The short straw

Today I’d arranged with Greg to head out to the Meuse to fish for some catfish from the bellyboat. We’d agreed early so we’d be on the water at first light. We wanted to try a new stretch of the Meuse where there’s regularly a lot of jet ski activity. Being on the water before those guys get started is therefore the plan.

Usually I fish with 1 rod under the bellyboat with casts, and let a second rod drift along with a bait fish. When I’d been on the water for 1 minute, I already noticed my bait fish had swum itself solidly stuck. I had to pull my whole setup free right from the start. To make things worse, my main line snapped on my reel, so I had to cut my entire spool of braided line off my spool, walk to my car to get a spare spool, and re-spool it onto my reel…. a great start to the day, and half an hour of catfish primetime lost…

Because Greg had a bit less experience with active catfishing and visualizing the lead and bait on the depth finder, we decided to tie our two bellyboats together. This way we both look at the screen of my depth finder and both our baits are visible. I’ll operate the clonking, so Greg can focus fully on fishing.

The first small fish soon come up, though on the small side.

Suddenly a bigger echo appears on the depth finder. It was clearly bigger than the echoes we’d already seen, which had always resulted in a smaller fish. From the speed at which such a fish rises, we can usually tell whether it will bite, or whether it’s just coming to ‘sniff’ at the bait first. This fish was clearly not a ‘sniffer’ but was going to bite. At that moment, Greg’s and my bait are hanging about half a meter apart. We’re both fishing with a clonk lead and a treble hook loaded with worms as bait. At that point it’s really a coin toss as to who will cash in on the fish. A second later Greg’s Black Cat Vertical LS II starts bending over, and I know I’ve drawn the short straw…

After a fight of about 20 minutes we manage to bring the fish to the side, lay it on an unhooking mat for a quick photo session, after which it’s released again.