My VAC Account () - Member Stories
(Revised 1/2014)

BEST DAY OF FISHING EVER
By Lee Rothgeb

Before I get into this, bear in mind I am no Shakespeare or Mark Twain. I wanted to share this with the club so hopefully it is not too boring. My fishing “career” this year took a sudden turn for the worse when I had to have surgery on one of my feet. The incision was large and went in deep and was going to take some time to heal. Imagine my dismay when the doc told me that I could not get into any body of water for a minimum of probably a month to two. This was the middle of the summer when this happened. Due to some complications with the wound not healing properly it did not fully close and completely heal for almost 4 months. My summer of wading the James for catfish was over. I could not even chance getting in a jon boat for fear water would get into my shoes and cause an infection. I was done. Imagine my glee and surprise when I received the unexpected gift of a fishing trip with some friends two weeks before Christmas. Santa had come early for me! With my foot back to normal I was ready to go.

My day started out on Sunday December 15. I was fearful that the rain we had gotten the night before was going to ruin the fishing. In addition, my friends were late meeting me as one had overslept so this further added to the anxiety. We dropped the boats in at Jordan Point, one of my favorite catfish spots and headed out for bait. Catching the gizzard shad only took about 30 minutes and I was getting antsy as I wanted to get the poles in the water. We found a good spot downriver and that’s when the fun began.

We dropped 10 rods off the back of the boat and almost immediately we got a hit. I only needed one more Citation sized Blue catfish to earn my DGIF Expert Angler rating for that species (10 citations are required for the rating). I took the first pull down. In the boat came a 30 pound Blue. I had my rating which I had been chasing for several years now. The Cheshire cat couldn’t have made a bigger grin than what I had at that moment. Then the rods started doing a dance. One fish, two fish, three fish…..and more. Of the next five fish caught in that spot 3 registered as Citation size…..one by weight and two by length. But it was short lived….we had to pull out because the starter on the other boat would not turn over so we had to go to the rescue.

After getting the other boat going we headed back to another spot. The first toss over the back of the boat did not even hit the river bottom before a 42 pound Blue hit and was hooked. We fished that spot a little longer then headed on to another hole.

This new hole we sat up on was an instant hit so to speak. We could not even get more than one pole in before it was getting hit….the other poles just sat silent for a while. These fish were vicious, hitting the bait as soon as it went in the water. I had the joy of fighting a 53 pound Blue that wrapped the line on a channel marker. I did not think I would get him in but I did. It took every ounce of finesse I could muster to get him out of that marker but out he came. As soon as he was boated and we were weighing him, another pole went down. Then another. Then another. We caught a number of fish off this spot…most in the 20 pound range but you wouldn’t have known it while they were under the water. By now my arms and back were burning and yet more pain and joy was to come.

We took a lunch break and then headed over to another spot. We sat here for about 20 minutes before the first pole took a dive. I got on it and the fight was on. Ten minutes and one severe back ache later I had a 61 pound Blue in the boat. This would be one of two 61 pounders I caught that day. The day went on into the late afternoon with more huge Blue cats getting in the boat. At the end of the day I had caught 12 Citation sized Blue catfish. I laughed at myself as I had been chasing the Expert Angler rating for about 4 years now and had essentially “doubled” it in one day. This was without a doubt the best day of cat fishing I have ever had on any river.