Ernie the Hog Snatcher came down for a trip and had never done any dragging for catfish. We decided to show him how much fun it can be. We collected a bunch of gizzard shad for bait and headed off to some calmer waters to drag baits. This was our first trip with our new AlphaBoardz. The new design updates were a very nice touch and everything worked flawlessly. I can’t wait to test them out in the dark with the led light pods.
The plan was to set up 6-8 planer boards and drag a rod or two straight behind the boat. We had just finished setting out the rods when the first rod went down. Ernie jumped on the rod and reeled in a nice 20 lb catfish to start the trip.
It was safe to say he was hooked on the planer boards and the unique takedown that occurs when a fish strikes them.
We continued on our way, passing over a bunch of nice fish that were not interested in our baits. We swapped out to fresh bait and a few different cut styles and were able to hook up on another fish within the next 20 minutes. This fish was in the same class as the first fish, right around the 20 lb mark. We were starting off the morning with some nice quality fish!
After dragging for an hour and a half, we started to head out of our dragging location and happened across one more really nice fish. We were talking on the boat and the next thing we knew a rod was bent over and the planer board was submerged. Ernie jumped on it and the fish put up a major battle. Ernie fought the fish to the boat, we unclipped the planer board, and after a few more runs the fish had enough and we were able to net it. I didn’t grab an individual photo of this fish but it was pushing the 30 lb mark.
The river was rising and debris was starting to spread everywhere in the river so we pulled the boat out of the water and headed to a new ramp, where we could fish high water and fast current. Our initial pattern did not work as expected so we changed up our tactics and started to fish structure that provided slack water and a break from the debris coming down river. Our first anchor was quick to provide a fish coming right off the current break line. The fish ran for the shallows, tangled up a bunch of our lines and was a beast to fight in the heavy current. Ernie got the fish to the boat and this fish weighed in around 25 lbs.
We didn’t expect action this quickly so we took the opportunity to get the rods cast back out and fired up the grill to cook lunch. Cheeseburgers and Italian sausage were on the menu and hit the spot on a cold and rainy day.
Ernie was just getting started on his cheeseburger when another rod went down. He set his food aside and got to work fighting the fish. This fish had a heavy action Hellcat rod folded over and took a few minutes to get to the boat. It ended up being our biggest fish of the day at just over 30 lbs.
Ernie was taking some video of the fish when we all started yelling “Fish on!” as another rod was crushed and the fish started pulling drag. We thought we had another monster on, but it turned out to be a very spunky 20lb fish who knew how to use the current to his advantage.
We tried one more spot, which didn’t pan out and at that point we were all tired from listening to the rain bounce off the enclosure all afternoon. We packed the gear up, went to the ramp, and took some photos of our catch for the day before releasing them to swim back into the river. We release all fish over 10 lbs so you can chrome catch them on your guide trip!
This was the last trip for my hellcat rods as the new set was delivered while we were on the water. We wanted to retire them the right way and we did a great job landing fish all day long. Keep an eye on our social media pages so you can see how you can win yourself a Catch the Fever rod from our old fleet!
Gear We Trust:
Rods from Catch the Fever (Discount code GOOBER10 for 10% off)
Line from Slime Line (Discount code GOOBER10 for 10% off)
Terminal Tackle from Mid Atlantic Catfish Co (Discount code Goober15 for 15% off)
Planer Boards from AlphaBoardz (Discount code GOOBER10 for 10% off)
Reels from Shimano https://amzn.to/49Xxyq7
Anchors from Never Lost Anchors (Discount code GOOBER5 for 5% off)
Rod Holders from Smackdown Rod Holders
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