My daughter Jenna and I were fishing the lake on Friday, Oct. 14, and caught this enormous catfish. The look on Jenna's face says it all. This was a fish to remember.
The story goes something like this: We were anchored on the corner of the fishing area with two anchors out. The fish hit like a freight train and started peeling line immediately. I was using a sturdy level wind rod and reel set-up, as I know there are some big catfish in LMV, so I was thinking I was prepared for anything.
 
The first 5 minutes of the battle the fish wrapped itself around both anchor lines and stopped running. I had Jenna (9 years) pull up each anchor and set us adrift to help with the battle. From the rate of pull I knew this was a huge fish and I didn't want to take a chance of losing it so I just let the boat drift along behind the monster. As we got the second anchor in the boat the fish bolted toward the first red fishing area bouy and took an abrupt right turn toward shore. This resulted in my line wrapping around the bouy chain and my blood pressure raising.
 
When I saw the bouy moving to the right from the strength of the fish I thought we may have just lost the battle. As it turned out, the line held and even dragged the boat toward the bouy allowing me to unwrap the line from the bouy and putting some direct pressure on the fish.
 
Another 5 minutes of cranking and lifting and the fish came to the boat. Jenna, in the interest of seeing what was causing all the fuss, shined the flashlight into the water and the fish came to life again. Fortunately it was more tired than I was and ended up in our net that was far too small for the job. We headed to the scale and this fish came in at 38 pounds!
 
We let it go and headed home very satisfied with out little fishing trip.

Joe Senger

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