Matt Freeman

I am writing this from Oklahoma City where I have been for the week. Last time I wrote I talked about the heat, well, it is as hot here, but it is like living in a sauna.

I was as the Bass Pro Shops Superstore in Oklahoma City sitting in front of their huge aquarium with some awesome fish in it and suddenly out of the corner of my eye I saw a huge catfish come out of hiding from some rocks. I mean HUGE, at least 35 lbs or so. These parts are known for big cats. But what I realized as well from the folks that have been talking to me about the local fishing in Isabella is the fact that our lake has a lot of cats that big, probably a lot bigger and this is the time of year that they are caught.

Right now they can be caught almost anywhere around the lake but key on areas that are both deep and shallow, and that have abundant cover. Boulder Gulch, Brown's Cove, Main Dam, Rocky Point from a boat, just to name a few.

In Isabella Lake we have Channel Cats, White Cats and Blue Cats. Channels and Whites get big, they will push 20 lbs plus but the blues are the big boys, that is what was in the tank there in that store, an awesome store by the way!!

Our lake record cat currently sits at about 48 lbs, that is a big boy. And trust me, there are bigger.

There are stories of divers in the 70's that dove the Main Dam to check on it's condition reporting being brushed by huge fish, one refused to go back in the water.

When I was a kid, I was fishing with my parents right below the spillway at the Main Dam. This was before the power plant was put down there. We were fishing with a man who was using deep sea tackle, and for the life of me I wondered why. I was about eight at the time. He told me it was because of the big catfish in the area.

We had a few fish, and he had just gotten there and had not even casted in the water yet. He went searching in the rocks and found a crawfish and proceeded to break it's tail off and take the skin off.

He explained to me that the fish like crawdads better when they are either soft or skinned.

He then hooked that on his rig, a heavy duty spinning rod and reel and threw out to the center of the large pool.

He waited a few for a fish as did my family and I, we did not think he was gonna catch anything and that he was basically all talk. A few minutes went past when suddenly he got bit, and I mean bit.

He got up, grabbed his pole and set the hook hard and that was that, because the fish just took off and he could not stop it, even with that gear.

It ran, and ran, he had heavy line on and he jacked his drag down to try and stop it, to no avail. That thing, whatever it was just kept on going. He fought it for a couple of minutes and then, snap, the line just broke.

That fish was gone, never to be seen again, at least by us. There is nothing in that river that can do that besides a cat, and a huge one. No way that was a trout, bass, carp, or anything else not with that kind of fishing gear against it.

The man proceeded to tell us that even though he lost that fish, he had caught other large cats in that part of the river. They are in there still probably, and they are definitely in the lake.

The lake record came on a whole mackerel, which is a huge bait, over a foot long. Big bait, big fish.

So remember, next time you are catfishing in this lake, be mindful of the possibility of hooking something BIG!

Til next time, tight lines and loose drags.