Ol' Ginormus

Sometimes you just see the signs. Like yesterday when we arrived at the lake. The heads hanging in the trees that say, "There be Catfish."

We were there to give the noodle fishing a try. I described it in a post last week, you take one of those kids noodles, cut it in four sections, tie a drop line with a hook and weight, bait it up and toss it out to float in the lake.





Cathy caught a bunch of red horse shiners and small sunfish, nothing longer than 3 inches in the cast net. First fish was a good one six pounds.
















We tied up and fished a nearby stump where Cathy took 3 cats hand fishing and it was easy to see when something took the noodle, just like cork fishing. The place we were fishing was a creek running into the old river channel with a ridge that was under 3 feet of water in between the two. About 25 foot maximum depth in the creek with the river depth of 45.

One of the noodles drifted out close to where we were tied up so we checked it. No fish, it was the shortest drop line at about 3ft. It was in the deepest water so we moved it into 3 feet of water off the point of the sunken ridge. About 15 minutes later all heck broke loose. There was a huge splash, and a big tail shaking out of the water and the noodle disappeared several times. It was ol' ginormus as Cathy christened him. he was taking the float under about two feet when he dove. After a classic man against beast struggle that required two humans, a number of cuss words that I don't remember saying, and visions of purchasing a larger net the beast was subdued. I don't know if one person could have got him in the high pontoon boat, I think the number 6 treble hook would have broke. The scales at Rayburn Country store weighed him at 32 pounds.

He was a blue cat.

If you go fishing with me we will be stopping at Rayburn Country store, they made a picture and we are now enshrined there on the trophy board.

Being that ol ginormus did not fit in the livewell, a scenario I did not foresee when purchasing this boat, we cut the day short. It was about 4:30. We got home, iced him in the big ice chest and showed him off at the Back Porch in Huntington, the TKD school and stopped at my mom's house. My mom said it reminded her of the Mississippi River Catfish that her dad used to buy in the fish markets when she was a child.

I set about cleaning him. I would guess that he made for a fish fry to feed about 12-15 people. Combined with the six pounder we could go ahead and invite 20.

A shot of stomach contents. That's a 10 inch long Largemouth Bass. The tail is already digested, he would have measured 12 easy. This big boy was hungry if he had a belly this full and he was trying to eat my 3 inch long minner.

A couple of other things, be safe on the lake. We began putting out the noodles yesterday, I had just shut off tho motor, Cathy was in the front of the boat standing and the foot of the motor hit a stump under the water. As she termed it, she was "thod" from the boat into 60 degree water. She took it pretty well. Glad it was not me as I had on waders. I might have sunk.

Also when I stopped in academy the night before this trip to buy hooks and sinkers the old gal checking me out said, "Big spender," when the cost of my gear I needed for this trip was $5. It was all I could do last night to keep from going up there and showing her the fish.