Mississippi River Catfishing

[bulldog]

A good friend and i went fishing on the Mississippi River last night. It was awesome. River was pretty high but it is about half as scary as anyone will tell you. We were using skipjack herring and goldfish as bait with atleast 12 ounces of lead to fight the current and Gamakatsu octopus circle hooks. I caught 3 decent cats and my buddy got broke off on probably a 40+ pounder. I got broke off about 10 foot from the boat by a hog. The fish was in the 50 pound range. Just amazing. We were using 60 lb test. We fished in 10-55' of water but all 3 of my fish were in 20'. My buddy did not catch anything. i may or may not have rubbed that in his face the whole evening, ride home, and this morning I might have sent him a text with pics of all the fish I caught.

Just an all around awesome time and I will be back.

 

[parkerdog]

Great looking fish!

How long did it take to get the 20 lb flathead in?

Reason I ask is because I've never been fishing for the big ones before and a buddy of mine fishes by Fort Madison for flatheads but he says the biggest they have caught this year is a 10 pounder that took 20 minutes to get in.

Seemed like a long time to me, I figured you just hogged them in. Biggest I've ever caught is 3-4 pounds so you give me something to shoot for!

 

[bulldog]

All the fish came right in. They fought hard but I have some big tackle so I muscled them in pretty quick. The 12 pounder gave the biggest fight. It went on 3 runs and got in to the current. Pretty neat.

 

[fender66]

Sounds like an awesome trip. I'm going to have to do that sometime. Maybe next year.