Flathead Catfish From The Bank

by Michael
(Kentucky)

One day me and a buddy of mine decided to head to the lake and do some fishing. The fishing conditions were good, warm and drizzling rain.

After about 4 or 5 hours of catching nothing we decided to pack it up and head to my house. We sat for about an hour trying to think of something to do. So then I looked at my buddy and said, "let's go to the river and try." He asked, "where at?" I said, "to the 8th pole."

The 8th pole was way down the river where nobody went and you had to walk through a train tunnel to get there. Once we got there and casted a few poles out, we had about 2 hours of daylight left.

The catfish were biting so good that we were only able to use one pole a piece just to keep up. Before we knew it, our night crawlers started getting low so we started breaking the worms in half. The fish that we were catching were small anyway. After catching about 15 or so, they just quit biting.

I looked at my buddy and said, "something big must of came by man." It wasn't 5 minutes later when my line takes off slowly... So I pick my pole up and reach out letting it go with it. It gets tight, I jerk... Fish On!

My pole was bent double and I feel all this weight. At first, I'm thinking I am hung up. Then it takes off up river so I say to my buddy, "it's gotta be a turtle." A few minutes later I feel it twisting. That gave it away and I knew exactly what is was.

After a life time went by it seemed, it comes up off the bottom and we see it. I am freaking out and my buddy is screaming, "that's a 50 pound flathead!" lol.

My buddy grabs the dip net and dips it up. The dip nets bends double... cheap dip net I guess, lol. We finally get it on the bank. I'm overwhelmed... I'm thinking, "is this real or am I dreaming?" After reality hit me I say, "man, there's no way I'm letting this go... we are packing it back to the truck because nobody will believe us."

It was exhausting packing that fish all the way back to the truck, but it was well worth it. After showing the fish off to everybody, we then take it to my uncles' to try and get the weight of it before releasing it. But it was a digital scale and it only went to 36lb, so we let it go.

I don't know how much the flathead catfish weighed, but I never dreamed of catching a fish of that size on half of a worm and a #4 hook. It just goes to show you, it's not the size of the bait you use, it's being in the right spot at the right time.