Y'all, I was in Alabama this week for work, still am. Flying home today. I took the day yesterday to go fishing with my guide friend Josh Brown with Backwoods Catfishing. We were on the Tennessee River, specifically Lake Guntersville. Started out promising when we hooked up before we even had all the rods out. 15 pound blue skunk buster. Then another 15 pound blue and another and another. It was like we kept catching the same fish... First 4 were the same. Number 5 was a little better, 25 or 26 pound blue. Still not what we were looking for. We moved, next fish... 15 pound blue. Time is running out. Almost time for us to call it a day. #6 goes down. I pick it up and it feels like a better fish. I told Josh when you are used to using braid and you get a fish on Mono, it feels like you are fighting a fish on a rubber band. Very hard for me to tell what I had. I fought the fish for about 10 minutes. At times all I could do was hold on. It was a steady hard pull. And then we saw it. Hooo Weee! Big Flathead! Josh gets it in the net. Trip made. For me this is a fish of a lifetime... 49" long and 63 pounds.

They have a tagging program for fish over 30 pounds. Josh put a tag on him and now the fish has a name, Timmy. If he is caught again, I will get a text from DNR telling me Timmy has been caught. Where, what he weighs and how long he is. Pretty cool program...

That's a beast Tim! Well done. Man I gotta go fish the Tennessee River...

Oh boy...

What a beautiful fish!! Look at the size of it's head and that color.

I can't imagine the battle and that big smile says it all.

Well done, Catfish Tim!



(now to catch one of those monsters on Lavon)

To add for those that don't know, Tim is a giant at 6 feet 6 inches, so it probably looks smaller than it actually is.



PS What bait/method were you using??

Geno, you need to man. It is a bucket list trip. If you wanna set up a trip let me know. I'm always willing to go back!

Caught on a Skipjack head. Pulling boards, #6 rod, outside planner board. Hellcat Rods, Penn Squall Reels.

I need to hire a skipjack guide. For some reason, I can't catch them on a consistent basis. I'm down to my last three bags in the freezer. The only reason I caught them last time was J.R. Hall was on the shore trying to catch enough for a guide trip the next day. He called me and asked to hop on my boat, then gave us our first lesson.

If I had known the Tennessee River was like this, I would have moved to Alabama sooner!

Right? The thought has crossed my mind! (don't tell my wife)
Josh said he caught bait below the Guntersville Dam yesterday. He had a cooler full to the top of big skippys...

Very nice!

Nice work sir! Great pictures! My old stomping grounds as a kid...
Safe travels.

Ken

Hell yah . That program sounds cool too get to watch the fish grow and move

Very nice

Solid! That's a fantastic trophy, congrats!

What a monster. What type of boat is that?

So there is a story about the boat... Follow me here.

My guide buddy Josh Brown of Backwoods Catfishing has a Sea Ark Pro Cat 240. Big boat. Named her the Catfish Cadillac. The day before I got there, he noticed two cracks on either side of the jack plate. The transom was having some serious structural issues. He was in contact with Sea Ark and they seemed to be trying to develop a strategy for getting it fixed. So Josh called his buddy to borrow a boat. He got JR Halls old Hewescraft. It is an 18 foot boat. It's dry weight is like 800 pounds. It is basically an aluminum bath tub. Roughest riding boat I've ever been in. BUT... It got us on the water and got me the fish of my life...(so far)