I just got back home from the best fishing trip of my whole life. Last night, I drove down to Lake Gaston to fish with NightTrain for some trophy catfishing and I (WE) were NOT disappointed. I left home hoping to learn something and I had a great teacher. Bill (AKA NightTrain) showed me around the lake while it was still light outside, then we picked up a friend of his (Dave) and set out to put some jugs in the water...
I have to confess that I was more than a little skeptical about fishing with jugs. I had never used jugs and didn't think I was going to get real excited about handlining in a few catfish, but boy was I ever wrong. I brought two nice fat eels for bait, and after setting up and tending the jugs until almost three in the morning, we hadn't caught a single fish over eight pounds.... and not too many small cats at that. Our Captain, Bill decided it was time to try some fresh shad, so he took us to a couple of lighted boat docks and withing about ten casts of the throw net, we had enough bait to last us the rest of the night. I started cutting bait, and replacing all the eel with fresh cut shad, and as soon as we got to the next spot he wanted to set up on, we set out 20 freshly baited jugs. We had our first fish on before I got half the jugs in the water... we swung the boat back around and pulled in a nice 10 pound cat... things were looking up.... just about the time I got the last jug in the water, out light man Dave spotted a jug on the far end of the spread that was being pulled under. You have to remember Bill uses 2 1/2 gallon jugs on most of his rigs, so we figured this one was going to be a little bigger than 10 lb. ... Once again, I got the honors to pull in the fish. I lifted the jug and didn't feel anything. I figured the fish got off... started to haul in the hook so I could bait it again, when I caught a glimpse of the biggest catfish I've ever seen... I pulled on her and she pulled back... I thought I was going for a swim. I got her up to the boat after a short tug of war, and NightTrain netted her like nobody I've ever seen... we hauled her into the boat and I couldn't believe my eyes... EASILY 42-44" long... We got out the 50# scale and tried to weigh her. Bill got her about 3/4 off the boat deck when the scale BROKE in half! I got Bill to hold her long enough for me to take a couple of pictures (see below) and then he released her into the lake.... the fun had just begun... Between 4 am and about 6 am it was almost non-stop fishing action on the jugs... I boated a 25, (I fixed the scale) an 18, several in the 15-16 pound class... five or six ten pounders and more smaller fish than I can recall... all in all, we figure we caught about 25 Blues and Channels (majority of the fish were Blue Catfish) with a combined weight of over 200 pounds.... I STILL can't believe the fish.
My digital camera was not interested in cooperating, so I ended up taking all but about three pictures. It was so dark, and I am not used to taking pictures in the pitch black, that most of the pictures were terrible... none of the pics I took of the big girl did her justice, but I'm posting a picture of Bill holding the bog fish of the day, and a couple of me holding the 25# fish...
Before last night, my personal best was a measly 20 pounds... now it's nearly 50... the digital scale held the weight of 46.11 pounds in memory when we weighed the big girl, right before the chain that connectes the fish to the scale broke in two... I guess we'll never know exactly what she weighed, but this was a bigger fish than the 42 pound cat my buddy Jerry caught when we fished the James this spring....
All I can say is AWESOME.... incredible... best fishing trip of my life....
Thanks NightTrain and David for making the trip PERFECT...
One last note... I'm 6'1" and about 225 pounds, and Bill is about half a head taller than me... I think the fish doesn't look near as big as it was with him holding it 'cause he's a big Catman...
Thanks Bill...
Hawkeye
I have to confess that I was more than a little skeptical about fishing with jugs. I had never used jugs and didn't think I was going to get real excited about handlining in a few catfish, but boy was I ever wrong. I brought two nice fat eels for bait, and after setting up and tending the jugs until almost three in the morning, we hadn't caught a single fish over eight pounds.... and not too many small cats at that. Our Captain, Bill decided it was time to try some fresh shad, so he took us to a couple of lighted boat docks and withing about ten casts of the throw net, we had enough bait to last us the rest of the night. I started cutting bait, and replacing all the eel with fresh cut shad, and as soon as we got to the next spot he wanted to set up on, we set out 20 freshly baited jugs. We had our first fish on before I got half the jugs in the water... we swung the boat back around and pulled in a nice 10 pound cat... things were looking up.... just about the time I got the last jug in the water, out light man Dave spotted a jug on the far end of the spread that was being pulled under. You have to remember Bill uses 2 1/2 gallon jugs on most of his rigs, so we figured this one was going to be a little bigger than 10 lb. ... Once again, I got the honors to pull in the fish. I lifted the jug and didn't feel anything. I figured the fish got off... started to haul in the hook so I could bait it again, when I caught a glimpse of the biggest catfish I've ever seen... I pulled on her and she pulled back... I thought I was going for a swim. I got her up to the boat after a short tug of war, and NightTrain netted her like nobody I've ever seen... we hauled her into the boat and I couldn't believe my eyes... EASILY 42-44" long... We got out the 50# scale and tried to weigh her. Bill got her about 3/4 off the boat deck when the scale BROKE in half! I got Bill to hold her long enough for me to take a couple of pictures (see below) and then he released her into the lake.... the fun had just begun... Between 4 am and about 6 am it was almost non-stop fishing action on the jugs... I boated a 25, (I fixed the scale) an 18, several in the 15-16 pound class... five or six ten pounders and more smaller fish than I can recall... all in all, we figure we caught about 25 Blues and Channels (majority of the fish were Blue Catfish) with a combined weight of over 200 pounds.... I STILL can't believe the fish.
My digital camera was not interested in cooperating, so I ended up taking all but about three pictures. It was so dark, and I am not used to taking pictures in the pitch black, that most of the pictures were terrible... none of the pics I took of the big girl did her justice, but I'm posting a picture of Bill holding the bog fish of the day, and a couple of me holding the 25# fish...
Before last night, my personal best was a measly 20 pounds... now it's nearly 50... the digital scale held the weight of 46.11 pounds in memory when we weighed the big girl, right before the chain that connectes the fish to the scale broke in two... I guess we'll never know exactly what she weighed, but this was a bigger fish than the 42 pound cat my buddy Jerry caught when we fished the James this spring....
All I can say is AWESOME.... incredible... best fishing trip of my life....
Thanks NightTrain and David for making the trip PERFECT...
One last note... I'm 6'1" and about 225 pounds, and Bill is about half a head taller than me... I think the fish doesn't look near as big as it was with him holding it 'cause he's a big Catman...
Thanks Bill...
Hawkeye
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