Fathers Day Fun

[Deep-V-Fisher]

Caught plenty of Bass and two exceptional Crappie. None of the bass were over 4-5lbs. Overall a great fishing weekend.

Funny part is, I bought Dad a BPS CatMaxx 80 reel prior to heading down... you know, for his Fathers Day gift.

All of this with dreams of catching Walter this past weekend. You know what i mean.....all of these big (dam) fish stories we hear about on TV such as river monsters. hahaha

darn divers who claim to not want to go back down. yada yada yada

Dad and I do a lot of trolling near docks and main channel. You can catch some monster bass along with many other species this way. Also you dont end up casting you arm out within a weekend of fishing.

So i have this heavy duty catfish pole right? Well its at the dock and we are trolling the main channel with lighter Bass type tackle. Pulling a rapala deep diver. BOOM! The reel starts screaming. Tackle was just 20lb braid on a 4000 reel and before i know it the line is nearly gone. I have maybe 50 loops left on it and i proceed to tighten the drag even tighter than before and fight it out. I tell ya it was like what i normally experience saltwater fishing for shark or tarpon. Unreal the amount of energy this fish had.

Unfortunately we didn't have a scale. What are your guesses? I think its a minimum of 50lbs. It felt heavier than a trolling motor battery thats for sure.

Great Blue Cat fun for sure!

Happy Fathers Day Dad! We will be talking about this one for years!

[Jim Y]

At least 60 lbs., I once saw some trotliners bring in one than big in Truman and they told me it was at least 60 lbs and probably 65-70. I'm a bass fisherman, I would have cut the line before trying to boat that monster. I didn't know that cats that big would hit a crankbait.

[Deep-V-Fisher]

Yeah thats what i was thinking. It definately weighed more than a trolling motor battery. We all know how much those weigh. lol

Believe it or not i have caught others on crank baits as well. here is a flathead i pulled in 2 years ago. Same thing. Crankbait.

[MoSportsmen]

The guys on the dock next to me had a 25 pounder this weekend. Looked about that. Hard to judge but there should be a length chart somewhere. What be the width of your shoulders?

Heck of a fish no matter what way you slice it when yur landing it on bass gear. I landed the bigest one I ever got this weekend from a trot line and it was only 7 lbs on my digital scale. I was a little supprised.

[Deep-V-Fisher]

Pops is 6'4 260 and I am 6'0 230 if that helps gauge. hahahah. Dont know shoulder width off hand.

[Smalliebigs]

Adam,

That Blue will easily go 35 to 50 lbs, it's obvious that it's large as you are not holding it out in front of you.......not like that is easy when they get that heavy...lol

I have caught several in the 40 to 60 class and that fish looks to be there for sure.....you can always tells by how big the head is and that things head is bigger than yours.....not trying to be funny,just saying. Like you said you guys will be talking about it for a long time and catching her on Fathers Day weekend well the memories will run deep, thats the important thing.

I am very intrigued by your technique of trolling???? I have been continplating a set up similar to what you guys might be using. I have a friend who had a stroke and he is limited in what he can do as far as casting but, he is absolutely dying to get back to some fishing. We can troll and he can catch fish pretty well. I really need to try to refine my trolling skills and learn from some people who know more than I do.

My buddy is a Hybrid and Striper freak.....he will take anything that swims though.....I was going to mabey try to get him down to the LOZ to try to do some trolling.Do you ever use any spoons??? or just deep diving cranks??? I have a Tour 82lb trolling motor on a very light boat......would I be able to obtain enough speed with that trolling motor???? or would I need to use the big motor???? I have some great rod holders and above average sonar...Hummingbird 798 & 788 di no si, already that I think would be adequate. I guess we just need to get out there and loose some lures and see what we come up with.

Sweet report and I'm sure pops had a great Fathers Day by the look on his face

[Deep-V-Fisher]

I definately was not holding out in front of me, hahahaha that sucker was too heavy for that for sure.

PM sent.

[rps]

Adam,

That Blue will easily go 35 to 50 lbs, it's obvious that it's large as you are not holding it out in front of you.......not like that is easy when they get that heavy...lol

I have caught several in the 40 to 60 class and that fish looks to be there for sure.....you can always tells by how big the head is and that things head is bigger than yours.....not trying to be funny,just saying. Like you said you guys will be talking about it for a long time and catching her on Fathers Day weekend well the memories will run deep, thats the important thing.

I am very intrigued by your technique of trolling???? I have been continplating a set up similar to what you guys might be using. I have a friend who had a stroke and he is limited in what he can do as far as casting but, he is absolutely dying to get back to some fishing. We can troll and he can catch fish pretty well. I really need to try to refine my trolling skills and learn from some people who know more than I do.

My buddy is a Hybrid and Striper freak.....he will take anything that swims though.....I was going to mabey try to get him down to the LOZ to try to do some trolling.Do you ever use any spoons??? or just deep diving cranks??? I have a Tour 82lb trolling motor on a very light boat......would I be able to obtain enough speed with that trolling motor???? or would I need to use the big motor???? I have some great rod holders and above average sonar...Hummingbird 798 & 788 di no si, already that I think would be adequate. I guess we just need to get out there and loose some lures and see what we come up with.

Sweet report and I'm sure pops had a great Fathers Day by the look on his face

Trolling is a great way to target game fish and I believe they prohibit it in the tournament world for the same reason they prohibit live bait - it's too effective. You might remember the article I did for Phil on walleye trolling? The same tactics and a slight up size in line and rod would work very well on hybrids. I would suggest 15/4 braid and a 7 or 7.5 foot medium heavy or heavy rod with moderate or fast action. Fin and Feathers on this forum can give better advice than I on striper rod/reel/line. I have caught stripers to 25 pounds on Texhoma using the rig I describe, but I suspect a 40 pound fish would punish you if you had anything other than a high capacity reel.

I advocate using inexpensive cranks to troll. You will lose lures on ledges, edges, and humps even in a cleared lake. Rapala lures are excellent but pricey. I stick to Storm, Cotton Cordel, and Norman.

For stripers and hybrids, I also suggest you purchase some bottom bouncers and set up plastic swim baits to trail the lead. An alternative would be a threeway swivel with a 2 ounce sinker dropper. Start your boat moving and let out line until the sinker ticks bottom then crank the handle twice. If fish are suspending over deeper water, go to a flat that is the depth you want to fish and use the same drop, tick, and crank method to set your depth, but count the number of times the line moves back and forth on the spool so you can repeat the depth.

Good luck.

[Deep-V-Fisher]

I tell ya with as much as we have trolled the loz. We have on had a few small striper bites. Mostly bass and pretty big ones at that quite frequently.

[jackaroe22677]

We've caught hybrids and big whites trolling in the Warsaw area during the spring run. Then in August and the fall when the whites start to school, you can troll around points all over the lake and catch them. Somethimes you'll find a hybrid or stiper among them. We just use small flashy crankbaits on mono or fluoro, 8-10lb test.

Best of luck!