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For Love And Catfish

My wife and I are avid fishing women, we are on the water whenever we have the opportunity. No matter what Ohio weather throws at us, blistering hot days of summer, or the bone-chilling cold of winter. We usually have a rod and tackle box to-go in the car, just in case we find a new body of water to try or just want to revisit a spot and give it a few quick casts. That was the plan on one particular day, except it didn’t quite go how either one of us expected it to. We just left work and decided to stop at a pond. We hiked down the small path to the dock and started rigging up our gear. We had stopped at the gas station to grab some night crawlers, (the old fashion go-to bait). The rods were tied up, poles were in the water and so began the waiting game. We like to personally target catfish for many reasons. It’s one of our biggest and most plentiful stocked fish here in Ohio and we are lucky to have four species to pursue thanks to the ODNR. There are channel, blue, flathead, and bullhead, (which also include brown, yellow and black). Catfish are interestingly unique. They’re extremely versatile and tolerant of different water conditions and eat just about anything. It’s possible to catch them year-round when other fish species get finicky. This day we were targeting channel cats. Everything was quiet, then about thirty minutes into it, the rods started bending. The bite was finally on! Gabbie got the first fish and for the next hour and a half we went back and forth one after another bringing in the “kitties” as we call them. All decent eater size between five- ten pounds but were all released back into the pond. The bite had started to slow down just as the sun started creeping down. We discussed heading home to get dinner started I reeled in my line and Gabbie had just taken her rod out of the holder but set her rod against the dock. Neither of us were paying attention because we’re still organizing things. Before we knew it, her line started going out. The drag was screaming and taking line out quickly. Gabbie went running for her pole but by the time she got there it was too late. The drag was set just tight enough, and that fish knew it was hooked. We watched this fish pull her rod from the surface and drag it toward the center of the lake. Gabbie was so determined we weren’t leaving without her rod she jumped in the water with steel-toed boots on! Thank goodness we weren’t far from home. In a desperate attempt I casted over and over to try and get it back for her. She gave up the search and started walking back to the car soaking wet and then I felt a “clink”. I slowly drug my hook across the bottom and reeled it up to the dock. I actually did it, I caught her rod! The fish ended up getting away but today we joke about it, and I tell her she had a case of catfish fever. We call each other “my greatest catch”. We even had a lure engraved with that on it for our wedding.

Article by Allison Benoit, Her and Gabbie’s fishing adventures can be seen on Youtube at https://www.youtube.com/@benoitfishingoutdoors and on Facebook at Benoit Fishing Outdoors.