Paddles and Blues
 

It's been a long time since I posted but I have a whopper of a tale.

Last weekend I was fishing and trying to catch skipjack, waiting for a friend to arrive at the ramp. After casting for 30 mins, I decided to troll a Catfish Sumo Skipjack silver spoon with 8 lbs braid on a 6ft rod. I probably trolled for about 100 yards and I snagged it which was strange since it is small and only had a 1/4oz sinker carolina rigged above it. I backed the boat up and started bouncing the rod to free it. I then decided to pull and break the line.... suddnely I thought it moved. I lightly lifted the rod and felt a pulse. 'Was it the current?' I lifted a little harder and then it started pulse, slowly, throbbing... upstream.

As the drag started to sing slow and steady, I started the motor. The chase began. Up the river 200 yards, down the river, perpedicular to the bank, parallel to the bank, up and down, back and forth for 60 minutes. Fishermen on the bank were mesmerized by this freak with a rod U'ed over, motor running and mumbling- What the hell is this?!?!?

For over an hour, the fish never surfaced. Suddenly I saw bubbles and a pale shape writhing below the surface briefly before it plunged back down and pulled me back down river. The tug of war (more drag of defeat) lasted another 20 minutes as we zigzagged down river for at least 1/8 of a mile. Finally she showed herself It was a huge paddle fish. I snagged it right in the center of the back. It dove again.

I tightened the drag and decided to try to get it up and grab its tail. After another 15mins, it came up and slowly swiped its tail against the current, as exhausted as I was. I was mumbling "Please, please, please." Reached for the tail and down again she went but she came back up quick. Just as I reached for the tail again, my boat hit #2 bouy, the boat swung hard and I grabbed the tail, then the bill. It thrashed a few times and I lifted her in the boat, right on top of myself.

The spoon had both hooks right in the center of the back. I dont know how the 8lbs braid held that fish in the current but I asked my buddy, who had been watching from the ramp to take some photos and she happily swam back to the depths to terrorize another unsuspecting fisherman.... No doubt the longest fresh water fish I have every caught. My first paddlefish and she was gorgeous. I'd have married her if the law would have allowed it.... but I digress.

After that My buddy and I fished till 1:30AM. We caught blues, channels, flatheads, stripers and even a sturgeon. It was such a blast. I was crippled the next day but would do it a thousand times more if I could.

Hopefully my tombstone shall read- He died as he lived, hugging a paddlefish on the Cumberland River...

Be well good fishermen.

I hear about people mounting their fish. I think it would be best to be married before mounting.

Nice catch and a great story. Thanks.

Nice Fish
 

Wow great story.

That's a big Spoon, my brother in-law showed me how to clean
them 25 years back and how they pull the spine straight out.

https://youtu.be/B8t2CBsW_9I

What a great story..

Mmmmm <'TK><
 

AS PER TWRA .... http://www.eregulations.com/tennessee/fishing/

Paddlefish: Paddlefish may be harvested from April 24 through May 31. Daily creel limit is 2 fish per
day with no size limit. Culling is prohibited. For exceptions on Center Hill, Cherokee, and Watts Bar
reservoirs, see pages 24 and 26.

This is really a catch 22... Paddlefish are plankton eaters and are caught in a net. I commercial fished for them back in the 70's and early 80's before all of the regulations took place. And really for a good reason. Hundreds of out of state netters were coming in here at night and stringing hundreds of nets and caught tons of these fish just for their eggs. There was a Russian embargo on Caviar so being that the paddle fish is of the sturgeon family we were getting $24 per pound. It took TWRA a while to catch on but they eventually put a limit on them.

Now in your case a accidental snag? So actually you weren't fishing for paddlefish. Also culling is prohibited? Paddlefish are like Stripers they spend a lot of energy on trying to escape and lactic acid sets in, this is the reason for that rule.

Thanks for the education...

Accident
 

It was not on purpose
He swam off after extensive support
I knew the season
Hope she beat the odds