Just remembered this today while I was at work. My Mother had a smal pond dug the beginning of last spring. Rather than pay to have it stocked she decided to stock it herself with Cats and Bream caught from local ponds and quarries. The Machine Shop I was working at at the time had laid us off for a couple weeks due to a lack of orders so I decided to pay Moms pond a visit early one morning as she had told me about some really nice bream she had put in it.
I grabbed a new ultra-light outfit i had bought the previous week and headed out. When I got there I helped myself to some of her nightcrawlers and trotted out to the little pond with my ultralight spooled with 4lb. test line and rigged for bream with a small slip bobber.
Settleing in to the best lawn chair on the "Ponderosa" as my late Father used to call their home....I pinched off a piece of worm about 1/4" and underhanded it out into the water. No sooner than the bobber had righted itself...it dissapeared. I thought to myself "Oh man this is gonna be a fun morning...bitin as soon as it hits the water." Mom had told me she hadnt put any bream in the pond less than 10" so I expected a decent little fight to ensue on the 4lb. test and spaghetti limber rod. Boy did i ever get a decent fight. That first little snap of the wrist set the hook on what was to turn out to be a 12 lb. Channel Cat mom had slipped into the pond. I fought that cat for over an hour on that little limber rod and 4 lb. test line, making several dozen trips around the banks of that pond.
He would run and strip line from the spool until he ran to the other end of the pond then lay on the bottom. I would walk to him reeling in line, then raise him up a little and off he would go again, repeating this process over and over until I finally got him up to the top of the water near the bank. Ill tell ya fellas...ive caught bigger fish in my life, but Ive never had as much fun as I did with that 12lb. channel on that little ultra-light that morning. He won our first battel that morning...and several othwers that Summer. But I finally got him in to the bank one day after nearly a two hour give and take battle. When I was finally able to weigh him he was 12.6lbs. Yeah...i couldve went to heavier line and got him in no problem...but I guess it became a small obsession to get him in on that 4 lb. test. I believe I just might have to see if hes gained any weight next fishin season, maybe I can get a pic of him next time I hang into him...if he lets me win again that is. :wink:
