Once the waters cooled in September, I began to fish in earnest from my new kayak. I learned to fish with mini crankbaits which proved to be successful in landing a lot of fish. One of my last outings the final week in October, gave me the adrenaline rush of a life time. I hooked a large fish at 5:40 pm on my ultralight Abu Garcia spinning reel with 6lb test line. I was hoping for a Striper, but because of the swim pattern I knew it wasn’t. The large fish pulled me out in deeper water, were the wind had picked up.
Darkness was fast approaching. I knew I wanted to get a glimpse of the fish before it got to dark. It was hard to believe I hooked such a behemoth on the mini strike king crankbait I was using. The “mini” strike king, proved to be mighty. I had landed several channel cats and one bass in the 3-5 lb range on the mini strike king a half hour earlier, simply by trolling. You know I was pumped when an even bigger fish struck. Added to my adrenaline rush was uneasy fear not having my life jacket on. With the wind continuing to pick up, the waves began to white cap. I knew with water temperatures in the low 60’s, hypothermia was a possibility if I fell into the water. Now 6:40 pm, darkess upon me,
I was well into an hour on my “Nantucket sleigh ride”. When I finally got the fish to the surface I saw it was a large flathead catfish. My guess was that the Flathead was in the neighborhood of 35lbs. I have landed a lot of these giants over the years from my dock so I knew my estimate to be dead on. The only difference this time, was the fish wasn't being reeled in on my Abu Garcia 6500. When I catch Flatheads I'm always using a 4/0 hook, with 20 pound testline. Once my line begins to sounds like a piano wire, I know to immediately back off on the drag. Most dock fights for me last around 15-20 minutes for a fish this size. I always had my super sized net to land them.
This time landing a flathead this size was different. The largest fish I had landed on an ultralight reel with 6lb test line before this time had been a 20lb carp. Still then, the large carp I landed was caught from the dock. That fish didn't have the advantage of pulling me around in a kayak. Besides having a good hook set, the only other landing tools on my kayak was a small trout net, and a lipper gripper. I knew the net was to small for this 38 inch fish. The gripper became my only option landing the behemoth . I didn't care to tear my hand on the flathead’s sandpaper mouth, so I opted for the gripper. I reached out to snag the fish and missed, the fish went diving back down. The large flathead and I battled again for another 10 minutes. During this time the wind and waves picked up even more. I was now almost in total darkness. the fish was taking me further out into the river. Once again I decided to try and surface the fish, knowing he still had plenty of fight left in him. When the fish reached the top, I reached out as before, but this time the Flathead gave a sharp turn and snapped the 6lb test line. “I think I was more relieved than disappointed, my kudos to the fish”. The adrenaline rush I experienced was awesome and well worth the price of a lost fish.
I learned several valuable lessons that day. The first is to always wear your life jacket. Even though I am an excellent swimmer, with cooler waters and strong winds, I am no match for those conditions. The second thing I learned is to carry a bigger net. The 3rd thing was I need to learn is how to lift a large fish onto my kayak without the risk of tipping it over. Since I already know how to catch large flatheads, I plan on practicing from my kayak when I have some friends around. Trying to land a large fish in the dark, high winds, and no life jacket on is a recipe for tragedy. I learned and survived. I can’t wait to get back on “my lean green machine” and do it right!
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