$$$$ Money Fish $$$$

that's from uh joni tepteller someone in her family burned that for me they brought that to me on the riverbank one day this showed up at a big fish outfitters from uh thomas jerose from pennsylvania uh i'm filming this in the kitchen because i got a banquet chicken pot pie in the oven and i got to keep an eye on it but uh first of all i want to thank all the fans supporters uh had another guy uh old cousin delbert he sent me boxes of stuff hello cousin delbert i appreciate it there sir i even had one woman from california ask me if i had a patreon button wanted to send me money i've never done the patreon thing i've never done the shirts and hats and that sort of thing and there's a lot of stuff i haven't done but either way uh with the support of uh many people i have done fairly well just off youtube by itself so i want to thank all the fans and supporters even the haters those views counts too when i first got started uh i had some bigger people shout me out on youtube and that helped me out some uh people like hook line and chill i think they were one of the biggest channels that would put my name out there and several others along the way so i'm going to do a shout out today one of the coolest guys in the catfish in youtube world uh there's a lot of animosity between different youtubers and stuff going on but this guy gets along with everybody and uh he's always been a fan of mine so i'm gonna shout his channel out today y'all look him up his name is hagan grubbs his channel name is hagan grubbs fishing he lives up in kentucky and fishes the ohio river a lot but he's got a lot of interesting stuff people that like to learn about catfishing he's more of an instructional type guy that can teach you a lot so uh y'all check out hagan grubs he's probably uh one of the nicest guys out there as far as the catfishing world i'm going to go ahead and check on my chicken pot pie and i hope you all enjoy the video i'm catfish dave i live in kodak tennessee i have worked my butt off to become a catfish celebrity i always liked to fish i can't say i was that good at it it was just something that i liked doing it was kind of my piece away from everything and the fish that i liked fishing for the most because it was relaxing and it was more like a getaway than a job was catfish you could pull up somewhere on the bank throw you some lines out there and just chill out lots of times you'd have good days and you'd have bed but it was those good days it was hooking on to a decent fish that always brought you back for more i always liked fishing but i also like playing guitars i was a normal guy i would work i would date sometimes i'd have girlfriends sometimes i wouldn't i'd kind of take stages on that sometimes i just wanted to be on the water a year two years without seeing anybody i had split up with this girl that i was with for about seven years and it was at this time that i really started to fish and fish hard part of it was to get over the breakup and the other part of it was because i'd always wanted to catch a really big catfish and i said you know what there's no better time in my life to do this than right now so that's what i done i started fishing started fishing every weekend after a while social media came along things like facebook you start becoming in contact with other people on social media that like what you like before you know it along came social media things like smartphones uh laptops facebook i became part of facebook and uh you start meeting other people that like catfishing uh after a while these catfishing groups start forming people of like interest start forming and i eventually became part of what they call the catfish community basically everybody knows everybody now all tied in by social media once you become a part of social media and other fishermen that's where things start to happen that's where it turns into a competition these guys start posting their fish pictures on facebook you know of course the guy catching the biggest fish or the most fish he automatically becomes this social media catfish hero you know well i done my part i'd catch my fish i would upload my fish and uh the more i fished the better i got at it the more i learned about my local waters i went from catching two to five pound fish to getting regular 30 to 40 pound fish i was getting the attention of all the local fishermen and i guess the main thing that was getting the attention is i was doing this off the bank most guys were in boats as time grew on october of 2015 i caught the fish that i had been fishing for concord tennessee off a backwater set appears off a prime section of the fort loudoun reservoir i landed a 53 by 40 which comes out to 106 pound blue catfish that right there started giving me national social media attention one day i get a message from a local youtuber billy clay beau who at the time was panfish bill on youtube now he's called fishing with billy he gives me a call and says hey can i come do a youtube video of you i'm like yeah you know why not so he comes out and he films a video called big flatheads with catfish dave we finished that fishing trip we went to waffle house as we're sitting there eating he says yeah i just got my first check from youtube today and i said check tell me more and uh so he went on to explain youtube and how it worked never had a clue but when i started checking out youtube and some of the youtube fishermen i said i can do that you know i said that would be great to actually make some money doing something i like it was a bit of a challenge you had to accumulate a certain amount of subscribers before you were eligible to make any money but i knew i could put out the fish for the video so i grabbed my electric guitar a nice us-made fender telecaster a 57 tweed deluxe fender amp and i sold those items to buy youtube gear lights batteries cameras uh computer for editing and i started i done what i did you know i think it took me about a year to build up to a thousand subscribers and at that point i was eligible to start making money that gave me even more incentive i started taking things even more serious at this point so i went down religiously every chance i could and i would set up off the bank and i would make a video after a while i started getting a following i think after two years i had accumulated about 10 000 subscribers and i was now making enough money on youtube to actually pay for my fishing trips what in a profit because you would make more in the spring than you would in the winter but it balanced out to where i was just about breaking even to pay for my passion of chasing these fish third year came along and things really started to take off i had now tripled the amount of subscribers i had i had now tripled the amount of money i was making i was going in late for work you know boss man's threatening me on a daily basis because i would be either out fishing or i would be up late editing and i was showing up late for work every day finally came the time when i looked down at what i was making and i realized i was making more money fishing part-time on the weekends than i was working 40 hours a week at my job a little more time went by and i looked at what i was making and now i'm making double on youtube what i am at my job and the boss man says something to me walking in 30 minutes late 40 minutes late sometimes an hour late and i'm like look man he's like he's like this is your job this is your priority and i'm like well uh actually i'm making double doing this what would you do you know with the popularity with the fame you get a big following you get a lot of people that like you you also get a lot of people that dislike you a lot of them are trying to do the same thing you are and they're jealous because they have not went anywhere with it they're watching you living life large and they're just sitting in the background stuck can't get anywhere so you develop these enemies you develop these trolls these haters people that are always trying to cause conflict people that are always trying to leave you negative comments hoping to disrupt your game in some way or any way they can you get people you thought you were friends with in the beginning and then you rise past them and you see their attitudes change and here's another bitter youtuber out there you know talking behind your back doing this doing that so after a while people you were initially part of a team with when you get ahead of them all of a sudden no longer like you now you're alone now it's just you i'm not complaining because i didn't need those people anyhow a lot of my competition in this game they fish all week long they get to fish four or five trips they get to show the best fishing trip out of that four or five trips they live right on the water a lot of them don't work or they can make the hours that they want i would be at work and watching them post fish on facebook instagram while i'm stuck at work and then my only shot would be when the weekend came water's full of boats sometimes you'd get rained out but i had basically two days to do what i had to do so i had to show all my trips i couldn't hide this trip and that trip it was now a money thing i was investing a lot of gas to ride 60 miles down river to do this i had to have content for that week so i was under much more pressure to catch a decent fish in a shorter amount of time than what most everybody else was people say stuff like dave you know uh you're taking this too serious or you're letting this get to you uh you should just leave the camera at the house and just go fishing and enjoy it well why do i go to my job for money if i will get up morning after morning and go somewhere i don't like for a paycheck do you think for a second i'm gonna quit doing something i do like that makes twice as much money no but i do have that stress of keeping what i have what i have worked for up to this point and keeping that going into the future i've got it good now i've got it made now a man would be stupid to try to lose that or to give that up the fact of the distance i have to travel and the fact of the limited amount of time that i have to do this does put the pressure on me every friday evening when i get out of work and i get that two-day shot i'm looking for that good fish that better than average fish that big fish that fish that makes people say wow i'm looking for that money fish people want to turn this into a competition and they want to judge you by all these other youtubers you have to put out quality fish a lot of people watch these videos because they think it's going to make them a better fisherman so they're not going to watch somebody that's either catching no fish or catching dink fish all the time every time i fuel this truck up and i had the hour-long journey sometimes two hour long journey down to the tennessee river system i'm looking for that money fish all right people catfish dave here it's the day after thanksgiving and i would love to spend today on the water but i'm kind of in a hurry to get back to sevier county because i ordered a new guitar amp it's a little small hand-wired fender champ like they made back in the 50s and i have to be there to sign for that amp so uh i've got to make some quick work of bait this morning for this weekend and uh i'm gonna start out trolling up into a creek with the spoon the initial troll will be a high speed troll with the boat motor skip jack or a fast fish now i've never caught anything but skipjack trolling at that highest speed you can catch white bass and other fish trolling at slower speeds but typically all you will get at a high speed is the skipjack so i'm going to crank up my little yamaha 50 put it on the lowest speed and uh we're going to head up into this creek and start getting on some skipjet probably won't see no action until i get up into this creek now if this was a different time of year i'd get them right out here summertime i definitely get them right out here we've covered about 500 yards no sign of a skip jack yet that should change as i get farther back in this creek there was the first bite so we're starting to get close to him first hit of the day you getting them trolling yeah i i didn't get the first hit go right about here wrong kind of fish but i'll take it i ain't seen with this water temperature dropping they might prefer it more [Applause] hmm [Applause] last time all right people i've got enough to fish i've got to go i've got to get back to severe county and get that amp signature when you spend a thousand dollars at sweetwater they always send you a pack of candy what we have here is an actual recreation of a 1957 fender champ with the el nico speaker this amp is truly point to point hand wired like the old days with no circuit board it is all offenders original glory in a small package [Music] [Applause] [Music] all right people we're back down here temperature's gonna drop down real cold tonight and my plan is to go about four miles upriver here set up outside this creek there's a hole right in front of it uh i'm gonna be getting some current flow and best bite according to uh the gates are gonna be between about six and eight that's gonna be my best flow now what's gonna happen is they're gonna shut down melton hill at eight but they're gonna keep running norris so even though i'm probably gonna lose actual current to keep my boat straight i'm still going to be experiencing some benefit because norris is now going to be just filling this place up which means even if i lose current i'm going to be getting some water rise which is better than water drop so if i feel like fishing past eight o'clock uh i will be getting the benefit of the rise so at that point i may even move up into the creek in just a spin bait since i'm not going to have current anyway anyhow let's head on up river here uh it's good run up here so let's go ahead and get up this way let this little bit of current get my boat straightened out i'm gonna throw two head pieces on my sani cooper rigs which are just leaders with floats and then i'm gonna suspend one body piece straight down below the boat we are fishing somewhere i've never been when i was making bank videos i was always going somewhere different eventually i ran out of spots having this boat it's a brand new game i'm going somewhere different all the time learning the waters all over again had some good times had some bed it's just now dark so we're setting up at the perfect time the biggest problem milton hill will give you is you could come here and get nothing second scenarios you could come and get nothing but channel cats if the big fish are willing to bite it has a decent flathead population the blues are slim but there are some good blues in here so where i'm set up i could get the big blue or the big flat head took about 15 minutes to get up to this spot it'll be pitch black when i go back so i'll be going pretty much at idle speed a lot of big stuff floats in the rivers out here i've got just enough current flow to keep my boat nice and straight this is the perfect scenario right here the only thing i don't like is it is a full moon and that mo and that moon is pretty high in the sky right now for a successful youtube channel you've got to fish all of it you got to put out a video every week for a guy like me that lives a long way from the river i've pretty much got to show all my trips to make them count because i travel such a distance to get to these places so you pretty much see everything i do in my videos as far as time on the water a lot of guys have the option to fish all week and just show you the best day i don't get that option you're in the real world of catfishing when you're watching my videos that's not always good sometimes it can be great either way i've got fresh bait this skip jack i caught it four hours ago six hours ago something like that got my new guitar amp in all i got to do now is concentrate on the fish and hope i don't get rained out this weekend it is cloudy in the sky now and there is a chance for rain this weekend so hopefully i do okay with the weather november 27th i brought plenty of extra clothes the temperature is going to drop hard into the 40s tonight hopefully the wind lays low you get any breeze in 40 degrees and you're having a night of woe it's like oh no as that temperature starts dropping and the reservoir isn't at freezing temperatures yet it creates this heavy fog and then your boat and everything in the boat gets soaked so not only is it 40 degrees but everything you sit on everything you touch is wet in 40 degrees makes for a miserable night i'm just hoping i get a bite and i don't have to stay out here all night because it is going to be cold i like this time of year looks like i'm the only boat out here there we go there we go there we go there we go that's gonna be one of them old milton hill channel cat that's what it is one of them pesky old milton hill channel kit i called it didn't i old milton hill channel cat we just had a tap on the carolina rig something's happening that almost looks more like a flathead type of bite i'm pretty sure i just missed a flathead they can be a very soft biting fish and that bite was showing all the signs and uh he swam into me and the line went slack and they can also be a very spooky fish if they're not in a in an aggressive mood they're in an aggressive mood you can hook that fish and lose that fish and he'll find your bait again if they're in a non-aggressive mood the slightest little thing will spook him he could have felt the line could have felt the weight maybe that float rubbing his nose with this full moon going on they're probably a little apprehensive still early that could have been my money fish though the one that made this an actual fishing video that you would want to show so far the bite is slow and i expect that on a full moon all right y'all we've been in the water an hour and i'm still looking for that money fish 60 miles down river just to get bait all the way back home to get that amplifier there's a 120 miles 40 miles back down to here to actually shoot the fishing video now we're at 160 miles by the time i go home add another 40. it's 200 miles in this day for this video i'm really needing that money fish despite the full moon i was hoping this spot would put me on it i knew melton hill lake was a gamble but sometimes those gambles pay off pay off big if i would have went to fort loudoun it probably would have been a two fish night dink bite sure you fish fort loud enough you're gonna get a good fish but i've drove 200 miles so i need a good fish tonight it's getting that time and night i have to consider putting some warm stuff on i'd rather not put all that stuff on out here on the river at night by yourself if you ever went down with all them clothes coveralls jackets even a life jacket ain't gonna keep you afloat with all that stuff on four miles from the ramp winter time wouldn't be a good night but without staying warm i won't be wanting to sit out here and give it the time it takes here again it's another gamble risk you take the time and effort you put in looking for that money fish we ready now now all i got to do is stay in the boat drags coming out drag's coming out drag's coming out drag's coming out oh there's my money fish there's my money fish [Music] oh yeah i'll pull these other lines in get them out of the way pull them in and get them out of the way here's my money fish this is the one we came for right here what we came for as hard as he hit it had it's got to be a big blue he's staying down river he ain't coming up towards me at all come on big boy okay we got him close there he is no that's a big flathead that's a big old flathead that hit that hard i'm gonna net him before he gets real excited he's taking it real calm right now he's taking it real calm come here big boy come here big boy come here big boy oh i got you i got you [Music] the money fish he hit like a big blue oh yeah that's a wide fish that's a heavy fish go ahead and drop these other baits back in the water all right y'all this is what we come for right here patience pays off a high-risk lake chances aren't good of getting any kind of numbers but it don't get fish that heavy so you're taking a risk by coming but the rewards are big when it pays off so oh yeah that's a heavy fish man oh yeah man nice flathead big boy back in the water that rod went down and i could just hear the drag peeling and i meant normally a flathead's a subtle bite but i guess once he got that bend and he felt that tension that's when he freaked out he started ripping that drag when you go through this much trouble and you go through this much preparation and you put in these kind of miles and you're sitting here full moon uh you kind of figure the odds are stacked against you anyway and couple hours has went by and you're starting to lose a little hope and then all of a sudden that rod just bends over and you hear that drag coming out of that reel you know it's it's all riding on that right there there's so many things that can happen you know you've got in your mind as you're pulling in that fish man is this fish going to stay on the hook is he going to stay on the hook you know you're not over forcing him because you know he could just be barely hooked in the by the whisker you know you don't know what's going on you don't know how good he's hooked but everything's riding on that one fish man and then when you finally see them hit the top of the water it's different kind of feeling it's good feeling that's why i do this it's why people watch me do this everybody's wanting that feeling

Channel: Catfish Dave

Views: 79,031

Rating: 4.9657435 out of 5

Keywords: Catrish, Blue Catfish, Flathead Catfish, Channel Catfish, Fishing, Skipjack, Melton Hill Reservoir, You Tube, Making Money On You Tube, Fort Loudoun, Tennessee River

Id: 91d4QEjvxLw

Length: 40min 49sec (2449 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 02 2020