04-17-2012, 09:00 AM
Martin Draxlbauer is a German Engineer in the United States working at Wacker Chem in Cleveland. He&#39;s a hardcore fishermen... his friends Peter and Irvin, not so much. But they wanted to come along for the ride and just watch. Martin has fished a lot of places, but he had never pursued Tennessee River catfish. We fixed that in a hurry.<br /><br />The first fish of the day was a beast... the biggest of the day. The 33-pounder hooked up on a light action spinning rod gave Martin an incredible fight. The German engineer obviously had fought big before because he knew exactly when to let him go, and when to &quot;put the heat on him!&quot; Still, I&#39;d say it took nearly 30 minutes before I got the grabbers on him. Needless to say, the folks from Germany were highly impressed with what the Tennessee River has to offer.<br /><br />Again, that was the biggest fish of the day... but Martin had the chance to go toe-to-toe with several other bragging-sized catfish. It was very unusual, and fun, having plain old &quot;spectators&quot; in the boat. They took home one big channel cat to have for dinner.<br /><br />It was great having the opportunity to host folks from around the world... and that means life is good and getting better everyday.<br />