09-16-2004, 02:04 AM
These were caught by an acquaintence of mine here in the Twin Cities area.
[inline Manny001.jpg]
[inline Manny002.JPG]
Here's the story in his own words:
[font "Verdana, Arial"][size 2]It finally happened. After nearly three months of flats in the 1-10 lb range, I finally got my biggie. Friday night (9-10-04) I succeeded in landing a 40.5" flathead while fishing on the Mississippi River. I just started chasing flats this year and my only goal was to catch as many smaller fish as I could, refining my skills for next season, but now the bar has been raised a bit higher. My girlfriend's 10 yr old son and I were fishing above a wall over a fence approximately 12 feet above the water's surface without a long-handled net. All we had were a couple of 15 foot stringers and the hoop of an old landing net rigged for pulling up smaller fish. It took some manuevering but we were able to get enough of the fish in the net to hoist it over the wall, measure it, photograph it, and release it. 40.5 inches in legnth and a girth of 27 inches, estimated to be in the 30-35 pound range. At this point I was extremely satisfied and ready to call it night, but I decided to try one more cast. Picking out the smallest sucker minnow I could find I thought I' d try for one of the smaller fish and let the lil' guy reel it in. Well, wouldn't you know, that's when the REALLY BIG 'N decided he needed a snack. It took fifteen minutes to even get a glimpse at it and once I had it wallowing at the water's surface we knew there was no way we were gonna succeed at pulling him up 12 feet over a fence, so we photographed it right there in the water just before the hook pulled loose. This fish was considerably bigger than the the first one I had caught and I wouldn't even dare guess just how big he was, I'm just glad to know they're both still swimming and I'll be looking for 'em next season!! [/size][/font]
[font "Verdana, Arial"][size 2]Hooked on flats 4 ever,[/size][/font]
[font "Verdana, Arial"][size 2]Manny[/size][/font]
[signature]
[inline Manny001.jpg]
[inline Manny002.JPG]
Here's the story in his own words:
[font "Verdana, Arial"][size 2]It finally happened. After nearly three months of flats in the 1-10 lb range, I finally got my biggie. Friday night (9-10-04) I succeeded in landing a 40.5" flathead while fishing on the Mississippi River. I just started chasing flats this year and my only goal was to catch as many smaller fish as I could, refining my skills for next season, but now the bar has been raised a bit higher. My girlfriend's 10 yr old son and I were fishing above a wall over a fence approximately 12 feet above the water's surface without a long-handled net. All we had were a couple of 15 foot stringers and the hoop of an old landing net rigged for pulling up smaller fish. It took some manuevering but we were able to get enough of the fish in the net to hoist it over the wall, measure it, photograph it, and release it. 40.5 inches in legnth and a girth of 27 inches, estimated to be in the 30-35 pound range. At this point I was extremely satisfied and ready to call it night, but I decided to try one more cast. Picking out the smallest sucker minnow I could find I thought I' d try for one of the smaller fish and let the lil' guy reel it in. Well, wouldn't you know, that's when the REALLY BIG 'N decided he needed a snack. It took fifteen minutes to even get a glimpse at it and once I had it wallowing at the water's surface we knew there was no way we were gonna succeed at pulling him up 12 feet over a fence, so we photographed it right there in the water just before the hook pulled loose. This fish was considerably bigger than the the first one I had caught and I wouldn't even dare guess just how big he was, I'm just glad to know they're both still swimming and I'll be looking for 'em next season!! [/size][/font]
[font "Verdana, Arial"][size 2]Hooked on flats 4 ever,[/size][/font]
[font "Verdana, Arial"][size 2]Manny[/size][/font]
[signature]
] and the days ya do go ya just end up sittin there shootin the bull...
]