“There was no way I thought anyone would beat the big fish from Day 1,” he said. I was excited to no end.”Īfter the first day’s weigh-in, Ken Freeman had told a reporter, “I wouldn’t be surprised if King’s record stood for 20 years or more.” “But when we finally had that big scoundrel in the boat, I knew there were going to be at least two catfish over 100 pounds weighed in at this tournament. “It was hard for me to believe it had really happened,” Dodd said. “And another 15 minutes passed before I got the fish close enough for Harold to net."ĭodd and Winchester are among the country’s premier big-river catfish anglers, and they had no doubt they had caught a fish equal to or larger than King’s 103-pounder. “It took half an hour for me just to turn its head and get it coming toward the boat,” he said. Winchester, who has caught Mississippi River cats up to 95 pounds, knew the fish was huge when he couldn’t budge it from the bottom. Then, suddenly, Winchester’s rod went down hard. For 20 minutes, they had been fishing a hole where Dodd caught an almost-50-pound blue cat a week earlier. also were fishing hard when dawn broke on Nov. Harold Dodd and Cary Winchester of Cape Girardeau, Mo. “We knew we had to fish hard and bring in some more respectable cats to maintain our lead.” “When you’re competing on the Mississippi River with anglers who are the best in the sport, anything is possible,” King said.
When Day 2 began, King and his teammates knew they needed to catch more good fish to maintain their lead. I always hoped I would see it, but I never thought I actually would.” “Never before has a century-mark catfish been weighed in a catfishing tournament. “We’ve just seen history being made,” said Ken Freeman, founder, owner and tournament director of Bass Pro Shop’s Big Cat Quest. Their five-fish limit pushed the Fairbanks scale to 163.5 pounds, nearly 46 pounds ahead of second place. 1 spot at the end of the first day of competition. Although other teams brought in some very respectable cats as well, King’s 103.11-pound blue was enough to put his team in the No. Three pounds more to be exact, a record weight for a catfish weighed in during a U.S. “After years of trying, I finally had caught a catfish weighing more than 100 pounds.” “When we had it in the boat, I was pretty certain my dream had come true,” King said. After a 30-minute battle, King brought the gigantic blue cat close enough for Haynie to net. His teammates, Tim Haynie and Leland Harris, pulled their anchor so they could follow the big catfish and give King a better chance of landing it. hooked a fish he knew was much bigger than anything he had previously felt on his line, and King has caught many big blues and flatheads. Two such fish were weighed in on this eventful day!Īround mid-morning, veteran catfish pro Phil King of Corinth, Miss. A catfish weighing over 100 pounds can be equated to a whitetail buck scoring over 225 BC inches. This results of this event will be talked about for many years to come in the circles of those that love to fish for catfish. Tournament headquarters was at Memphis and the event drew over 200 of the best catfishermen in the country. On November 3, the Bass Pro Shop’s Big Cat Quest Classic catfish tournament was held on the Mississippi River. Monster cats landed in recent tourney - printed from North Texas e-Newsīy Luke Clayton, with additional reporting by outdoor writer Keith Sutton
0 kommentar(er)
