Within 2 hours of getting our rods in the water, we had about 8 or 9 catfish. We were both thinking... "Not again!"
But just like you flipped a switch, the catfish turned off and the buffalo turned on. The smallest being about 13 pounds and largest was a 20+ pound black buffalo, the first I've seen and only the second that Neil's ever caught. Almost coal black with a beautiful helix pattern in the scales. During the day, we managed more than our share of buffs, netting over 250 pounds in a session cut short at about 3 in the afternoon. I've included the list I tried to keep, which wasn't easy at the rate we were landing them. Even had my first double, both of them buffs in the mid teens. For lunch, we even pulled our rods out of the water to get a few minutes rest.
Early on we managed to snap my net's spreader bar trying to land a buff that came in at a difficult-to-get-to area. Most of the fish you see here were netted by holding the spreader bars. Still worked out okay, but from now on we carry a spare net.
Did I mention we shared the bank with a handful of water moccasins? At one point, we could see 5 of them in one spot about 20 feet down the bank from us. Two of them were as big around as my wrist. Not monsters by no means, but still respectable. Since the fishing was good, we reached an agreement with them to leave each other alone. I did look real careful though every time I climbed down to net a fish.
Since we were fishing in an area that was normally "off limits" to fishermen, the owner of the land started getting angry calls from people and sent a security guard down to tell us we could fish, but we would have to move our truck and extra gear farther away where it wasn't as noticeable. We figured we had just about had all the fishing we could take for one day (I kid you not; I've got bruises in my upper thigh and groin from the butt end of my rods), and went ahead and packed up early thinking maybe we could scout out another place to try our luck next time. Will keep you posted how that works out.
20 lb buff Neil
10 lb common Carl
18 lb buff Neil
10 lb buff Neil
20.4 lb black buff Neil
10 lb buff Carl
16 lb buff Carl
12 lb buff Neil
14 lb buff Carl
14 lb common Carl
6 lb common Carl
12 lb common Carl
16.5 lb buff Carl
14 lb buff Carl
13 lb black buff Neil
6 lb common Carl
6.75 common Carl
14.5 buff Carl
10.5 lb buff Carl
17.25 buff Carl
Attached Files
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13 Pound Buff.JPG 395.57K
4 downloads
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16.5 Pound Buff.JPG 354.1K
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16.5 Smiling Buff.JPG 340.26K
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17.25 Pound Buff.JPG 480.68K
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20.24 Pound Black Buff.JPG 364.73K
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Black Buff Scales Close-Up.JPG 364.48K
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Excited Spectator.JPG 487.42K
3 downloads
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Four Water Moccasins.JPG 578.45K
3 downloads
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Smile for the Camera.JPG 272.34K
3 downloads
