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Went to Lady Bird this morning with a buddy, hit the water a little late at 9:00 AM and launched the jon boat at drainage culvert behind AHS. Tested water clarity twice, once at Barton Creek Mouth: 8 ft, once beneath congress bridge: 5ft. Was scorching hot, and by 9:30, I was pouring sweat.
Immediately caught a half pound sunfish, and threw it back, on second thought, I should have used it as bait. Tried to pitch a grande bass jig towards the overhanging trees with no luck. Switched to Bandit series pearl crankbait and tried to crank edge of weedbed at Barton Creek with no luck.
Me and my buddy decided it was time to troll the banks. He was using a sunfish colored lipped medium diving crank, and I stuck with my bandit pearl colored crank. 10 minutes into trolling, my buddy landed a nice 2.75 lb/ 16 inch spotted bass that put up a heck of a fight. He caught it underneath the Lamar Street Bridge. Continued to troll, in between South First and Congress while I was trolling something very unexpected happened.
I got hung up, or so I thought. My buddy asked if I need help getting it free, but I told him I could handle it. I trolled my jon boat to the place I thought I was hung, but the spot had changed and now was about 6 ft over. So I trolled over to that spot, but again the spot had changed, and this time I realized I was getting dragged out to the middle of the lake. I now understood that it was a giant fish on,and that I was not hung up. I immediatlely shout to my buddy that it is a lunker, and he reels in and comes to give me a hand. At this point my drag is running non stop. Finally, being inexperienced with any fish over 10 lbs, I decide to start reeling it in, instead of letting it wear itself down. I gave all I could, and managed to bring it to the surface.
Low and behold, it is an enormous 30-40lb flathead catfish. I have heard of catfish striking crankbaits, but have never experienced it. As soon as I got the fish to the surface, the fish dove as strong as it could and snapped my rod in two, but did not break my line. At this point, me and my buddy are freaking out at the size of this fish, and all I can think of is how to get this fish in the boat. So I grab my fish gloves with one hand, while holding multiple pieces of my rod with the other. My buddy helped me slide one glove on, and I use that hand to begin pulling in the line by hand. I pulled for a while as hard as I could, and finally brought the fish to the surface again. This time, I got a real good look at the fish, and so did my buddy, it looked to be about 30 and 40 lbs and well over 30 inches in length, easily a new lake record f I had landed it. Just as I saw the fish, it dove on me again, this time breaking my fisherman's knot and taking my crankbait with him. All in all, the fish broke my rod in three different places, and broke the knot that I tied. First time I have ever had a knot break on me because of a fish. The rod I was using was a 6 foot Quantum Optix IM6 with 17 pound test. It was the most amazing fish fight I have ever experienced. My adrenaline was pumping the rest of our trip. We didn't manage to land any other fish mainly because all me and my buddy could do was talk about the size of that flathead.
We only caught one bass and one sunfish, but the fight that the catfish put up will always be remembered. I have a new found respect for catfish, and for big fish in Lady Bird Lake. It is time for me to get a fish net so that next time I bring a monster to the surface, I can boat it.
I will post pics of my broken rod and the bass my buddy caught as soon as I get the pics developed.
Immediately caught a half pound sunfish, and threw it back, on second thought, I should have used it as bait. Tried to pitch a grande bass jig towards the overhanging trees with no luck. Switched to Bandit series pearl crankbait and tried to crank edge of weedbed at Barton Creek with no luck.
Me and my buddy decided it was time to troll the banks. He was using a sunfish colored lipped medium diving crank, and I stuck with my bandit pearl colored crank. 10 minutes into trolling, my buddy landed a nice 2.75 lb/ 16 inch spotted bass that put up a heck of a fight. He caught it underneath the Lamar Street Bridge. Continued to troll, in between South First and Congress while I was trolling something very unexpected happened.
I got hung up, or so I thought. My buddy asked if I need help getting it free, but I told him I could handle it. I trolled my jon boat to the place I thought I was hung, but the spot had changed and now was about 6 ft over. So I trolled over to that spot, but again the spot had changed, and this time I realized I was getting dragged out to the middle of the lake. I now understood that it was a giant fish on,and that I was not hung up. I immediatlely shout to my buddy that it is a lunker, and he reels in and comes to give me a hand. At this point my drag is running non stop. Finally, being inexperienced with any fish over 10 lbs, I decide to start reeling it in, instead of letting it wear itself down. I gave all I could, and managed to bring it to the surface.
Low and behold, it is an enormous 30-40lb flathead catfish. I have heard of catfish striking crankbaits, but have never experienced it. As soon as I got the fish to the surface, the fish dove as strong as it could and snapped my rod in two, but did not break my line. At this point, me and my buddy are freaking out at the size of this fish, and all I can think of is how to get this fish in the boat. So I grab my fish gloves with one hand, while holding multiple pieces of my rod with the other. My buddy helped me slide one glove on, and I use that hand to begin pulling in the line by hand. I pulled for a while as hard as I could, and finally brought the fish to the surface again. This time, I got a real good look at the fish, and so did my buddy, it looked to be about 30 and 40 lbs and well over 30 inches in length, easily a new lake record f I had landed it. Just as I saw the fish, it dove on me again, this time breaking my fisherman's knot and taking my crankbait with him. All in all, the fish broke my rod in three different places, and broke the knot that I tied. First time I have ever had a knot break on me because of a fish. The rod I was using was a 6 foot Quantum Optix IM6 with 17 pound test. It was the most amazing fish fight I have ever experienced. My adrenaline was pumping the rest of our trip. We didn't manage to land any other fish mainly because all me and my buddy could do was talk about the size of that flathead.
We only caught one bass and one sunfish, but the fight that the catfish put up will always be remembered. I have a new found respect for catfish, and for big fish in Lady Bird Lake. It is time for me to get a fish net so that next time I bring a monster to the surface, I can boat it.
I will post pics of my broken rod and the bass my buddy caught as soon as I get the pics developed.
