The Biggest Catfish You’ve Never Seen

There’s probably hundreds of good quotes about catching or not catching. Early birds and all, catching not fishing you only catch the fly balls that are hit your way. Some of those are made up of course, I did mention I’m a fisherman but the story I’m about to tell is true.

It’s a foggy Monday morning and I’m the only thing on the lake besides some loud tourist from Canada honking. I’ve spot locked over a bunch of huge marks right around a tree in about seventy feet of water. I can tell things are fishy and the trout sending me morse code was clearly in distress 40 feet below.

That’s when the rod bent. And I started reeling and it was heavy. Really heavy. Maybe I’m stuck? No it keeps coming up, sorta that is. Time on the lake is similar to a wormhole and since I was only spending the time of a lunch break fishing today I had to think fast. Or dumb. Or panic not sure which thought actually won over. I remembered a story about a record setting catfish and the angler said it felt like reeling in a log. This felt exactly like that! I felt the line tension and could feel something pulling but it didn’t seem to care much about me or my braid tugging on it.

At this point I don’t think I’m stuck, but I’m still not sure if I have a fish on or not. It’s kinda pulling, holding on and paying me no mind. Or am I just stuck? I’m reeling and pulling with the rod but it doesn’t seem like I’m making much progress at all. So I toss open the reel letting all the tension out and…poof. It’s gone. The biggest catfish you’ve never seen and I let it off the hook. At least I think it was…