Finding and catching the Giant American Catfish

oh he's swimming towards the river this is gonna be another one oh mercy all right guys i'm gonna show you what we're fishing today we're uh on the tennessee river fishing the ledges on the old river channel [Music] this is the main river channel here the yet the blue is the shallower water this is an island actually you can see the islands here that's an island there and we've got openings these openings as you see lead back into this shallower water and what happens guys is that water warms up a lot quicker in the shallower stuff and that shad and all the bait fish swim back in there and i'm thinking these big big blues and flatheads just kind of cruise up and down this shelf uh around these openings where the shad is moving in and out there's just big shallow flats uh it's where most the guys are crappie fishing at right now so all the baits moving back into the the bays i want to say so i think we're going to concentrate on these types of spots today to see what what's up so [Music] all right here he is guys first fish of the day oh he's a big doozy you're coming to the boat now oh this is a oh this is a deuce and i'm a little scared because i haven't oh folks i have not checked my lines like i should have because i haven't been fishing since two or three months ago so i'm a little leery about the new line phrase this is a big fish oh my goodness this is a nice fish [Music] we're fishing early spring fishing ledges i'm in about eight foot of water right here [Music] about 20 foot of water on my left side i got my net all he's coming hard too i think this might be a flat head because he's swimming up river and i don't even have my net out ready he's coming up on the shallow side he ain't done he's gonna make another run yeah he's gonna make another run but we are on the shallow side oh yeah making another run [Music] oh it's crazy if there's a twist there that might be a blue now give me some twists oh this one's got my heart beat real fast no doubt what is he going he's shallow oh come here i think it's a blue mercy i got my heart beating [Music] that hasn't happened in a long time [Music] oh my goodness gracious first fish of might of the year and he's going to be an 80 pounder [Music] oh [Music] he's not by far not him ready yeah he's not ready oh guys i want y'all look this this fish fix and come back up again and we'll see if we can reel down on him here get him back up this is a monster oh well one thing i can say my monsters are real look at this now let's see if i can get him in the net this is my hydra weather hey haiti and he's in there that's what i call a slammer am i gonna be able to get him in the boat come on now come on now this is one of them times maybe where i wish i had set scales this fish is 80 plus probably [Applause] i don't know that fish might be bigger that might be my hundred pounder i'll never know oh i will never know yeah who who i ain't made too many fish make me shake before i've forgotten how this feels this is awesome this is a pig if you want to call it that whoo all right yeah i'm not gonna be able to stand up and hold him because he's just so big he's just so big i'm gonna try it for sure oh he's gonna go crazy oh no wonder he was swimming up current he had the shoulders to do it but i want to get him in the water as quick as i can because that's a good fish and i don't want to mess with him i'll just uh yeah i don't know this fish is huge oh look at the belly on him look at her belly on this fish all right guys here it is don't know what it weighs but i need to get back in the water there's nothing i could do about that oh lord he was pushing a hundred i do believe i couldn't even hardly pick him up i'm getting too old but that's that's exciting for the first fish of the day all right guys i'm let my nerves calm down a minute catch my breath rebate and get back out there hang tight oh here's another one another one second one again guys if you look over here we're anchoring up right in front of this shallow bay where the the bait comes in and out this is not gonna be quite as big as the other one but it's action you're gonna be quite a bit smaller but oh he's in my other line here i think come here coming oh you got me on something already bigger i think he is yeah we didn't sit here five minutes and instant take down he's going to go up behind the boat come on here beside me buddy there we go ah a little blue i can handle him nothing like that other one they got me all wrapped up in my other line over there too come here there we go he's so wrapped up in my other line get you out of that one first there we go all right second fish we can't be too choosy after the one we caught today i don't know that we can catch one bigger than we already have today we'll take what we can get all right let me get these back out we'll see if we can get another one if not we're gonna run and gun to the next spot like this pick a fish up here to fish out there oh i think he was on there i think he is on there yeah he's on there oh he was sneaky that was sneaky he's not a big one but the winds blowed us off the good part of the lake acts like he's wrapped around something we kind of did something a little different the wind blew us off the good side of the lake so we had to find another spot over here but i've kind of set up on a current scene if you can see some of the bubbles and muck on top of the water going down that seam we've got a point in the island coming out right here we're kind of set up on that right now so we can reassess the situation my boat with this top on it does not like the wind much there he is [Music] [Music] [Music] all right that's our third fish of the day doing primarily the same thing we oh here's another one we got two ones we gotta get this one out first hold him on there i think that fish is still on let me get this out of my way he's still on that made quick work and current seam holding a few of them down there there's actually some wood on top of that too which always icing on the cake my trolling motors have a hard time holding up there's just a quite a bit of current right here i need to trim that motor down there we go this is probably about the same size he's coming up way back here this one's a tad bit bigger come here swim it right in that net that was two real quick right in this little spot but they're on the move they're feeding and i think they're feeding close to these shallow bays that are just right off the river channel that's where i seem to be finding them today all right we got some action today these fish are feeding very heavily right now but it's it's going on springtime it's probably march 10th 11th 12th something like that all right let me get baited back out there maybe there's a big one on this current seam stay tuned oh he's swimming towards the river this is gonna be another one oh mercy and of course this would have to be the one i have less line on he was a slammer i mean he there was no stopping now he's coming to the boat but i'm gonna turn this drag on casey make some runs y'all wanna hear some runs he stopped he's oh take it [Laughter] oh two big fish in one day that's pretty cool oh come on he comes up easy and then tears back down oh he swing right to the boat swimming up all right you gonna see oh lord look at that rod there's not he's just like oh he's going the wrong way don't get to my anchor rope buddy [Music] where's he at oh oh don't get crazy he's getting crazy oh don't go crazy oh i mean oh oh where he went [Music] pull the hook pull the hook that's a nice fish but man he could tell him he was twisting and then all of a sudden my line was slack oh and their hand is shaking too can't win them all oh man that was gonna be another big one and they're biting small baits believe it or not so wow what can he do what can you do besides cut another bait one in the cards but i got to feel him i got to see him pull him i only think he was done i would like to i would like to see him probably yeah man you could feel him down there every time he'd jerk that line would come slack i knew if it wasn't it wasn't looking good well i couldn't have been hooked real good all all right the fish are biting though keep it positive that was a monster that was a monster well the monsters are biting let's stay at it the wind has calmed down the sun has come up a little bit the weather has changed oh and we're back to fishing bad thing but i've had time to think about what happened after you lose a big fish like that it wears on you but it seemed like that fish took me where he wanted me to go he took he went straight out to the deep water and then he went straight down like i had to catch up with him he knew what he was doing i just wonder if these fish are learning i mean that fish didn't get that big by making mistakes i don't think but he come and once he got up and down straight up and down he was able to make those big twirls and create slack in my line and of course you've seen what happened after that so i mean that fish was huge that was another 80 pound plus fish could have been bigger your mind wanders when that happens but we did catch two here and lost that huge one right in that that spot on that current seam so we've kind of got two patterns going right now current seam seems to work and these small openings leading in back to the the back water leading into the back water into the shallow water where all the bait fish is so all right guys that's about all we have time for today thank you for stopping and watching our videos hope you enjoyed this one uh if you want to see more subscribe like and share thank you for stopping in we'll see you next time

Channel: Steve Douglas The Catfish Dude

Views: 197,255

Rating: 4.9171348 out of 5

Keywords: Catfish fishing, catfishing, catfishing tips, catfishing video, catfishing rigs, blue catfish, flat head catfish, river fishing, big catfish, big catfish caught on rod and reel, big catfish fishing, catfish bait, monster rod holders, river fishing tips and techniques, river fishing for catfish, wild catters tv, Steve Douglas the catfishing dude

Id: wD8Hv3YYJ2Q

Length: 24min 26sec (1466 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 21 2021