05-12-2019, 09:54 PM
I was going to go to bed last night but looked out the door at the beautiful weather and decided catfishing sounded much better. I somehow convinced a friend to come as well so we took off. I got to cutler at 11:00 pm. the water temp was 60 degrees. It was perfectly calm. I threw out my first bait to the shore by some downed logs and my second bait into the channel. After about 30 minutes I hooked into my first fish in the channel and it was big. I hooked it on a 5 foot ugly stik with 10lb line. As I worked it towards the boat I was not sure how big it was but when it seen the boat it stripped a lot of line. I began to pull it back in and it ran again, this time strait to the bottom. I then felt my biggest fear. The feeling of the fish swimming into some kind of snag. I pulled as hard as I could and could not get the fish out of the snag. no matter what I did, I tried to flip the bale and let it swim out on its own but still had no luck. I felt like breaking off was my only option but I really wanted to see this fish! I decided I would put on a three prong hook and try to hook the snag with it to try and free the entire snag, like a tree branch or something. I ended up snagging that pole as well but I could feel the fish moving and thrashing around through both poles. I knew he was still on so I devised another plan. I was going to use the trolling motor to get directly above the snag and then drop/drag my anchor across it. We tried this method for 30-40 minutes almost drowning our selves trying to throw the anchor. On the last try my buddy did it, he hooked the log/stick with the anchor and lifted with all his might. The snagged pole took off as I yelled you did it! I grabbed the pole and fought the fish, this time it was out of strength so pulling it is was much easier. When it got to the boat it was snagged in the tail with the three prong hook. The bait line had broken. I had accidentally snagged the catfish in the tail while trying to hook the branch. I couldn’t believe we actually got it. It was a bit smaller than I thought but the story and the adventure was worth the late night trip for sure. I even got a picture with him before releasing him back into the abyss!
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