Me and my girlfriend and the kids made a trip to the river yesterday. The weather had really cooled off and it was a gorgeous evening to be on the river. I had a spot we had been fishing that I knew was holding some bigger fish and was hoping we would get them to bite this evening. The current was flowing pretty decent so I was hoping it had the fish turned on. We started our drift in about 22 FOW and I knew the water gradually deepened to around 40+… 30 FOW seemed to be the magic number the last few trips. We made our first drift with several bites but they weren't hammering it and only had boated two fish between 6 - 8 pounds. We pulled back up the river and I tried drifting a different line and we also made our baits larger hoping to trigger some bites. It worked!! We hit 35 FOW and my girlfriends rod bowed over. "I'm hung!" she said.. then the "snag" started moving back up river!!! She had never fought a fish that larger before so she handed the rod to me and after about a 10 minute battle we got it in the boat. I don't have a scale or a tape so I cant say for sure how much the big blue cat weighted… I'm guessing around 55-60 pounds. She was ecstatic… up to that point it was the largest fish she had ever caught! We took some pics and I pulled back up river and we started drifting down through the same hole. WHAM!!! Her rod doubled over and I could tell this fish was different than the other.. He just bulldogged down hugging the bottom and refused to come up. I had the rod for a min then gave it back to her.. and coached her through the fight. She did awesome and played this fish to perfection. After about a 20 min fight she finally had him next to the boat and I swear I didn't think he would fit in my net. I finally got him started in the net and got him on board.. He was HUGE!! Again.. I don't have a scale or a tape but I'm guessing around 80pounds. You can see from the pics… I and 6"1' and about 205 pounds and this fish looks half my size. She is 5'7" and about 135.. very strong and she had trouble holding this fish. How much do you guys think they weigh? <br /><br />We were drifting whole chicken thighs, 65# braid, with 40# leaders and 8/0 Big River bait hooks… 2 oz sinkers. 25-35 FOW. <br /><br />It was an awesome evening.. The kids had a blast, I got to play guide and my girlfriend is hooked on chasing big cats now!! lol Awesome day!!