Potomac River catfish

[Lard Almighty]

I did a combo trip on the Potomac with my dad this week. The first day was spent hitting up the creeks for largemouths, but that was a complete bust! Five bass between us and the guide, and the biggest was maybe 2 pounds. Even the snakeheads weren't biting. The second day (or rather night) was spent soaking chunks of gizzard shad for big blue cats. We set up on the first spot, and about 30 minutes in one of the rods goes down. I start winding, and it feels like I'm tied into a pissed off refrigerator!

I know we throw words like "monster" and "beast" around on this forum a lot. But when this thing broke the water at the side of the boat, I can't even describe how massive it looked! It looked like a manatee, or a pre-teen child. It was, in every sense of the word, a beast. So we get the deluxe catfish into the net and bring it aboard. By the guide's scale, it goes a hair under 40 pounds, the biggest fish I had ever caught by far, and a great way to start the evening!

After that the action was pretty steady for about two hours, with five more cats coming into the boat, including a 36 pounder caught by my dad (also the biggest fish of his life). Unfortunately around 11:00 the bite inexplicably died, with barely a bite until we were off the water at 3:00 AM.

All things considered the trip was a bit of a disappointment, but catching those big cats was definitely worth the trip down. Photos are below, if anyone wants the contact info for the guides we fished with can send me a PM.