Big fish and an even bigger smile! Our daughter needed to do some work for friends last week, so Layne asked if he could go along to fish off their dock. Turned into a memorable fishing trip when he caught this 35# flathead on a rod & reel...with 8# test line! Can you tell he is just a little excited?! Big thanks to Grace, too, for her work on netting the fish. Layne also caught a 9# channel cat and a couple between 2-4#. He used a throw net to catch his own bait and was using live bait for the flathead and cut bait for the channel cat.

Catch and release, or Catch and grease?

This one turned into several meals for our family and some for our friends who own the lake, too. When we set limb lines on this lake (once or twice/year) we normally release the ones under 20#.

So when one references a "pole", are we talking about a stick of cane with a given length of line affixed, or a rod and reel system?

Regardless, a good memory there.

He was using a rod & reel. We usually try to set limb lines on this lake once or twice/year and have caught a few bigger ones that way, but this is by far the biggest we have hooked and landed on rod & reel.

Congrats to the young man! Flatheads are the very best of the catfish in my opinion.

Man, that is a lot of fish. Congratulations to Layne & Grace. Must have been quite a fight...things do get tense at the moment that net dips...:)

Good deal especially when kids can make memories.

Back when I was in college a couple 12 year olds hit the mouth of Mary's River (Corvallis, Or) with their Zebco's and a some night crawlers. They landed about a 25lb Chinook and made the local papers with a pic. One can only imaging the panic and screaming that accompanied their first look at what was on the end.

great catch

that pic. makes me want to get the grease hot

Proud_Dad,

Tell Layne that another dedicated fisherman said, "GREAT CATCH" & "CONGRADS"..


yours, tex

Very Cool!!,that's a nice fish.

Thanks, guys. I shared your comments with Layne and that brought another smile...and a retelling of the story!

Can't begin to imagine the excitement of those two 12 year olds catching a salmon like that! Wouldn't that be fun to have on video?!

Proud_Dad; All,

I'm NOT sure of this, as it came from an email that was forwarded to me by another TP&WD volunteer, but allegedly a 17YO male caught an OVER 8-pound RAINBOW TROUT at Southside Lion's Club Park's lake last Friday, just before dusk on a live minnow.

TP&WD stocks the "urban" lakes around here in the late Fall & Winter with about 12" hatchery-raised Rainbow Trout in the belief that the trout won't survive our south TX Summers but SOME few do survive & grow to TROPHY sizes.
(Fwiw, I've never even seen an 8-pound Rainbow, much less ever caught one, even after 6 decades of fishing.- Fwiw, I was quite pleased with catching an about 3 pound Rainbow on a flyrod/streamer fly, some 15 years ago, on a VA military post's lake.)

Fwiw, I asked "Nathan" (by email) to see if there is a photo of the BIG trout & if there is a photo to post it to the WWW.
(I do KNOW that there are some BIG fish in those urban ponds, as I actually saw a sub-teen girl catch an over 10# channel cat out of one of the lakes & on a PINK Zebco rod/reel, using worms for bait.).

yours, tex

Congratulations to the young man for his fine catch, that IS a nice Flathead.

I chased Blues on the James river for years, and would only occasionally catch a Flathead. He is 10# ahead of my best Flathead. And, I used gear appropriate for the large Blues, so I can imagine the pucker factor of that fight. He couldn't just horse it in, so he had to finesse that one just right.

I bet the lad had himself an unforgettable moment there that day on the lake.nice catch.

Very nice fish. Congrats.