So, here we are again. A typical Saturday morning – 8am wake up. Breakfast. Shower. Homework today? Possibly…What’s the weather looking like? Sunny and hot…hmm. No homework. Fishing? Yep.

Although I fly-fish on the Trinity River next to TCU frequently, this specific trip was one for the year. I have caught countless numbers of carp and largemouth in this river, and although it is overlooked by many fisherman, the potential to catching monsters is there.

On this certain day, not only did I land my biggest largemouth ever, but I also caught one of the mystery fish that I had only heard about in the Trinity: a channel cat. And not just one. But three.

After a slow start of throwing a huge “Grub Bug” as I like to call it, I felt my line go tight on the crawdad impersonating fly, and there was no budging on the end of the line. I immediately was assuming a potential channel cat in that nothing was happening in the fight, but then out of nowhere, the fish ran and I saw the 7+ pound largemouth jump. After multiple “woo hoo’s” from cyclists passing by, and ruining my neon yellow Nikes by jumping into the river, the bass was landed. After asking a nice elderly lady to take a picture, evidence was made, and the pic is now below. Four more bass were caught on this day as well (pic below).

Later on in the day, the same thing happened: casts right along the bank, smashing hits, no budging. This time, the channel catfish emerged, and there was another species to check off the list. The trick to catching this guy is to let the fly sink fully, and then to do extremely fast and sporadic movements to attract the fish. These fish are actually voracious predators when the water temp increases, thus this day was one for the books.