Augsust 22nd, started off like any other fishing day, except that it is unusually cool. Low’s in the 50’s in the middle of August? Unheard of. I had made up my mind that I was going to have fresh skipjack herring for bait. I knew where to get them, I just don’t enjoy going downstream in my boat when I enjoy fishing a way upstream for catfish. I bit the bullet and headed downstream. The skipjack did not disappoint me, as I caught around 20 in about 15 minutes. That was more than I needed but it was hard to stop catching them so that I could go after “real” fish.
What every catman likes to see in his cooler!
I then decided to head upstream to fish some rock dikes. The water was down but was starting a hard rise. I set up on my first spot. 65 feet of water at the hole on the backside of the dike. I anchored in about 30 feet and cast to it. I cast one pole with a big skip head into the hole and then 2 other poles in various other depths. After 10 minutes the pole in the hole (yes, I’m a poet) went down slowly about half-way. It just stayed that way with very slight movement. Kind of odd. After several seconds of that, I got up and gently grabbed the pole. I pulled back some on it and it bent over farther. He then slowly started taking out line. My drag was set fairly loose, so no big deal. I put a little more pressure on him and he turned. He slowly came toward the boat and then moved up toward the front of the boat. I wasn’t fishing in heavy current at all on the backside of this dike, so no big deal. He turned again and headed toward the back of the boat. He took a little bit more line. Again, slow and deliberate. He went back and forth between the front of the boat and the back about 3 times. At this point I was thinking probably around 25-30 lbs. That was great, it’s been too long since I’ve caught one that size.
He finally surfaced right beside the boat and I just couldn’t believe it. He didn’t really fight like a large catfish but I was looking at him. Fortunately I already had my net extended. I got his head in the net but was having trouble with the 2nd half of his body. I dropped my pole to get another hand on the net and got him all the way in. It wasn’t until I saw him on the bottom of the boat that I realized this was the biggest catfish I had personally caught.
I looked him over and this is what makes this even more interesting. He was all scrapped up around the tail, which shows he is recovering from the spawn. His head was absolutely huge, much bigger than the body that was on him. He was relatively skinny. He measured out at just over 51″ and weighed 60 lbs. I was by myself, so I don’t have to tell you what a pain it was to get a picture of him. Set the 10 second delay, push the button, heave the fish up and strike a pose. Wow, that gets old fast. My first picture only got the tail end of the fish but the second one turned out much better.
60 lb Blue Catfish on the Mississippi river
I put him back in the water and moved him back and forth for a while until he really started fighting me. I let him go and he swam away peacefully.
I fished several hours and caught some other blue cats: 2, 5, 10, 11, & 15 lbers. Here’s a couple more pics:
Possible bait for 60 lb Blue catfish
This one preferred a skipjack chunk.
Overall it was a great day. It was a little windy with a pretty good chop on the water. The wind was coming out of the NW.
Shane
