What a weekend! Pic heavy and long winded

[Bluebasser86]

I had a good weekend of fishing this past week, finally. Fished with @gardnerjigman the whole time. First day was not much fun as we prefished for a tournament Saturday. Bad enough we bailed after fishing for several hours with 5 shorts to show for it. The last 2 hours went great with Coty catching a couple solid fish on my bladed jigs. Then as we were leaving, I trimmed the motor up to far and snapped off a fitting that goes into my steering. The same thing happened to me at the Classic and it pretty much ruined the weekend then. I had a spare this time though and we were able to get it back together when we got back without getting too much slop in the steering. 

Day 2 was at Wabaunsee/Eskridge Lake where Coty hadn't ever fished before and I'd done well the previous week. We caught a lot of fish, mostly smaller largemouth, along with missing a lot of fish. I kept telling him it would happen eventually if we kept dragging jigs, and in the back of a major arm on top of a flat by a creek channel it finally did happen to me when this nice fish thumped my jig. 

As our day was winding down, I was dragging the same jig on a rock point in about 14' of water when I had an unmistakable bite. It felt like someone grabbed the jig and jerked as hard as they could. I called it before I even set the hook. It took a long time before I even started to gain anything on the fish after she swam out to the deepest water that was close by, which was almost 40' deep. From there, I sat as straight up and down as I could on her and did what I could to keep her away from the brushpiles, zebra mussel covered rocks, and dock pilings. I hadn't retied in way too long and I was sure that was going to come back to haunt me. I was fishing my finesse jig rod, a 7' MH/F LTB with a 70XG Curado and 15lb Red Label, so I was way undergunned. Even with that gear though, as the minutes ticked by and the fish didn't move, I knew this wasn't the teen to mid 20 pounders I'm use to catching. After several minutes I saw the telltale bubbles hitting the surface. When we finally saw that massive head, it really set in how big the fish was. Once I got her moving the fight was over pretty fast thankfully. The fish had inhaled my jig so hard that it went in her mouth, shot out her gills, and buried near her pectoral fin, never seen that before in my life. My scale wasn't large enough, and the boat house didn't have one big enough either. We've both caught some 50 pounders, and this one was noticeably larger. It's head and shoulders were almost as wide as my 220lb frame. We felt pretty comfortable putting her in the 65 pound range. Got a few pictures of her and watched her swim off strong.

Day 3 was tournament day. Same lake as Thursday, where we struggled to catch 5 bass, none of which would have even been close to measuring. There were carp spawning everywhere in the weeds I wanted to fish, so we planned to do something else. Sometimes knowing what not to do is just as valuable as knowing what to do. 

18 boats showed up, we were boat 16 to take off. We ran to an area I've caught fish before, and where we caught 2 of our fish a couple days ago. Coty caught a short (18" length limit), almost immediately on a jig. I followed up quickly with another close one, but still short. Just a few cast later, I put our first keeper of the day in the box on one of my bladed jigs. We caught fish pretty steadily all day, some that were really close, but just couldn't seem to get one to stretch. With about 30 minutes left in the day, we made the call to go to the dam and fish a Ned Rig and see if we could maybe scratch out one more. This tournament was a "Badges and Buds" tournament that carries an additional trophy for the team with a LEO/Fire/EMT that places the highest. That team wins the Badges Cup and gets to take it to their agency for the year and have their name engraved on a plaque on the side of the base of the trophy. I was holding onto some sliver of hope that maybe nobody had done any good and we'd get the cup at least. Then Coty hooked up, it was a hard pulling fish, and once she was in the net, I knew it was close. I massaged her belly a little and got her to cross the line. Keeper number 2 felt great, like we might actually get the cup. Not 5 minutes later, still high from Coty's fish, I hooked up with clearly the biggest fish of the day. When she got to the boat, we could see the bright pink head barely holding on to a piece of skin in the corner of her mouth. We were begging and pleading as I finessed her to the boat, and there was a huge sigh of relief when she slid into the net with 15 minutes left in the day. I really felt we might not only win the cup, but maybe our entry fee back at this point. At the ramp, there was lots of "We got 1 but just couldn't make another stretch". One team had weighed in 2 that went 9 something. Ours weren't much bigger than 18" each, so I was worried. Once they hit the scales and I heard 10.11, I knew it was serious. I knew one other boat had a hog and when I saw him put another fish in the bag, I was worried again. His big fish was 5.5, but his second was a squeaker that put him just shy of 9. That was it, no more fish. We were shocked, and I don't think you could have wiped the stupid grins off our face. Not only did I get my Badges Cup for my department, we won the thing, first time the Badges Cup team also won 1st place in the 20 years they've been doing the tournament. 

Oh yeah, and before the last minute heroics, I spent a couple minutes with some serious deja vu, even had the hook down the throat, out the gills, and buried in the belly again. This one was "only" 21 1/2 pounds for some size comparison. 

 

[MIbassin]

SWEET!

[roadwarrior]

 

                                     CONGRATULATIONS!

                                            

[gardnerjigman]

So sweet!!!!! Ready to do it again this weekend. 

[Bankbeater]

That's the way to do it, Congrats!

[Dwight Hottle]

2 hours ago, MIbassin said:

SWEET!

X2

[Darren.]

Awesome, guys!

That first cat is HUGE! 

[kickerfish1]

Couldn't have asked for a better report. Good storyline, pictures, and some video! Nicely done gents and congrats on the tourney win!

[jbw252]

Great job.  Congratulations on the win.

[paul.]

too awesome for words.  i have always wanted to get a big flathead like that.  don't reckon you'll ever forget this day.  grats.

[chubaka]

Congrats! Nice catfish!

[Hurricane]

Wow... that's awesome... Congrats!

[A-Jay]

Wow ~ Have a Weekend Guys ~ ! 

Congrats on winning The Cup and to Blue for landing that Beast of a Flathead.

Of course that second cat was no slouch either but after Old Mr. Huge Head that one didn't quite seems as big.

Loved how you made sure your best friend made it into the Trophy picture, sort of looks like a Canine Photo Bomb . . .

Nice Job.

A-jay

[Nitrofreak]

Wow man !!! 

That was an amazing read and thanks for the videos, Congrats on first place !!!!!

[Hog Basser]

Wow, nice job and great story! 

[fishinfiend]

awesome bro 

 

that is a big cat!

[WIGuide]

Awesome job man! Congrats on the win and all the good fish!

[buzzed bait]

clayton, first off nice going, nice catching.  but that pic of you and coty with the dog in the middle sticking the head out the window had me rolling laughing man.  first time i've seen your dog even look remotely interested in what you had going on, awesome pic bud.  also looks like the virb is working well and catching the pig videos for you!