Hey guys, whats the biggest bait you have used when your swinging for the fence. You know, like when your trying for a state record, or even a personal best. I know that since I have started to learn the catfishing game I have used some live baits which would have seemed rediculous even 2 years ago. The last good adventure I went on this summer we noticed some carp sippping dead mayflies off the surface of the water, and they were so intent on their slurping that we were able to scoop one up with a landing net. Im guessing he was about 20 inches long and maybe weighed 2 to three pounds. We strung him up with a quadrupled section of 65lb power pro, ( a super braid ) and attached that to a bungee cord which was tied to an ash tree that stuck out just right on a point beside the main channel of an irrigation resivoir. I hooked him through the tail with a 12/0 eagle claw, circle sea, circle hook. When we got back to the campfire that night we were like a couple of 8 yr olds on the night before christmas. " do you thnk we'll get one on the homerun bait?" "Man that was the perfect location, we have to get one there." " If we get one on that bait he's going to be huge." "I know, should we just take pictures, or should we haul him to town and get him weighed?" " Oh man I can't wait to see what we've caught in the morning!"
Well of course we had the new state record, complete with pictures in the paper, and all of that kind of hoohaw all worked out before we even fell asleep that night. We were very disapointed to see that our homerun bait was one of only two that didn't get hit that night. But like all true outdoorsmen that didn't diminish our enthusiasm one bit, it just fanned the flames a little higher in our quest for when and where we should deploy the home run baits. I bet anything its the same for you guys also.