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Grand Forks 27lb Catfish!


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Went fishing on Saturday in Grand Forks. Launched from the North Ramp at about 10:00am. It was darn slow for me, I only caught 4 fish all day, but I was dinking around more than anything.

Anyways, the first fish of the day was a little guy about 21"s. Then I hooked up with a Carp that weighed in at 16.4 lbs. Then I moved around a bit and set down in another spot. After about 5 minutes my Circle hook rig buckled over and started ripping off drag before I could even get up! I grabbed the rod and pryed it from the rod holder. The fish just kept peeling line off, until finally it started back towards me, and after a 20 minute fight, I finally got the fish in the net. It was 27.3lbs on the scale. This was by far my heaviest Cat i have ever caught. The part that sucked, is I was by myself, so there was no way to take a picture. Weighed it, Measured it and let it go. So it's still out there to get even bigger. It was a slow day, but was worth it just for that biggun. I caught one more Cat before I left that was just about 15lbs.

Boy I wish I could catch something that big during the tournament! It wouldn't take long to get a big weight with a 27lb fish in the boat. But we all know how that goes...

Oh well, just wanted to let ya'll know there's definetly big fish to be caught. Yehaa!

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Way to go, Catman. Sounds like a good time was had by all (just you this time). Big ol' cats on the prowl- yeeehhaa!

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Bravo to you... One could only pray for that hook up again in August for Cats.... sigh sigh....

Our biggest cat so far in the league is now 22#... that was 36"... and I thought that was big for here... pant pant.. League again Wednesday night......maybe I can catch its brother.... I need the weight for my standings...

Once again bravo to ya...

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This Cat was approx, 35"-37" long, maybe? My Golden Rule is only 30" long so I don't know the exact length, but I do know it was alot longer than my ruler. One other thing to note, is this fish was FAT-FAT-FAT!! I don't know if they are full of eggs yet or if it was just an extremely plump fish? I would have to say, the fish would have been about 23-25lbs if it wasn't so fat.

This was the second really chunky Cat I've caught this spring, so they are either eating good right now or are full of eggs and eating good!

The other fat cat I caught this spring was around 25"-26" and weighed something like 9.5lbs. In my experience a fish this length is usually about 6 pounds, so it was also definetly over weight.

The only thing that sucks about this, is now I have a pretty tough weight to top for my biggest cat on the Red.

Also, just wondering does anyone think the 33lb Record from the Red will get broken anytime soon? I've caught many, many fish weighing 20-22 pounds ,but usually that's about the biggest I ever catch in a year. It just seems no one hardly ever tops the 22lb mark beside a few 25lber's and this one freak 27lb fish.

SO AGAIN, DO YOU THINK A FISH BIGGER THAN 33LBS SWIMS THIS STRETCH OF THE RED? AND LETS SAY YOU DID CATCH ONE BIGGER THAN 33LBS, WHERE THE HECK WOULD A PERSON TAKE IT TO BE CERTIFIED? IF I WERE TO CATCH A RECORD, I WOULD WANT TO KEEP IT ALIVE SO IT COULD BE RELEASED TO SWIM ANOTHER DAY.

Rusty, quit rubbing it in about the Catfish League, darn it. I wish I lived closer and didn't work evening, cause I'd be there for sure. If they ever change it to weekends, let me know. grin.gif

Also, did you bring up the fact that the League's Big Tournament is the same day as Drayton's, and do you think they would change it? If they do, be sure to let me know, cause I would really like to fish it. frown.gif

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I did bring that up to them.. they are going to double check and see what can be done.. Im sure no one wants to be the one to change dates but someone should... you can not have two big events like that on the same day soo close to each other.

Got my fingers crossed.

As for League.. Man I sure wish I could get more FMers to at least come and check it out... We had another awesome night last night.. The top finishes were in the 30# range again.. wow... some real stout fish this summer.. they are just huge...

You are right about the size of the fish.. something is up with the cats being so heavy.. I have not seen this where the cats are just hard and heavy. That is a good thing I hope. Might be the summer of record breaking fish.....

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Way to go Catman, gotta believe a record breaker is lurking out there in the mighty Red! Largest we've ever boated is a 28lb, it was a big pig, caught early in the season prior spawn. Locking up with a fish like that gets the blood pumping. All I can think about is getting out on the river and doing some fishing. Say, what was your bait of choice last weekend? We were out at Drayton and did fair with sucker minnows.

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I was using sucker minnows last weekend. I went out again this past Sunday and it was a little slow again. I went fishing from Noon till about 5:00pm and ended up catching a couple catfish around 24"'s, and two fish that were 12-13lbs. I used only Goldeye this past Sunday.

I probably got 20+ bites, but alot of the fish were lipping the bait and dropping it. mad.gif Even the two big fish I caught took the line like a small fish "taps", until they were hooked. shocked.gif

I almost decided to head up to the Drayton area on sunday, but didn't. Any big fish being caught up thatta way right now? How about walleye or Sauger below the Drayton Dam?

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Hey: I saw the picture in the Herald...Congrats on the big one....looking forward to trying to find her again this summer! We went up to Lockport this weekend...Cold as heck on Saturday, but they were biting ok for us. No big hawgs on Saturday (over 20 lb) but got five of them on Sunday. Biggest was only 24.5 pounds. I think the bite was a bit slow, but based on the weather, who could blame it? At least most of them hit hard. Sucker minnows were the ticket up there. I caught one on an old goldeye, but the suckers were the hot thing for us.

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