How big was that fish????

Chris, a good friend of mine ( Oh yeah, he's also Pam's boss and the lead minister at The Troy Christian Church) and another member of the church (Brandon) came up the other night and decided they wanted to pit their skills against some of the big catfish in our pond. Their goal was to have enough to have a fish fry for their two families. I thought to myself, what a great thing for a fisher of men to be doing on a fine summer evening.

The pond has a good number of catfish in it so I wasn't worried about how many they would take, and I was glad to have them thin the ranks of the cats, especially at their spawning time.

When they arrived, I wasn't there to offer any advice, figuring that since Pam usually outfishes me in that particular area anyway, she could offer all the advice they needed. Instead, I was playing golf, subbing for my neighbor in his golf league. As well as I played, I probably could have done better fishing.

Anyway, when I got there, I saw Chris sitting on the far side of the pond, pole at the ready, but no action. I figured he must have just reloaded after pulling in a whopper and was settling in for the impending battle. Wrong-o!! Up to this point, the outcome I was seeing was the outcome he had encountered all night. Brandon, on the other hand, looked like this wasn't his first rodeo. He had one of those heavy, stout, river catfish-fishing poles, and what looked like about 15# test line with a serious-looking fishing hook that looked like something out of the Inquisition. He was ready for some serious fishing.

His stringer showed this to be the case as he already had three or four pretty good sized ones headed for the deep-fryer. One of the fish was 27" long, and pulled the scale at just under 8#. At that point, the two of them were now really into it. In fact, Chris had broken his line at least twice trying to set a hook on a strike, or get one in that he had hooked. He said he had 10# test on his pole, but the line was pretty old, so it was bound to keep breaking. Pam gave him her pole and he quickly got back into the hunt. Each of them pulled in a couple more big ones, and then the realization that it was getting dark and they still had to clean this rather impressive 7-fish bounty was overtaking them and they figured they had had enough. We decided to try to get a final figure on the catch and ended up with the total catch weighing in at just over 40# on the stringer. This was a pretty good night for them, and I'm sure the remaining fish in the pond appreciated the removal of that much competition for their food.

Chris told me they got them all cleaned by a little after midnight. Since his wife and kids were out of town, they decided to clean them at his house. He says the smell is pretty well gone now!I've been told these pictures were sent to some of Chris's fellow fishermen in the congregation.

Bragging may not bring happiness, but no man having caught a large fish goes home through an alley. (Author Unknown)

Hooah