Wow, it has been a heck of a day on the water. I had Mike Jatzlau of Giddings, TX, his seven year old grandsson Holden Jatzlau, and his friend Coach Miller for a morning on Lake somerville.
Sometimes no wind and at the end a light north wind. The day started like normal, with 15 fish caught at the first stop, in 2-4 foot water. Then the wind stopped completely and so did the bite.
So, we moved out to a little deeper water, about 10 feet deep. I lowered a bait to the bottom to show Holden how high to hold the bait off the bottom. Before I could finish explaining to Holden, a fish in a split second grabbed the CJ's Punch bait, snapped the rod in half and broke the leader and was gone...before I could even react, and I react pretty fast. We all were in awe at what had just happened and so quickly.
got them all baited up, put out a little chum, and in a few minutes evereyone had had a nibble but no fish caught. Then Holden says I think I got one. By the time we all looked his line was stretched out 15-20 foot from the boat and line zipping off the reel. I grabbed hold of the rod to help him hold it up as he tried to gain some line back. The fish began to circle the boat and take more line. I was thinking of letting go of the rod to get the anchor ropes out of the way and so we could follow the fish before we ran out of line, when with me pumping and Holden reeling, we began to gain some line. I told them that I felt this was a 50# fish and we did not have a dip net that would handle the fish. Grandpa Mike said he would lip the fish if we could get it to the boat. He tried to lip the fish twice and each time the fish would splash and take some more line. The third time Mike got the fish and over into the boat he came.
Now remember, this fish is on a VMC #6 treble hook, baited with CJ's Shad punch bait, 25# Leader, 40# main line, $6.99 Tournament Choice spinning rod, and $16.00 Shimano AX4000 reel.
I am sorry to say that my scales certification had expired last week and we could not certify the fish and release it onboard. Called Overlook marina and they said they could not weigh a fish that big. I put my scales on it and it showed 56.25#...
I told Grandpa that if he wanted the Youth record we would have to take the fish to Somerville Feed Store and he said he would like to do that. We loaded the boat, wrapped the fish in wet towels and went to town. The fish weighed 56# on their scales, which break at 1/2#, and he could not add the 1/2# so it will officially be 56#even. Paperwork is in the mail to get certified for the Somerville Youth Record.
I am sorry to say after 40 minutes of trying to revive the fish we were unable to do so, and had to clean it for a fish fry. If the weather had not been so hot, or if I had gotten my scales re-certified last week, we could have saved the fish. The picture with the fish hanging from the pier was taken after we decided it was not going to revive.
They ended the day cleaning 26 box fish to go with the big one. All fish caught on
CJ's shad punch bait, 2-10 foot water, using tight lines.
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