jksmoot
Member
I'm really surprised at how small these record cats at the lake are in light I something I witnessed. I swear the following is all true.
It was 8 or 10 years ago, our houseboat was tied up at Chuckwalla Spring, just north of the mouth of the San Juan on the other side of the river. I travelled down to Dangling Rope for some fuel and while there I saw 2 cat fish in a guy's 14 or so foot aluminum boat one of which was easily the size of me and I'm 6' and 240 lbs. The other was about 2/3 the size of the big one. I had to learn more. The man had two steel poles bolted to the transom pointing straight up with about 3 feet in between. Another pole was attached to the top of these parallel to the top of the transom about 2 feet above it. On the floor of the boat by the transom was a 12V winch spooled with 1/8 or 3/16" steel cable. The man said he would pick up road kill, embed a very large treble hook into the carcass, then put them in a plastic bag and freeze them. When it was time to fish he would rip the plastic off as best he could, attach the hook to the cable, toss it over the horizontal pole, and let it go to the bottom of the lake. When he felt the boat bob up and down a little he would begin to retrieve the winch. I don't know how long it took to land them or how he got them into the boat but I saw them. He estimated the big one was 200 lbs or better, the other about 120. I remember the bigger one's head was every bit of 2 feet wide. What did he do with them? He told me he had a buyer. Once again, I'm not making this up. I saw it. Good luck fishing, yours, Jack Smoot
It was 8 or 10 years ago, our houseboat was tied up at Chuckwalla Spring, just north of the mouth of the San Juan on the other side of the river. I travelled down to Dangling Rope for some fuel and while there I saw 2 cat fish in a guy's 14 or so foot aluminum boat one of which was easily the size of me and I'm 6' and 240 lbs. The other was about 2/3 the size of the big one. I had to learn more. The man had two steel poles bolted to the transom pointing straight up with about 3 feet in between. Another pole was attached to the top of these parallel to the top of the transom about 2 feet above it. On the floor of the boat by the transom was a 12V winch spooled with 1/8 or 3/16" steel cable. The man said he would pick up road kill, embed a very large treble hook into the carcass, then put them in a plastic bag and freeze them. When it was time to fish he would rip the plastic off as best he could, attach the hook to the cable, toss it over the horizontal pole, and let it go to the bottom of the lake. When he felt the boat bob up and down a little he would begin to retrieve the winch. I don't know how long it took to land them or how he got them into the boat but I saw them. He estimated the big one was 200 lbs or better, the other about 120. I remember the bigger one's head was every bit of 2 feet wide. What did he do with them? He told me he had a buyer. Once again, I'm not making this up. I saw it. Good luck fishing, yours, Jack Smoot
