We had Austin, Tori, Mason, and Kayden on the boat to celebrate Kayden’s birthday. The goals for the trip were simply to catch some fish and if we came across some good ones, that would be a bonus. We had the gill net in the water when our guests arrived. We let it soak as we loaded them on the boat and got organized. We collected the net, showing our guests how it works, and only had a few pieces of bait. We moved to a different stretch of river and set the net on a giant school of fish we marked on sonar. We saw a few nice marks so we decided to let the net soak while we fished our first spot. We put out 6 Hellcat rods and tossed out a couple light tackle rods, looking to catch some eaters.
It wasn’t long before the rods started going down and we had our first fish of the morning. It was a small fish but it was a great blue cat for a fish fry!
Multiple rods were getting hit and soon we had another fish come to the boat on one of the light duty combos.
We let the gill net soak a little bit longer and that led to one of the most exciting parts of the morning. As we were standing around talking, one of the light action spinning rods folded over and Austin grabbed it. He fought the fish all the way across the rod rack and started leading the fish up to the side of the boat. The fish had been plastered to the bottom of the river and swimming up river, a typical sign of a big fish. Austin started to lift the fish up and it started to peel drag. The fight went on for a little bit until the fish came unbuttoned. This was likely because that rod only had a 6/0 hook and the fish was likely only skin hooked. The fight was a lot of fun but it would have been awesome to see that beast. This spot started to slow down so we grabbed the gill net, which was loaded with shad, and took off to a new spot. On our way to our next spot, we noticed a ton of bait on the channel ledge and took some time to scan a little more closely. We marked some really nice fish and decided to fish.
We set up the boat and fished this spot for about an hour. We were getting taps and caught a small fish shallow but the highlight of this spot came when we saw a shallow line start swimming towards the deeper water. Kayden reeled down on the fish and it hooked up big time! The fish was down in about 40 feet of water and fighting hard. Kayden took his time wearing the fish out and did a great job bringing him up to the boat. The fish came up about 20 feet behind the boat and we were able to quickly scoop it up. The fish ended up weighing 36 lbs and measuring 40.75 inches, a certified trophy fish!
We took some photos and got the fish back in the water. The boys were shocked by the size of the fish and we got the rods back in the water. A couple eaters later and we noticed a lot of trash coming down the river. We made an adjustment and moved to a nearby section of river and we saw a bunch of fish stacked up, surrounded by schools of bait. It was an exciting find and we got fresh bait in the water as quickly as we could.
Teh rods weren’t in the water for 10 minutes when a rod went down with a textbook big fish takedown. Two small taps then it slowly folded down until the rods backbone kicked in. Mason wanted to catch his own trophy fish and his wish was quickly granted. We got the fish to the boat and it was almost a carbon copy of the first trophy fish. 35 lbs and about 39 inches.
We had doubled up with an eater and you can see the green hellcat rod starting to fold over with a third fish as we were trying to grab pictures. A few minutes later, we completed the triple up and pulled in another nice fishing weighing in just under 20 lbs.
The wind spun the boat around while all that excitement was going down so we pulled all the rods in, repositioned, and got fresh bait in the water. A few more eaters came in the boat and before long we had a pile of fish to clean. Our guests informed us they weren’t planning on keeping any more fish so we got to work cleaning the fish and bagging up the fillets while we fished. There were a pile of eaters that turned into one heck of a fish fry!
The rods were pretty quiet while we cleaned fish but it was really cool watching an eagle scoop up some of the fish remains for a snack.
Between the tide shifting and all the commotion of the number of fish we caught, the fish we were marking started to clear out. We pulled anchor and repositioned at the other side of the same hole and it paid off pretty quickly. We were standing around talking when we noticed a rod folded over and screaming drag.
The way it had a heavy action rod bent over, we knew it was going to be another great fish. Tori decided to jump in on the action and worked with Austin to land our third trophy fish of the day.
This fish weighed in just over 31 lbs!
We set the fish free and fished this spot for a while longer. It wasn’t producing any more and the trip was almost over so we ran back towards the ramp and spotlocked on top of a giant pile of bait so we could fish a little longer while we cleaned up the boat and started putting rods away. Twenty minutes in this spot with no bites and the trip was over. All in all, we sent out guests home stocked up for a fish fry, with a bunch of new personal best fish, and memories to last a lifetime. Can’t wait for the next trip!
Gear We Trust:
Rods from Catch the Fever (Discount code GOOBER10 for 10% off)
Line from Slime Line (Discount code GOOBER10 for 10% off)
Terminal Tackle from Mid Atlantic Catfish Co (Discount code Goober15 for 15% off)
Planer Boards from AlphaBoardz (Discount code GOOBER10 for 10% off)
Reels from Shimano https://amzn.to/49Xxyq7
Anchors from Never Lost Anchors (Discount code GOOBER5 for 5% off)
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