Monster Blue Cat on Tiny Tackle

[rsimms]

Dakota Casteel works at my former place of employment, NewsChannel 9 in Chattanooga, TN. He's training to get better at news photography, so I recruited him to shoot some promotional video for Scenic City Fishing Charters on my home water in Chattanooga.

We had a little scripted promotional video all set up to produce. Unfortunately (or fortunately) a MONSTER blue cat rewrote our script.I was demonstrating my "light tackle" technique... standard light action spinning rod, 10 lb. test main line with a 20 lb. shock leader. I was hoping for a solid 10 or 15 pounder to provide some good video. But lo and behold, the first bite we got was a Big Boy!

I hooked him, but after a while I handed off the rod to Dakota. There were lots of very hairy moments, and plenty of opportunities to lose this fish. Dakota has caught some big cats fishing with one of my partners, but this was his first ever big blue on "light tackle," and in heavy current. He has new found respect for these big beasts, and the technical aspect of fighting VERY big fish on tiny tackle.

On top of it all, I purposefully left my big fish net in the truck so it wouldn't be in our way filming. We had to land this fish old school, by hand. Which meant Dakota had to fight him all the way to the finish. I had the fish in hand twice, but couldn't hang on. But the third time was a charm. I managed to get the grippers around his big fat lip and my old worn out body dragged him into the boat. He tugged the scales to 59 lbs. (that's a 60-pounder in "guide" weight )

Since we were out to shoot video anyway, we shot a lot of the battle. WATCH IT HERE, and remember, life is good and gettin' better every day.

[NIMROD]

Way to go ! Could that be a line class record ?

[dmorgan22]

What brand of line might I ask?

[rsimms]

It is not a line class record, however one of my previous clients does hold a line class record. See: Scenic City Fishing Charters, Inc.

This fish was caught on 10-pound Stren. But I actually prefer Mr. Crappie line.

[DockShootinJack]

That's a beast .

[Abu65]

What were you using for bait? Nice fish & a neat story. Thanks for sharing.

[rsimms]

What were you using for bait? Nice fish & a neat story. Thanks for sharing.

Caught on my favorite bait... plain chicken breast.

[Muskrat]

Great job on light line. I took Richard's advice about using chicken breast for catfish many years ago. It caught the largest fish I've ever had in a boat in '09 - by Debbie.

[rnvinc]

Holy whisker feesh...!!



Rickie

[Tadpole!!]

It is not a line class record, however one of my previous clients does hold a line class record. See: Scenic City Fishing Charters, Inc.

This fish was caught on 10-pound Stren. But I actually prefer Mr. Crappie line.

I was sauger fishing about 10-12 years ago on Wheeler and caught one that was over 65 lbs using 8lb Stren mono. I say over because that was the limit of my hand-held and it was pegged. It was over 60" long (length of my boat paddle).