Full Story previous video (BTW: video shows how I fillet catfish)

I lost the whole long post - now I'm pissed - had to retype - and post got longer and more 'rambling'

The previous post (with video) and my youtube page sorta explain how I got the 6.5lb channel catfish but long story is:

For past few nights little catfish and turtles (various size) keep me busy re-baiting the trotline and the few yoyo's I put on my fishing pier. All I've been getting past few nights are small channel catfish, turtles and pollywog (bullhead catfish).

So for past two night I got lazy - and stopped baiting trotline (feeding the turtles). Also it's been so hot I've not spent much time catching bream (bait). So yesterday PM - I threw my net a few times and I got two shiners - 1 bream - and two baby shad (about 1" long)

I've started wrapping magic bait (stink bait) in cheese cloth to make it harder for the turtles and little catfish to steal the bait. So I baited my three noodles with the shiner and the one bream - then I baited 3 yoyo's with the cheese cloth / magic bait - then I put the two shad on two other yoyo's - all this was just at dark (around 9PM) - so when I went back at 10PM I figured all the bait would be gone and it almost was. All noodles were stripped so I put them up - didn't want to use up the cheese cloth / magic bait I had left - I put cheese cloth / magic bait on the 4 empty yoyo's - and on the fifth yoyo there was about 1/2 of the 1" shad

Then when I went back about 1.5 hours later - just before I went to bed - the only bait left was one little tiny piece of the shad - in fact it was just one side of it's little head with one eyeball

I was tired and only re-baited the 4 empty yoyo's and said the heck with the shad eye ball - since I was low on bait

When I woke in middle of night I said screw it and didn't even look out with my big light to see if I had any fish.

So when I got up at 5:45AM - I saw that the yoyo with the tiny piece of shad had something swimming around with the yoyo - but it was barely moving so I limped (I hurt my ankle) out to the yoyo and about that time the line took off - and I realized I had a keeper (wasn't sure yet what it was but saw from the run it was big n strong)

Well I ran (limping and crying from pain) to the boat house which was locked and to the net which was in the boat - by time I got in the boat and really had my ankle screaming - I figured with my luck it might just be a cypress trout (grinnel) so I slowly limped back down the fishing pier - the pain in my ankle cause me to calm down

When I started gradually pulling in the yoyo and got a hold of the line past the spring loaded yoyo - I knew I was in for a fight - and wished I had got in my boat to bring this one in (that is best way and what I do when I know it's a big catfish - cause the handle on my big net is not very long since I have to reach over the top rail (I have kid safe wire on the pier and can't reach down from the walkway of the pier

Anyway - I laid half way over rail and was glad I didn't fall all the way over - I had to slowly work the fish closer - he had run off all the line on the yoyo - and when I got him close I was lucky - I only missed him once and got him on second try. The hook was under his eye and hard to remove so as long as the line didn't he was 'caught'

I cleaned him early - didn't even bleed him out i.e. got pink meat - because the temperature is going to 100F today and I didn't want to wait until later in the day (It takes about 1.5 hours to let them die slow / bleed out)

One theory I have is that the shad eye ball caught a small catfish (channel or pollywog /bullhead) and the bigger catfish went after the smaller fish (just a theory - cause the belly of the 6.5lb Channel catfish did not have any fish ) Maybe shad eye balls are a special treat for Channel cats but I'm amazed that a 6.5lb Catfish was (could be) taken on a piece of shad about 1/4" long - and one eye

It's still going to be hard to be motivated again tonight with all the little (baby) channels - turtles - pollywog's I've been catching. Another 100F day so not sure I'll try to catch any bait

I may try catalpa / catawba worms in cheese cloth on 3 yoyo's - and magic bait on 3 yoyo's - those I can bait in short time and turtles are not picky :(

Check out the video in previous post to see how I cleaned the fish. What the video does not show is that my ankle is still sore but I just played 'tough guy' and cleaned the catfish - thru all the pain - I hope my brother enjoys this fish (I'm cleaning them for him - since he's in Washington and he's catch crab to bring back to me - e.g. I'd feel guilt if I let him bring me those fresh crab and I was giving away or letting the catfish go free - like I do a lot times.

Rambling over :)