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Reflections: The Big, BIG Catfish That Got Away
Enjoy our “Reflections” post — one of many vignettes and stories featuring memories of days gone by. This installment is from Eugene Spearman of Saltillo, Mississippi as seen in “The Oxford So & So.” Volume 11
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Photo courtesy: Wikimedia Commons
In early June, I always took some catalpa worms and fished for catfish in the Skuna River. I found that the small channel catfish would bite my pole hooks while baited with catalpa worms, but not the big mud cats or yellow cats. But since the channel cats usually weighed about two or three pounds each, I was always glad to catch several of them.
On one of these trips, I placed one of my pole hook sets in the largest hole in the river south of our house. After I had set the rest of my hooks out, I came back to check on the one I had set in the large hole. The pole was pulled down in the water and I could tell by its action that I had a large fish on the line and not just a small channel catfish. I didn’t know how well he was hooked, so I waded out over the pole and gently raised the pole until I could see the fish.
What I saw was a small two-pound catfish that was being swallowed by a big BIG yellow catfish. I immediately saw that the big fish was not hooked so I gently eased him back into the water and retreated to the bank to give the big catfish time to get hooked.
After about 15 anxious minutes, I decided to again wade out over the pole, and by removing the pole from the bank try to lead the big fish into the bank and try to pin him under me and somehow get him up on the bank. Well, I got him under my legs, he got loose from the hooked channel cat and all but took me for a ride in the Skuna River.
That catfish gets BIGGER every time I tell this story!
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