Friday seemed like a good day to be chasing stocker-size trout on Dragonfly Pond. But it proved to be an even better time for Charlie Higgs to be battling a trophy-size, 34-inch channel catfish.
Who knew that lunker was lurking near the fishing dock, probably gobbling trout? Certainly not Charlie, who would have probably tied his nightcrawler onto something a little stouter than 6-pound line. Nor fishing buddies Christina Weiss and Rick Golz, tasked with trying without much success to capture the bruiser with a pair of inadequate trout nets.
Rick reports Charlie "fought the beast for 20 minutes before he got it up from the bottom and we could see it was a cat. It took another five minutes to get it to the dock, where Christina and I tried to get both ends of the fish into two small trout nets without success before I finally picked it up by the gills and Charlie had the biggest cat he'd ever caught.
"The pinched barb on a tiny hook was barely in its mouth when I took it out."
Charlie briefly thought about making his catch into a whole lot of sandwiches, but then freed the beast to bite another day.
By the way, the qualifying minimum length for a Colorado Master Angler channel cat is 30 inches.
 |
| Photos by Rick Golz |
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for your comments. They will be reviewed before they can be seen by all visitors.