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Old 06-29-2020, 05:23 PM
lupanfreitag lupanfreitag is offline
lupan
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Portland, TN
Posts: 471
Default 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.
Attached Images
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File Type: jpg PF.jpg (121.8 KB, 96 views)
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