Boy do I have a fish story for you guys today!

I was out doing some scouting for Sunday's trip with El Gato Azul and Action Jaxon. Conditions were tough. Water was slick, zero wind and blue bird sky. Got some good bait. Hit a couple spots down south and was only getting dink taps so I went north to the Brockdale flats and started pulling boards.

About 40 minutes in I boated a nice fun sizer, about 12 pounds. Then...

About a half hour later I had drifted to a point just north of the Brockdale ramp. The number one rod gets absolutely crushed. The drag was a little too tight because the fish started to unscrew the pipe on my poor mans multibar. The rod holder laid over and the rod gets pulled out of it and right into the water. No kidding. Right into the lake. So I'm standing there with my mouth hanging open thinking "what the H E Double Hockey sticks do I do now. I thought I need to reel everything up and go get the planer board while it's still on the surface. Then at least I might get my rod and reel back. So I grab the number 2 rod and start cranking. It starts loading up and I realize the fish swam across that line and got tangled in it. I reel a bit more and the rod tip of the rod that got pulled in pops up. I grab it and get it back in the boat. I'm thinking there is no way the fish is still on the line and now I see that he crossed rod number three and four as well. I reach down and grad a hand full of braid and start pulling the mess in and I feel a tug. The fish is still on the hook! I start carefully pulling in line thinking any minute this thing is gonna make a run and cut my fingers to pieces with this braid. But you guys back me up. If you had a toad on the line and the only way to get him in was to handline it, you'd do the same as I was, right? So, I get him up to the boat and I need the net. I look down and my feet are in a big pile of green braid. Not kidding, now I'm tangled too! I can't reach the net. The fish is thrashing around at the back of the boat and I'm thinking I did not go through all this to lose this fish at the last minute. So I reach down and grab him by the jaw and drag him up into the boat. Catfish Tim wins it at the buzzer!

The last picture below is the aftermath before I started cutting. There was no untangling this mess. I didn't even try. But in the end it was worth all the trouble and mess to boat another Lavon toad. Hang on to yourself El Gato! It's gonna be a wild ride Sunday!


First fish on the drift. 12 pound fun sizer

Troublemaker toad - handlined after trying to steal one of my rods

The aftermath...looked like a trailer park after a tornado!

That is freakin awesome buddy! The thrill of victory was hanging on by a thread…literally! Lmao!! Pure greatness! I had the same think happen to me. About 6 yrs ago when I first started pulling planer boards I had a toad hammer my rod bending over my Driftmaster as I watched the rod hit the water and take off like a torpedo! It was gone but I could see that planer board moving fast! I reeled everything up quickly and went and grabbed the planer board and the fish was on! I was able to retrieve the planer board and the rod and caught a 30 lbr in the process. Big benefit of planer boarding!!!

Can’t wait to come fish with you and Wyatt Sunday and I know my Jaxon is super excited to fish with Wyatt!! Hopefully we have that good of luck without the rod going overboard! 🍀🎣🍀

Golly gosh, that is one epic fish story!!!



Nice job at (my best Larry The Cable Guy voice) 'gettin' er dunn'.



That mess of line puts my tangled mess earlier this past week to shame - lol! I got up this morning to prepare for my trip home from Ray Bob, and saw the lake was like glass. Very pretty, but I was thinking the fishing would suck today so a good time to go.

You did incredible well to get a couple fo good fish out in those conditions.

The only way to beat that story was if you had dove it to wrestle it onto Sandy Too!

Great story Its one you will never forget. I was thinking about make a rig like yours and will now weld everything in place once I
like the position of everything. You did all the testing . But what a way to test. Great Job

After what happened, I spun the pipe one more turn. I was thinking about drilling them and putting a pin through them. Welding would be a very good idea. The other thought I had was I need to set the reels in the rod holder instead of leaving them out front of it like I do. That would have saved the rod from going in the water.

Reminds me I have some prep work to do later today before the trip tomorrow. Hope y'all can join us on the live stream El Gato is going to put up.

I still need to re-rig some poles, one needs respooled. I need to replace the pole base for my stern light and take out the trash! Gotta make the place presentable when company is comin!

Add some red thread lock and you’ll be good to go Tim. I leave my reels in front of the holders as well and have never had an issue.

Do you have a link to the Livestream? I would love to poke fun/give you griefsupport you guys tomorrow.

I tried to copy the link but it’s not up yet. If you’ll subscribe to the channel it will send you a notification before the stream starts. This will be our first attempt at live streaming Bob so who knows if it will even work. Get you a YouTube account and start joining us on our adventures buddy! Don’t be intimidated if you don’t have a YouTube account Bob. It’s super easy and takes about 30 seconds to sign up for one. We’re going live at 7am with Azul and Catfish Tim as well as the twin Texas Tornadoes Action Jaxon and Wyatt the Riot. We might not catch a single fish but it’s gonna be fun trying!!
https://youtube.com/channel/UCg0aV-uOxzxKxeqFFfREzKg

^ Thanks Tim, and will get myself connected.

We will have the TXFF cat fishing brain trust in that boat. If you two don't catch there is hope for me! Hah!!! (no pressure)

I will try to get on for sure.

Good luck and tight lines!

Awesome post and some solid fish. Yes judging by the fish it was well worth the problems. Glad you got all your rod/reel back.

That's the best fishing story I've heard in a long time Awesome job getting it done!

Cool story and a nice reward!

Also cool you got your rod back