Dakota Casteel works at my former place of employment, NewsChannel 9. He's training to get better at news photography, so I recruited him to shoot some promotional video for Scenic City Fishing Charters.
We had a little scripted promotional video all set up to produce. Unfortunately (or fortunately) a MONSTER blue cat rewrote our script.I was demonstrating my "light tackle" technique... standard light action spinning rod, 10 lb. test main line with a 20 lb. shock leader. I was hoping for a solid 10 or 15 pounder to provide some good video. But lo and behold, the first bite we got was a Big Boy!
I hooked him, but after a while I handed off the rod to Dakota. There were lots of very hairy moments, and plenty of opportunities to lose this fish. Dakota has caught some big cats fishing with one of my partners, but this was his first ever big blue on "light tackle," and in heavy current. He has new found respect for these big beasts, and the technical aspect of fighting VERY big fish on tiny tackle.
On top of it all, I purposefully left my big fish net in the truck so it wouldn't be in our way filming. We had to land this fish old school, by hand. Which meant Dakota had to fight him all the way to the finish. I had the fish in hand twice, but couldn't hang on. But the third time was a charm. I managed to get the grippers around his big fat lip and my old worn out body dragged him into the boat. He tugged the scales to 59 lbs. (that's a 60-pounder in "guide" weight )
Since we were out to shoot video anyway, we shot a lot of the battle. WATCH IT HERE, and remember, life is good and gettin' better every day.
We had a little scripted promotional video all set up to produce. Unfortunately (or fortunately) a MONSTER blue cat rewrote our script.I was demonstrating my "light tackle" technique... standard light action spinning rod, 10 lb. test main line with a 20 lb. shock leader. I was hoping for a solid 10 or 15 pounder to provide some good video. But lo and behold, the first bite we got was a Big Boy!
I hooked him, but after a while I handed off the rod to Dakota. There were lots of very hairy moments, and plenty of opportunities to lose this fish. Dakota has caught some big cats fishing with one of my partners, but this was his first ever big blue on "light tackle," and in heavy current. He has new found respect for these big beasts, and the technical aspect of fighting VERY big fish on tiny tackle.
On top of it all, I purposefully left my big fish net in the truck so it wouldn't be in our way filming. We had to land this fish old school, by hand. Which meant Dakota had to fight him all the way to the finish. I had the fish in hand twice, but couldn't hang on. But the third time was a charm. I managed to get the grippers around his big fat lip and my old worn out body dragged him into the boat. He tugged the scales to 59 lbs. (that's a 60-pounder in "guide" weight )
Since we were out to shoot video anyway, we shot a lot of the battle. WATCH IT HERE, and remember, life is good and gettin' better every day.
