Let's see if I can build a story...

I went out catfishin' on the Ray Hubbard bank saturday night using a standard treble hook and Walmart dough stink bait. About 2:00 AM I started getting very peculiar bites on my line that just didn't seem like a catfish. Instead of the typical well-felt hit-and-run bite, there was a soft bump and then a slow dip of my rod tip. Mind you, I'm using 50 lb braid on my reel and I'm not feeling ANYTHING on the line after the soft bump... yet my rod tip is steadily dipping!

After brushing it off as my imagination, water current, or my heavy 1 oz weight slipping of the rocks, I decided to try to rip the lips off of whatever it was messing with my bait. To my surprise, it WAS a fish, and it was a STRONG fish. It put up a great fight, did some aerobatics, and did not want to come close to the bank. There were times I thought it might have been a big cat, but the way it fought just did not fit the bill. Sure enough, when I finally got him up to the bank, it wasn't a catfish... but it was my first ever buffalo; and not a bad sized one at that.

I had no scale or tape measure, but I'd really like to know an estimation at his weight. He felt 10+ and under 20, but I'm really not sure. It's hard to tell, but the pic where he's on the ground, there's a soda bottle under his forward fin. It was up there for size comparison, but he flopped just before the picture captured.

He swam off to live another day, but apparently he had a suicide wish because I caught the exact same fish nearly an hour later! Same bloody tail markings and I could even still see where I had hooked him from the first time. I decided I didn't want to be catching the same buffalo for the remainder of the night, so I packed it up and went home. Regardless, it was a great experience for a first-time buffalo catch!

Nice catch! Ive never pulled in one of these,but i bet it would be a blast!

Nice pig...

that's a very nice carp. congrats on the catch

Nice carp.

Nice job!

Buffalo caught from clean water is some of the best tasting fish to be had. I don't know anything about Ray Hubbard, so depending on your assessment of water quality in Ray Hubbard; you could have had a great meal.

After scaling and gutting them, slice between the large ribs and then pull the rib off the backbone to avoid cutting the many small bones at the top of the rib and rendering the bones even smaller.

Buffalo ribs, when fried, rival crappie any day.

Very nice fish, congrats!

Beezy, Ran_d. just FWI, it's actually not a carp. It's a smallmouth buffalo, which is a fish that is unrelated to carp, and is in fact, a native Texas species. Pretty cool!