A friend called to see if I would be interested in fishing some private water that had lots of bass and also supposedly held enormous catfish.
Well yeah! We were about to introduce the “Big Bad Bass Rattler” flies and this would offer a chance to try them on some new water. Middle of the afternoon timing wasn't great, but there was a new moon, and this was my first chance to fish in the Fall.
As soon as we launched the float tubes it became obvious that the fish were deep, so I went back to shore and switched to a 12 weight rod with fast sinking line.
The rod was overkill for bass but that was all I had set up with sinking line. The leader was 17 pound fluorocarbon which was certainly enough for the bass and, honestly, I didn't believe the stories of the humongous catfish in any case.
Sinking line made a big difference, and I started catching a steady stream of medium-sized bass when all the sudden my “overkill” 12 weight rod bent double and the line started peeling off the reel. I was palming the spool to slow down the run when my 17 pound leader snapped like cheap thread. I was shocked, that had never happened to me before in Kansas.
Thinking that the broken leader was due to a nick in the line, I retied with 17 pound line and went back to fishing.
Again, a steady stream of bass came to hand when about an hour later, while trolling in deep water, I had another aggressive strike that bent the rod double and spun my float tube around before once again breaking the leader. Now, the stories of 30 pound catfish began to sound real.
By then it was dusk so we landed the tubes and I vowed to come back and catch the unknown monster fish but this time I would have different equipment. Changes would include a swivel tied into the end of my fly line and the leader will be 25 pound fluorocarbon like we use in Alaska ... on second thought make that a 40 pound leader.
Lookout Jurassic Monster Fish, odds may now be in my favor!
To be continued ...
Glenn Personey
President
Bear River Tackle