
Tuesday morning started off with very heavy fog cover. Everybody made it safely to the launch location and we loaded our gear on the boat. Everybody was out for one purpose, to chase monster fish. Chris and Stan tagged along to help work the boat and we got right to it, catching bait. The gill net caught just a few shad but it was enough to get started fishing. We took off down the river, with all our eyes scanning through the fog. After a bit of a ride, we got to our first location and started marking fish pretty quickly. We set the boat upstream of a few nice marks and cast 8 rods out, loaded with fresh cut bait. Right away, the rods started tapping and most of that anchor, 2-3 rods were being fiddled with at a time. One of the fish hooked up and it was a small blue catfish, which was kept for the freezer.

Not long after that fish came in the boat, our second fish buried a rod. We were all excited over what could be on the other end of the line but it was an 18 lb blue. Not a bad fish, but not what we were after.

We waited a bit longer, missed a few really nice takedowns, and decided it was time to move on. We ran a few miles up river, strung the gill net out in the shallows, then started scanning nearby. It didn’t take long to mark a group of two really nice fish sitting in about 35 feet of water. We set the boat up, put on the last of our fresh bait and waited about 30 minutes. Nothing came of that anchor besides a few small nibbles.
As we sat on anchor at that spot, the sun started to break through the clouds and the fog lifted, revealing a gorgeous day. We knew it was time to switch up tactics and we started to drag baits in shallow water using our AlphaBoardz. Particularly, water that was in the direct line of the rising sun since we knew it would be warming up quickly. This move proved to be a smart choice as the rods started going down right away. Over the next hour we caught about a half dozen blue catfish and started filling the bait tank up with future fish fries.

As quickly as we were catching fish, Chris was pulling filets off of the smaller fish and packaging them in freezer bags.
The nicest fish we caught was just under 20 lbs, however it put up one heck of a fight in shallow water!

At this point we were about halfway through our trip and still looking to land some trophy fish. We had marked plenty on the Humminbird Solix 12, but they were not being cooperative. We had covered a lot of shallow ground and decided to repeat the process on a mud flat we had never fished before. We set the net and started dragging boards for about 30 minutes. There was absolutely no action so we pulled in our net and found the bait that would turn our trip around. A big, giant mullet had swam into the gill net along with a few shad and catfish. We picked the catfish out of the net and kept the shad and mullet for bait. With this flat being very unproductive, we decided to run back towards the ramp for the final two hours to see what we could find in a more familiar location.
We changed up tactics and anchored up in about 5 feet of water. To our surprise there was next to nothing going on shallow and we had given the spot nearly an hour. For a final hail mary, we anchored on a ledge, targeting some underwater structure in a high traffic area. It was not looking good as we only had a few little taps in the 45 minutes we were sitting on anchor. The end of the trip was quickly approaching when the end of a shallow rod started to wiggle. We could tell a fish was mouthing the bait and the boat erupted with people yelling “reel down on it!” as the fish scooped up the bait and took off like a rocket for deep water. From our vantage point, we just saw the line screaming across the top of the water right towards the motor and through our entire rod setup.
Ron grabbed the rod and we could tell it was a monster. The medium/heavy Patriot Hellcat rod from Catch the fever started to fold and kept on going. When the backbone of the rod kicked in, the fish wasn’t stopping and started peeling drag. It was a multiple person effort to clear the rod rod and allow Ron to swing the rod to the entire opposite side of the boat, avoiding the motor along the way. We were lucky the fish didn’t break off on the outboard. From there, the fight was on with the fish digging and Ron fighting to bring it in.

The fish eventually tired and came to the boat. We had a small opportunity to net him but as soon as he saw the boat and the net he took off for one last fight. The rod handled the fish wonderfully and when he came up the next time, we were able to scoop him up in the net. Chris helped me pull the giant in over the rail and we were all amazed at such a large fish. While removing the hook we saw that he had gobbled up a big piece of cut mullet! Turns out the decision to fish that mud flat might have been the key to our success.
The fished ended up measuring 50.5 inches and 68.4 lbs, which tied Ron’s personal best from a previous trip with Goober Time Guide Service. We worked quickly to gather our data, grab some photos and release the fish to swim off for another day. We respect these large fish and appreciate when they show up. The least we can do is return them to the water where another angler can potentially have as much fun catching them as we had.

It’s amazing how one fish can turn the tides on an entire trip. What was a pretty disappointing trip for most of us, ended with an absolute giant and one heck of an unforgettable takedown! Big thank you to the crew who worked their butts off all day to help set us up for success!
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