I watched one too many (1) fishing video. It struck me that I have lost every good, big cat or carp I ever hooked because my rods and reels are too light for the task. I did not spend a lot but if I catch a few I may buy a better quality setup..then I will have 2. I live on the Wapsi and a few miles away is the Mississippi. Both hold big cats. I haven't had any luck hunting so I will concentrate on catfish until it is too hot to sit on riprap. I don't care if I catch a HUGE cat, but a few eaters and a 20 pounder once in a while would be fun. Monday I will have a long fish rod that casts long and can pull in the big ones. It is a spin outfit, a Zebco Big Cat rod and reel. 8" M/H. (I am a Zebco kinda guy. I had a rod and reel repair/warranty shop for all the rods and reels back in the 80s. Zebco got me started. I will stick with them. I fixed a lot of cheap Zebco equipment but anything that was in their premium lines was few and far between except for the cleaning and respooling. In case anyone was wondering why I picked Zebco..because I like it and it works, and I repaired more Daiwa, Shimano and Ambassadeurs than anything else.) If I ( this is hard to word...) If I catch something, or if I get the big one...or even...if I get lucky...jeez...I will send pics. I will take them with my Brownie.
Have fun Hombre. There is goin fishin and there is catchin fish, apples and oranges. The Big Muddy has some monsters. Waitin for the pics (proof .... ) We all know hunters and fishermen (me included) are the biggest Li.......no truth stretchers around. If we all had pics of "the one that got away) ....
That is why I won't try to say how big I thought the fish was. But I can tell ya, when I tried to reel the big guy up, he had swam into a sunken 1941 Ford coupe and rolled the window up. I recovered the car but the darn fish swam out the other window and the line broke off at the sinker.
Someone many years ago tied a bullhead to the top of a model of a Volkswagen and had the picture taken by a pro. He posed with a buddy next to a real vw and cut it out and pasted the one with the cat into the posed pic. then blown up to look authentic. It was hard to tell without a magnifying glass but it was a good gag. The same photog put the bag and teats of a cow on the front of the cow and reshot the pic of the pic, and it took some explaining for some people to ge tit.
That's what I will be after. I want to get up by the dam on the Mississippi near Leclaire IA. I never remember whether it is L&D 14 or 15. But there are some huge cats caught there every year. Then there is the wapsi. I never fished that river but this year I will find a spot and go. It is flooded now so iy will be a while. BTW: Nice catch. What did it weigh?
It weighed 26.76 lbs. She fought it for about 10 minutes and then gave it to me. It took me another 15 minutes to get it to the bank. Fun for all. It made the Scottsboro newspaper, I guess cause a girl caught it! It def wasn't huge next to a lot of them that are caught.
That is why I want to get 1 pretty good size catfish. To fry. And since I do not like to clean fish (no good place to do it) I want to clean as few as possible. Of course I may need a dozer to pull the skin off.
Bring it over to the house, Hombre, and I'll fillet it for you! PS: The smaller ones, about 5lbs taste the best to me.
