I consider myself a reasonable man, in particularly when it comes to fishing. All I really ever want is to catch a nice and healthy fish, have a good fight, and if the mood strikes me (which it often does), cook a nice meal. Here’s a perfect example:
You’re about to see several pictures of catfish, brace yourself.
That was the biggest catfish, no, the biggest fish I had ever caught – it was amazing! It fought super hard, was a thicc boi, and was a perfect size for eating. I easily got 2 meals out of this guy which is great – the whole point of keeping what I catch is that the fish could not be any fresher. Anything more than that and I’d have to freeze – not the worst option, but also not really the point.
But that was last fall and I’m a hungry boy, so a few weeks ago I decided to go back out and catch me a kitty cat (fish) for dinner. I had admittedly been trying for a while and despite some bites had yet to land a good sized fish. I was eager to try a different frying method on some nice fish. Hence, I went to the best fishing spot I know:
It helped that I had managed to catch a nice blue gill to use as bait (catfish love those greasy little ‘effers). It also helped that I was fishing a little later than usual, around 4 to 5 pm. Most fish are more active during the few hours before sunset, but so are degenerates and I sometimes fish in sketchy places so usually choose the middle of the day. Point being, I liked my chances for catching some dinner.
And it didn’t take too long for me to think I had been right! I started getting some decent bites and grabbed what I thought was my “big rod” (foreshadowing… also phrasing) and immediately set the hook. And then…
The fish didn’t budge. It was definitely on, it just didn’t move. I found this puzziling, the previous catfish I had caught fought a bunch right away. Well, turns out, that’s because a fish that size has to fight right away. The fish I currently had on apparently didn’t see the big deal. So I started to try and reel it in…
The fish really didn’t like that.
And thus started what was assuredly the hardest I’ve ever had to fight a fish. This thing started dragging me into the water – ideally you’re dragging the fish out of the water. I often couldn’t even turn my reel and was left with just holding on for dear life and hope the fish would perform a circumvolution towards me (Tommy doesn’t know what that word means). Turn by turn, I was slowly getting the fish closer to me when my reel started to sound like I was trying to grind rocks to dust with it.
Decidedly not a good sign.
And yet, I persisted! With my reel on the fritz I had to start also relying on walking the fish closer to the bank. Every few seconds this bad boy was lurching and bending my rod in complete half. I’d have to stop attempting to reel and just hold on for dear life with a rod that was not designed for a fish like this. But it was getting fractionally closer with each passing turn of the (now broken) reel. And eventually….
LUNKER ALERT! And here’s a few more angles for good measure:
My forearms were literally trembling with fatigue by the time I was able to land this goliath. It was easily the biggest fish I had ever caught and took at least 5 minutes to land (it honestly could have been any amount of time, seemed like forever in the moment). Just to really hammer it home how much larger, here is a side-by-side from the other “lunker” catfish I mentioned at the start:
And here is the part where I’d show you the awesome meal I cooked using this mammoth…
But I didn’t keep it. Like I mentioned earlier, I really only need a small fish to cook a meal or two with. This thing would have easily fed five people, maybe more. I didn’t really feel like freezing the extra meat either, to me it defeats the purpose of catching and cooking a fish versus just going out and buying some at the market – the whole point is that the fish could not be any fresher.
There’s also another argument to be made about not keeping the biggest fish you catch. These fish are much more important for a healthy overall population than the little guys. They simply produce much more in reproduction. While catfish populations aren’t really hurting much, for other fish this argument is pretty important.
Nevertheless, I still took plenty away from catching this colossus of cat. Clearly, if I want to catch big fish like this (or another big species… musky I’m coming for you) I’ll need to upgrade my gear. And also maybe doing a few more pushups so I don’t have literal muscle exhaustion after catching a fish.
I’m still planning on catching a catfish, or walleye, or hopefully both to fry up for a good meal. And the cooler the weather gets the better my chances. All I’ll have to do is…
Cast and pray,
Jon (see below for obligatory photo and update on Bubz)
Congratulations!!!