01-29-2011, 09:45 AM
Hey, All. I'm ready to bust. The February issue of GON arrived and I made it. I've bit my lip until this issue made it official. I've established the Lake Alatoona blue catfish record. Yah Hoo!!Story is as follows:
Well, my story is not all that exciting except for the record part. The date was July 9th, a Friday. We do this thing at Lockheed called a 9/80 schedule where we work 80 hours in 9 days and so we (theoretically) have every other Friday off. I was out a little after midnight on that off Friday morning. I caught a half dozen bream right off the launch for bait. I was up the Little River arm using shrimp and cut bait. Since I wasn't in Tennessee or on the Coosa, I was using my small rods with only 10 lb test. I don't even break out my "broom handles" for the 'Toona usually. Anyway, around 3:30 AM I landed this big guy. Now two things I have an advantage on. I knew that no lake record existed for blues or channels on 'toona and I can actually tell a blue from a channel. So the bottom line, I knew I had a record in my live well. I figured that was good enough for me and at 4:00AM I decided I was going home and start the recording process. I had four rods out and I had only brought in one rod when a second rod went down. Guys, I caught his brother! I layed them side by side and kept the slightly larger one.
Now, I'm sticking to this part of the story. It was dark and my weight judgment was a tad off so after waiting for the DNR to open (8:00AM I think) and getting directions I headed up to the Calhoun station. It was there that disappointment set in. The official weight was only 18 plus pounds. The ranger was really nice and made it all official with the documentation and pictures and I headed back home.
Now I had to call GON. I finally got the guy who handles all the records and in conversation with him I was told that normally they have a 20 lb. record threshold. I thanked him and was ready to hang up when he said "now hold on a minute, I've got to make a decision here". He thought a while, just to make me sweat, I think, and finally said "you know what, it's got to start somewhere, you're in".
Well, that's the story. I know at only 18 lbs. this was no monster and once this challenge is out this record can't last, but I plan on buying out all the local issues of GON and I will always have proof that I established it.
'Course, if someone had already bested it, well I think I might’ve been a tad disappointed.
The challenge is out there. We know this guys BIG brother is in Alatoona
[signature]
Well, my story is not all that exciting except for the record part. The date was July 9th, a Friday. We do this thing at Lockheed called a 9/80 schedule where we work 80 hours in 9 days and so we (theoretically) have every other Friday off. I was out a little after midnight on that off Friday morning. I caught a half dozen bream right off the launch for bait. I was up the Little River arm using shrimp and cut bait. Since I wasn't in Tennessee or on the Coosa, I was using my small rods with only 10 lb test. I don't even break out my "broom handles" for the 'Toona usually. Anyway, around 3:30 AM I landed this big guy. Now two things I have an advantage on. I knew that no lake record existed for blues or channels on 'toona and I can actually tell a blue from a channel. So the bottom line, I knew I had a record in my live well. I figured that was good enough for me and at 4:00AM I decided I was going home and start the recording process. I had four rods out and I had only brought in one rod when a second rod went down. Guys, I caught his brother! I layed them side by side and kept the slightly larger one.
Now, I'm sticking to this part of the story. It was dark and my weight judgment was a tad off so after waiting for the DNR to open (8:00AM I think) and getting directions I headed up to the Calhoun station. It was there that disappointment set in. The official weight was only 18 plus pounds. The ranger was really nice and made it all official with the documentation and pictures and I headed back home.
Now I had to call GON. I finally got the guy who handles all the records and in conversation with him I was told that normally they have a 20 lb. record threshold. I thanked him and was ready to hang up when he said "now hold on a minute, I've got to make a decision here". He thought a while, just to make me sweat, I think, and finally said "you know what, it's got to start somewhere, you're in".
Well, that's the story. I know at only 18 lbs. this was no monster and once this challenge is out this record can't last, but I plan on buying out all the local issues of GON and I will always have proof that I established it.
'Course, if someone had already bested it, well I think I might’ve been a tad disappointed.
The challenge is out there. We know this guys BIG brother is in Alatoona
[signature]