I had the honor of taking newly-appointed Wildlife Commissioner Bill Swan out recently, along with his son, Bill Swan III (Billy). Billy inspired this trip and the goal was to hopefully hook his Dad up with a trophy blue.
We succeeded, in spades!
We caught one hefty channel cat early to get the skunk off, and then at 7:30 a rod absolutely buried. I helped Bill get it out of the rod holder to insure we didn't lose the rod, and then it was "game on!"
I've taken part in, and witnessed, a lot of LONG battles with catfish... but this was by far the longest, hardest fight I've ever been party to when using "big fish" tackle. It was on an Okuma reel that has a line counter, and as you'll see him say in the video, every time Bill gained any line "The Beast" would take it right back. After 15 minutes Bill said, "I think I've reeled 10,000 strokes and the line counter is exactly where it was when I started."
But Bill has landed a 300 lb. marlin, so he knows how to fight big fish and he did a bang up job with this one. It took about 30 minutes to bring to the net. I only included highlights in the 6 min. video. but I think you'll enjoy watching. Just CLICK HERE. Watch in HD if your connection allows.
The fish bottomed out my cheap 80 lb. scale, but a friend came over and let us use his certified scale that read a tad over 77 pounds. Of course you know I often use length/girth measurements to calculate weights. The fish was 52 inches long and 34.5 inches in girth. The formula for those measurements came out at 77.3. I'd say that's pretty darned accurate.
I've had clients capture three other blues over 70 pounds, 75 was tops... so this a "New Scenic City Fishing Boat Record!"
Of yea, although it was a rather slow bite that day, we did catch some other catfish. But after the 30-minute "Battle With a Beast," all paled in comparison. Life is good and gettin' better every day!
We succeeded, in spades!
We caught one hefty channel cat early to get the skunk off, and then at 7:30 a rod absolutely buried. I helped Bill get it out of the rod holder to insure we didn't lose the rod, and then it was "game on!"
I've taken part in, and witnessed, a lot of LONG battles with catfish... but this was by far the longest, hardest fight I've ever been party to when using "big fish" tackle. It was on an Okuma reel that has a line counter, and as you'll see him say in the video, every time Bill gained any line "The Beast" would take it right back. After 15 minutes Bill said, "I think I've reeled 10,000 strokes and the line counter is exactly where it was when I started."
But Bill has landed a 300 lb. marlin, so he knows how to fight big fish and he did a bang up job with this one. It took about 30 minutes to bring to the net. I only included highlights in the 6 min. video. but I think you'll enjoy watching. Just CLICK HERE. Watch in HD if your connection allows.
The fish bottomed out my cheap 80 lb. scale, but a friend came over and let us use his certified scale that read a tad over 77 pounds. Of course you know I often use length/girth measurements to calculate weights. The fish was 52 inches long and 34.5 inches in girth. The formula for those measurements came out at 77.3. I'd say that's pretty darned accurate.
I've had clients capture three other blues over 70 pounds, 75 was tops... so this a "New Scenic City Fishing Boat Record!"
Of yea, although it was a rather slow bite that day, we did catch some other catfish. But after the 30-minute "Battle With a Beast," all paled in comparison. Life is good and gettin' better every day!
