My first two fishing trips were very basic. Just casting out simple lures, not really doing much else. But this time, I decided it was time to try a few new tactics:
- I was going to use live bait
- I was going to do some bobber fishing
- I was going to fish multiple rods
I still had my lure set up on the Gil Slayer, but I now had 3 new old broken fishing rods. I decided to take two of those rods and set them up for some slip bobber fishing. Google showed me how easy it was to set them up and within a few casts I had figured out how in the heck a slip bobber worked (ok, it took me way longer than that).
I started out with my lure, but after catching a 5 inch bluegill I didn't even get a single bite. So I switched over to my bobber rods. Unfortunately my worms were all dead (or not moving) but I figured I'd get my money's worth and use them anyway. I cast one out to the left, and one out to the right...
I wasn't doing much but losing bait with these setups, but I didn't quit. I sat...and I sat...and I sat. Eventually I forgot I even had my lines in the water and I started making some phone calls to figure out what party I was going to that night.
After getting my plans set I looked back out on the water. What the hell happened to my bobber!!! It was gone.
I picked up the rod, assuming my bobber fell off and floated away, and started to reel in to re-rig. And wouldn't you know it, there was a fish on the line! It was a BIG ONE!. I reeled it in fairly easily, and as it was approaching shore I thought for a second I had caught a shark...in a freshwater lake...
Of course it was not a shark. And I could tell by the whiskers, that this guy was a catfish (one of the only fish I can identify). And a big one, measuring at about 14 inches long. (after some Googling I found out it was a Blue Catfish).
I held the beast in my arms and had one terrible time removing the hook. He basically swallowed the whole thing. While I was de-hooking that son of a bitch was hissing at me and trying to poke me with his fins! Is that normal!?
A crowd gathered to see this fish, which was cool. I was proud. "This guy must know what he is doing!" Ummm YEP!
About 20 minutes after releasing my first cat into the water and while I was re-rigging the line (I cut the hook off) my other bobber went missing. I reeled in again shocked to find that I caught another blue catfish! This one was much smaller, but nonetheless I was super pumped.
