The head on that fish is almost as big as yours. It's a good thing that 4wt had some give, or that fish might be posting on a message board about the kid he caught!

Nice fish, by the way. What brand 4wt is it that you keep abusing with these monsters?

Congrats on the big one, now we want to know the rest of the story. Tell us time of day, weather conditions, what you were using for a leader/tippet and what fly you were using along with the presentation. Man, us old guys have to give you some lessons in story telling. You can't just say I caught a monster, you have to stretch it out and tell the whole story. Cool

Will do...








(later, too sleepy)

On a fly rod???????????????????????
I bow down to a champ.

Awesome job, young man.

Of course I have a story to go with it. I use to live in a campground. It's gone now. They built a IHOP there and drained the pond. The property had a small fairly shallow pond stock with bream and a few catfish and ducks. I used pork fly rod strips on a bare hook to catch the bream. They went nuts over that little frog print piece of pig skin.
There was on old catfish in that pond that lived under a laid down pine tree. Just drop a worm there an you could catch him most days. I named him (or her) Gotch Eye because he had been hooked in the eye one time and it was missing.
To get on with the story, I got bored one day and also inspired. i wanted to catch Ole Gotch Eye on the fly rod. Remember the ducks? I found a duck egg, and that egg plus stale bread made me a giant dough ball but it was to gooey so I added a bunch of dirt to make it a little dryer. Any way I put a big gob of it on a bare hook and just dropped it from the fly pole down into Gotch Eye's lair. He took the bait and the fight was on. I only had a 3# leader (actually it was a tapered tipit) and could not use any force. I just kept up a steady pressure till the old boy gave up and let me bring him to shore and take the hook out. The was the ugliest dang catfish I ever did see.

nice catch pondbass! I caught a 10lb channel catfish one time on a size 12 no-name yellow dry fly that I was using to catch sunfish with for bait. I still remember that big dark shape rising up from the depths and sipping that fly as delicately as any trout. That was on a 4lb tippet and a 5 weight rod. It was a heck of a fight, and your fish is more than twice the beast mine was. Congrats! Now your only problem is beating your own record

ok caught on sunday, overcast weather, my 4wt gander mtn plateau fly rod (59 bucks at gander mountain, great rod, sooooooo easy to cast, roll casts like a dream and even better, double hauls perfectly) went out and fed them like usual and saw a couple normal sized ones (for our pond, 12-20lbs) and a couple bigger. I was trying for bluegill when I hooked up near the dam. fought her for 30 minutes, she made 3 looooong runs (my konic handled perfectly, also thanks to lamson for a great reel) and ran me into the backing all 3 times, but I still didnt have to ger her on the reel. conner showed up(btw con, GREAT net handling skills ) and spent ten minutes getting her into the landing net. She scared me, since I only had on a 5x tippet (ok trout haters, 5.4lb test...)

the fly was a wad of cinnamon dubbing on a sz 10 scud hook, looked like a nymph or maybe a caddis larva

SaaaaaWEEEEET, you fly fishing monster!

Well if this fishing thing doesn't work out for you, I think you've got a great future in NASCAR. You've got the sponsor references and the team attaboys all worked out. Your driving nickname will be "Ol' Catfish".

Great stories fellas. Pondbass, I have three of those Gander Mtn rods. A Plateau 5wt was my first rod, I have a 6 wt that has never been wet yet and a 10', 7 wt. (I have 10 fly fishing outfits, couldn't help myself there for while, I was an equipment junkie). I also own two Lamson reels and one of them is my go to reel. Love the drag systems.

Glad that things are working out for you. Keep the good stories coming, they make me smile.

I think i'm gonna try to capture a whole trip today, kind of like a day on the water entry

that sounds great!

I just tied a SZ 2 WOOLLY BUGGER

now i'll get you 14lber

damn nice man