On Wed, 22 Feb 2006 17:20:36 -0600, Rodney Long
wrote:

I just came in from fishing in the rain from the bank, I was using my
tiny pan fish worm and the wiggle rig,, I was catching a number of 2 to
3 pound spotted bass on it having a ball, the water temp was 48 degrees
and these guys were not fighting a whole lot, Kind'a like dragging in a
stick.

I was using a 9 1/2 foot St. Croix steel head rod, and a Abu spinning
reel lined with 6 lb test, I have caught highbred strips up to 12 lbs on
this rig, and a 22 pound flat head cat on a rig like it, with 4 lb line,
so I'm used to HOGS hitting this rig,, but not like this.

I threw out about 50 yds and I'm wiggling this tiny worm, now we are
talking 1/8 in dia, and 3 inches long, tiny, I feel a bump on it and set
the hook, It was like the fish did not know it was hooked, the rod
doubles, and the line starts feeding out slowly, no head shaking, just
slowly going out, until he pulled it "all" out, and then the 6 lb line
just snapped, that fish pulled 100 yds against a 4 lb drag setting, I
never even turned him, he never slowed up, but he was going slow anyway,
it was like he didn't even know I was back there. I have never had a
fresh water fish do me this way, I have had some big sharks do it to me
though. I don't have a clue about what kind of fish this was, this lake
has stripe, walleye, big bass, and huge catfish in it. Man I just wish
I could have seen the fish,, and no, the water was too shallow for any
Russian Subs :-)


I've kinda done that too. I use 8 pound spiderwire and have my drag
set just so it won't break the line. I've had fish on the line that
were way huge and spent lots of time trying to get them to the boat.
I've only managed to get one up close enough to see it before it
bolted, but it was no less than 5ft long. Catfish that size can
swallow a small child whole. It's head was bigger than my tacklebox.
When they decide to go in a direction, all you can do is hope they
quit before you run out of line. I've had to raise my anchor a couple
times and just let the fish drag the whole boat. Still doesn't seem to
really tire them. It would be a serious personal accomplishment if I
ever get one into my boat. Don't know how I would do it though.
There's no way my net would hold it. And I ain't sticking my hand in
any 5ft long catfish's mouth. And those spines? Those suckers hurt
worse than anything else I have ever endured.

But yeah. they's some huge ass catfish in lakes. One's no one ever
gets to see because very few people have the gear to haul them in and
only random fisherman at random times ever hook them. The chances of
anyone actually being prepared for that size catfish actually catching
one are so remote that it almost never happens. When it does, you get
records being broken.

Seems you almost got lucky. Dad was fishing on New River when I was a
little kid and caught a 45 pound catfish from the bank on 10 pound
line. Fought it for over an hour. He kept a picture of himself with
that fish in his wallet until the day he died. Takes much more skill
than I have to land one of those.