July 21st, 2008 will be engraved into my memory forever. After what seems a lifetime of catfishing to me I finally caught one of those Blue Cats that everyone wants on their catfishing resume.

The story is kind of funny because I was trying to play guide that evening with a co-worker that is heading back to Afganastan in September and my 10 year old son.

The day started off like any other catfishing trip to the Mississippi with the catching of some fresh bait around 6 PM and then it was off to our 1st spot. My co-worker has been telling me for months that he just wanted to catch a catfish that weighed more than 13 lbs. as this was his personal best. I said that should not be a problem tonight knowing that the bite had picked up in the last week.

Arriving at our 1st spot it was kind of a shot in the dark and I figured I needed a litte time to get the rods rigged w/ new leaders and prepare some bait. About 20 minutes passed with no takers so I decided it was time to move on. I told myself all day that I was not going to go any further south than I had to. So our next spot was just about as far south as one can go in Pool 27 on the Mississippi River; so much for self control. It was the best move I have made in my fishing career!

We got set up in about 15ft of water within 30 to 40 yards from the bank above a small log jam on a clear muggy evening with an almost full moon set to rise later that night and a cold front planning on pushing through from the north w/ servere weather in front of it around midnight. I had been catching alot of Blue cats in the 8 to 20 pound range at this spot all year so this was my co-worker's best chance to break his PB.

It was around 7:30 PM when my son's rod slammed down as he was taking his first bite of a hot stick, not his PB but a close 2nd at 25.6 pounds. As I was removing the hook from my son's fish my co-worker's rod is slammed; he smokes his old PB with a 29.7 pound Blue cat. We get everything back in order and back to fishing with my job completed when I decided to grab my rods and head to the front of the boat to see if I can join in on the fun.

So there I am minding my own business, stuffing my face with cheesy puffs and my left side rod is making a slow long bend to the water. Little did I know it was going to be a fish of a lifetime on the end of my line. The battle was on, co-worker asked me if I thought is was a big one I told him it had to be more than 50 pounds because the fish was going where it wanted to go and not were I wanted it to go! So with the guide having a 81.6lb Blue cat attached to his rod, a very un-experienced co-worker and a 10 year old boy staring at him I said, "getting the net would be a good start!" After fighting the fish for about 10 minutes I realized the current was moving so fast that I could not bring the fish along side the boat to use the net so it was time for co-worker to get a crash course lessons on how to use a break away anchor ball. After the lesson, we were broke away and floating down river after my prize and it only took about 10 more mins before the hawg was in the boat. It ended up weighing 81.6lbs on a 220lb BOC Coffey scale.

I would like to thank myself for leaving my camera at home because it would have never happened if I had it with me?!? Seriously, I would like to thank everyone that night that came down to take pictures and helped me release the fish back to the waters it came from!