AllenOK
New member
[FONT="]After hearing, on multiple occasions, that the Blue cats are tearing it up on the north bank, I decided to give it a shot today.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Catching bait was interesting. The shad were up against the bank, close to the turbines. I usually catch them further downstream. I managed to catch one, and another gent that was fishing there tossed his net out and caught about 8 or so 5” shad which he let me have.[/FONT]
[FONT="]I started out almost under the cable, throwing out across current into slack water, and holding on until the sinker catches. Last year, it would only be a few minutes until a big ol’ cat hit the bait.[/FONT]
[FONT="]This time, about 10 minutes went by with nothing. I was contemplating rigging up another pole with jigs for the stripers/wipers/whites. Then, I noticed that the gents that were fishing in the turbine enclosure were using cut bait and catching cats. Okay![/FONT]
[FONT="]I started doing what they were doing. They let me in to their casting rotation. It took me a bit to get the hang on drifting a large weight through there, just like a split-shot rig through a riffle.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Within minutes, I got a good bite. I had a brief tussle with it, before it broke my 20 lbs test leader. I had the drag set to tight. The U.F.O. never broke surface, so I don’t know what it was, but from the way it fought, I’m guesstimating either large Blue, large Flathead, or big Striper.[/FONT]
[FONT="]The next hour and half was almost an exercise in futility. I didn’t catch any fish, but at least I did get some casting practice in. I haven’t thrown a 12’ surf rod in several months, and was a bit on the rusty side. I now feel comfortable throwing 4- and 5-oz weights, with half-way decent accuracy, with that pole. More practice, however, is needed [/FONT]J
[FONT="]I was beginning to run out of bait; and my other half had already called me once, wanting to know about lunch. I didn’t think I would be able to fish for much longer. I had just changed up to a 5-oz weight, and put some fresh bait on the hook. I made a perfect throw, either hitting the wall and bouncing off, or landing just shy of the wall in slack water. I tightened up the line, and felt the weight touch bottom. Then, I started slowly cranking the handle, just to keep the weight moving. I felt what I thought was the sinker tap-tap-tap on some rocks, so I jerked the pole up a bit to keep from snagging. Then the pole loaded up, and I felt a throb-throb-throb as some fish started shaking it’s head. I hollered “FISH ON!” and started pulling line in.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Everyone else there pulled in their lines to give me room to fight the fish. About 30 seconds into the fight, I had the beast up on the surface, and I saw it roll. I hollered, “It’s a monster!” One of the other guys asked if I was going to need to borrow his net. I answered affirmatively. He moved into position downstream of me while I held tension on the leviathan as it swung across the current to the bank, while trying to gain some line on it. We had to dodge another fisherman that was dealing with a snagged line, and once we got past him, I was able to get it close to the bank. The fish kept surging away from the net. I’m whooping and hollering, the net man was shouting, “It’s HUGE!” We drew a pretty big crowd.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Once the fish was subdued in the net, we hauled it up. One of the other gents told me they wanted to weigh it, I said I had a scale in my bag, then a third already had his scale out and was busy hooking the fish up.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Here’s the shot of me holding my fish:[/FONT]
[FONT="]Don’t trust what the scale says; the fish was flopping around and bouncing the scale up and down. It weighed a solid 24 lbs. This is my Personal Best Blue cat now.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Catching bait was interesting. The shad were up against the bank, close to the turbines. I usually catch them further downstream. I managed to catch one, and another gent that was fishing there tossed his net out and caught about 8 or so 5” shad which he let me have.[/FONT]
[FONT="]I started out almost under the cable, throwing out across current into slack water, and holding on until the sinker catches. Last year, it would only be a few minutes until a big ol’ cat hit the bait.[/FONT]
[FONT="]This time, about 10 minutes went by with nothing. I was contemplating rigging up another pole with jigs for the stripers/wipers/whites. Then, I noticed that the gents that were fishing in the turbine enclosure were using cut bait and catching cats. Okay![/FONT]
[FONT="]I started doing what they were doing. They let me in to their casting rotation. It took me a bit to get the hang on drifting a large weight through there, just like a split-shot rig through a riffle.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Within minutes, I got a good bite. I had a brief tussle with it, before it broke my 20 lbs test leader. I had the drag set to tight. The U.F.O. never broke surface, so I don’t know what it was, but from the way it fought, I’m guesstimating either large Blue, large Flathead, or big Striper.[/FONT]
[FONT="]The next hour and half was almost an exercise in futility. I didn’t catch any fish, but at least I did get some casting practice in. I haven’t thrown a 12’ surf rod in several months, and was a bit on the rusty side. I now feel comfortable throwing 4- and 5-oz weights, with half-way decent accuracy, with that pole. More practice, however, is needed [/FONT]J
[FONT="]I was beginning to run out of bait; and my other half had already called me once, wanting to know about lunch. I didn’t think I would be able to fish for much longer. I had just changed up to a 5-oz weight, and put some fresh bait on the hook. I made a perfect throw, either hitting the wall and bouncing off, or landing just shy of the wall in slack water. I tightened up the line, and felt the weight touch bottom. Then, I started slowly cranking the handle, just to keep the weight moving. I felt what I thought was the sinker tap-tap-tap on some rocks, so I jerked the pole up a bit to keep from snagging. Then the pole loaded up, and I felt a throb-throb-throb as some fish started shaking it’s head. I hollered “FISH ON!” and started pulling line in.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Everyone else there pulled in their lines to give me room to fight the fish. About 30 seconds into the fight, I had the beast up on the surface, and I saw it roll. I hollered, “It’s a monster!” One of the other guys asked if I was going to need to borrow his net. I answered affirmatively. He moved into position downstream of me while I held tension on the leviathan as it swung across the current to the bank, while trying to gain some line on it. We had to dodge another fisherman that was dealing with a snagged line, and once we got past him, I was able to get it close to the bank. The fish kept surging away from the net. I’m whooping and hollering, the net man was shouting, “It’s HUGE!” We drew a pretty big crowd.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Once the fish was subdued in the net, we hauled it up. One of the other gents told me they wanted to weigh it, I said I had a scale in my bag, then a third already had his scale out and was busy hooking the fish up.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Here’s the shot of me holding my fish:[/FONT]
[FONT="]Don’t trust what the scale says; the fish was flopping around and bouncing the scale up and down. It weighed a solid 24 lbs. This is my Personal Best Blue cat now.[/FONT]
I miss going fishing with my dad. We did the High Sierras thing catching trout. I had one fish that lived where the stream undercut a large rock steal my bait four days in a row several times a day. It was a great feeling when I finally nailed him. Sure you felt the same way. Congrats and have a great dinner.
