Big fish - Little Line - Great Fun!

Well, we had a good day out last Saturday.

Caught plenty of crappies, we brought home 14 of them, and put the rest back. It was real late when we got done, and I didn't want to clean any more than I had to. 14 was really too many at that point.

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My wife got a 14.25 inch one, and I got a 15 incher. They were real nice and fat.

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The next fish really took us by surprise. We were drifting once we were out of the main wind, in the channel, and trolling minnows, and this monster latched onto my wife's pole and about took it away. She fought it for a while, and thought she would break the line and handed the pole to me to land the fish. I fought it for a few more minutes, thinking it was a tree limb, then it fought back... finally.

We only had a small crappie net on the boat, and it didn't fit. Just the front 1/3rd of it. It was as hard to get into the boat as it was to land this nearly 16 pound fish on that 6 lb line. We finally manged to pull it into the boat and as it hit the floor, and I let the tension off the line, the line gave way at the hook.

Check it out!!

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Now that was fun..

Tim L

Those big drum will give you a good fight for sure! The last 5 pounder I landed on crappie tackle was hard enough, can't imagine the battle that big one gave you!

that is easily te biggest drum Ive ever seen .....very nice catch !

Yep, it is the largest one I have ever seen too. Looked it up though, and the record is 40 or 50 some pounds. Now that would be a fight.
We put it back once I removed the hook and took a few pics. Never tried eating one of them, and I didn't want to kill a fish that big if I am not sure it is good eating. Someone else can catch it some day and have some fun.

Tim L

very poor table fair...at least from what Ive heard....we have some mexicans up here who I know keep them but Im no so sure is just from lack of knowledge...pretty boney and greasy

Wow.

Great story and nice fish. What lake did you fish?

Nice crappie - big drum !

we fished chick, just letting the wind drift the boat - it was pretty windy that day. We didn't leave harrison bay. Just drifted the main bay, and along a channel on the way back to towards the ramp. We used live minnows for all the fish. I can't remember ever putting a jig on a line that day. I think the totals were 2 real nice channel cats, the drum, and the rest were all crappies, which is all I eat. I don't like catfish.. the wife does, but I won't clean them for her. lol

That beats my best drum by 5lbs! Biggest one I've ever seen too! As far as table fare, they are barely tolerable to me, and only in the Spring before they get all those parasites in their gills and such. Gotta cut away ALL of the red meat from them and toss it to the critters unless you like your fish real "fishy". Smoked, or chunked and deep fried is the best way I've had them. I call 'em heart breakers when I catch them!

<,"}//>{ Tim

Sounds like I made the right choice in letting that drum go back for someone else to catch some day. It sure was fun to catch though. Really gets you excited when you got something big and it takes such a long time to ever see what it is.

Tim L