait to see the Pic's.

Later

[catman71]

quite the tale. Next time you get "that feeling", you should go buy a lottery ticket!

[DTro]

are ya sure it wasn't the fish that kept runnin and breaking you off, making you switch to heavier line

[hanson]

You know, thats a good point dtro.

I don't think it was.

-2 of the hooks were 9/0 or 10/0 Gamakatsu Octupus like I use. FD uses them also.

-1 of the hooks wasn't anything we use.

-1 of the barrel swivels was definitely one of FD's which was tied to one of the Gamakatsu's

-The other hook was tied to a barrel swivel that was much smaller than what we normally use.

So that leaves one 10/0 Gamakatsu that could possibly be mine. FD caught a 35 pounder 3 days after one of my break offs that had my complete rig in its mouth. The other 2 break offs are still unaccounted for. This fish could possibly be one of them.

Flattie fishing is looking encouraging again after the last slow month. 3 fish at 30 pounds and one lost fish that was bigger from the 'urban crew' during the last week. It can only keep improving!

[Ihateriversnags]

Chris,

Sounds like "flattie" fishing is something I might have to try. Perhaps next spring or summer whenever time gets better for me I might be able to make it down and do some fishing with ya. Hell I might even be able to convince Wiskers to come down with me depending on the cost of diesel at that time. Wouldn't want to have a second mortgage to put diesel in that big truck of his. Glad to hear the fishing has been good for you and keep the pictures coming.

Jason

[Guest]

hanson...

There was no possible way that was your *other* break-off fish with the hook location.

The hooks and leaders were wrapped around the center fo 2 gills and looked like barbwire. The strength of the line, and the load on your rod would have ripped the gills out of that fish, or at least damaged them.... It would have killed the fish. I am very surprised it lived that long, and it was feeding well.. it had a full belly(not un-naturaly full).. wonder if there were a few more hooks in it?

Without a doubt the fish was picking the rigs off the bottom... there were 2 100# class barrel swivels.. not just one.. both were exactly the type that I use.

That fish has a bad habit that I hope it wises up.. searching the snags for easy meals... that fish makes me wonder how many flatheads are out there(everywhere) stuck to a short leash when the heavy line wont break from the snag..

[fiskyknut]

Well look who's back! New screen name though, kinda reminds me of when....'The artist formerly known as Prince' switched from Prince to that goofy symbol thingy! Must be a metro/city thing!

Hey man why don't you putz on up my way with Hanson this fall?

Glad you're back.....fiskyknut

[Guest]

Not going to be back too often.. I said before I would drop in once in a while.. Certain tecnicalities with the *other name*.. probably this one too before long.

Unless I win the lottery.. there is no way I'll be heading too far to go fishing for a while.. but thank you for the invite... Maybe it will happen some day when I can fill my 6 gallon boat gas tank for $15 again.

[fiskyknut]

That day has come....Premium was 2.51 per gallon the other day {sat} at the truckstop at Jolliette ND off of I-29, No bull!

Regards.....fiskyknut

[Ihateriversnags]

I just filled up my car after work this morning and as I was filling up in EGF they were changing the sign from 259 to 2.83. They said it may hit 3.00 by the middle of next month.

[hanson]

IHRS-

You know it! I put a post up in the Crookston forum tonight. I'll be up there all Labor Day weekend. Maybe we could hook up to chase some Channels for the day.

As for the flatties, that is something else. The spots I'm fishing from shore are hit or miss. Lots of waiting and not a whole lot of action. But when we get the action... Whooa Nelly, we get some piggies. Now if you talked Rusty into bringing the RiverPro down, I think we'd find some success!

I would love to plan something for next summer. This fall might be a little tough yet on everybody to get plans together yet still 'might' be possible.

[Ihateriversnags]

Sweet. I sent you an email and my number should be on there. As far as the gas prices go I saw the sign last night on the Grand Forks News that said 3.24 I'm thinking that my traveling days are done for a while LOL. Take care everyone and pray for cheap hydrogen cars REAL SOON.