# I finally caught Catfish Hunter...



## Fisherman 3234 (Sep 8, 2008)

I arrived to the river at dawn for a full day of fishing. It was a beautiful June morning, air temp was in the mid 50s and the river was up but not stained. I made a last minute decision to bring my heaviest Catfish combination with me to have it set while bass fishing. Got baited up with a fresh 14" shad with the tail cut off on a 10/0 king khale hook and casted out into the swift current with an 8 oz no roll sinker and got my bait set. I started bass fishing and was doing really good, when I turned my head and saw the tip of my rod do the the old tell tale dip. I picked up my rod and set the hook, all I felt was the weight of the fish and a few slow head shakes (felt like hooking a submarine). The fight was on!!! I fought her for 20 minutes trying to keep her from diving towards the bottom where she would surely snag me on a rock or a piece of rebar. Luckily, while I was fighting the fish, I yelled to a fellow fisherman for some help to net this beast. I finally got her positioned to go down the closest set of rapids that feed into an eddy which would bring her right back to us to net her. She made a huge swell at the surface, I knew she was big, but how big??? She came up again and I got a pretty good look at her, I did not want to lose this fish!!! She made one last knuckle biting run and finally tired out. We barely got her into the net due to her size!!! She measured 46" long, my new personal best Flathead!!! I was screaming and laughing like a madman, I've been after a fish like this for 12 years!!! The only thing that stunk was that I forgot my scale. Looking at length charts, the weight of the fish was likely between 45-53 lbs!!! After a quick photo shoot, I took her back to the water to be revived and sent on her way. It took her 5 minutes to regain her strength, she slowly fanned her tail and slid back into the depths. Hopefully one day in the future, I run into old Catfish Hunter again!!!


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## chris1162 (Mar 12, 2008)

Congrats on the monster! A


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## Salmonid (Apr 14, 2004)

Nice. What watershed??? If you dont mind me askin??


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## matticito (Jul 17, 2012)

Wow!!!


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## jjpugh (Feb 6, 2007)

Nice fish!


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## TClark (Apr 20, 2007)

Congrats!!! I'm still waiting for my catfish Hunter....lol


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## ducky152000 (Jul 20, 2005)

Nice job!


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## jmackey84 (May 15, 2010)

Awesome catch dude!!


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## tk1fisherman (Aug 16, 2012)

Congratulations.. Nice fish.


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## Slatebar (Apr 9, 2011)

nice fish


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## slimdaddy45 (Aug 27, 2007)

Nice fish I got a 46.5'' and it weighed 56.5# on a certified scale so you can guess it was close


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