01-11-2024, 04:02 PM
Fished the berry on Monday, it was a decent day of fishing as far as the numbers but I’m still shocked at what I caught on ultra light tackle. We were fishing mostly the bottom in 35-40ft but we had started to grab a few suspended around 15ft. I had pulled my line out to stick some fresh meat on the lure and my buddy says there is one marking at about 10 ft! I dropped in and sure enough it gulped my lure up and I started to bring him in. When I saw him the full panic set in!! It was a whale of a fish! He proceeded to do some hot laps under the shanty and waded up all 4 lines and just about yanked a couple of the rods into the water. We both were so shocked we didn’t know what to do to get him out of the water. I figured let it run a little to wear it out and it ended up working. He tired out and I got him in the hole head up and was able to grab him by hand and lift him out. I hurried and got him unraveled and snapped some pics for evidence and got him back in the water. He was such a pork chop you could feel the water level drop when I pulled him out! I didn’t have a scale but I got a decent pick on a measuring board. Maybe chime in a comment on what you think his weight was. Needless to say I’m still stunned and so stoked on this fish! Hopefully he is down there hunting walleye for dinner to keep the berry what it should be. Caught him on a small white tube 1.75” tipped with a tiny piece of chub, 6lb flouro ice line, and an ultralight tickle stick through about 4 inches of ice. Took a lot of fishing yrs to get him but they are in there!