Went out to Gissberg again Friday to see if I could repeat last Saturday's performance. I caught a very nice catfish, even better than the 18 inch one I got then. This one would have been 6-7 pound easy. I tied him on a stringer and tied it to a root, and rebaited the pole with chicken livers and propped it on a branch over where the stringer was tied. It was rather late when I got out, so I only planned on being out for only an hour or so. It got dark, so I started packing my stuff up to leave. I went to untie Mr. Catfish, when another big fish hit the pole. These catfish aren't subtle. They hit like a freight train. Anyway, the pole got a bite just as I was untying the last knot in the stringer. The pole hit me on the back, and did an end over end right into the water. I only had enough time to wade in and make one grab, but at that moment the fish pulled again and the pole was gone. In the meantime, the fish on the stringer had swam away! I ran back to my car to get my flashlight out of the trunk to see if I could see the pole in the water, and tossed my sandles in the car because they were soaking wet. No luck, so I tried for an hour or so to snag it with another pole I had with me, also no luck. When the guy showed up to lock the gates, I headed back to my car, only to find that my keys weren't in my pocket! I either locked them in the trunk or dropped them in my mad dash back to the lake to save my gear. I ended up walking barefoot to the Chevron station and waiting 3 hours for a ride home

I lost two great fish and a $70 rig because everything right happened at the wrong time. If the fish had bitten one second sooner, I would have been right there in a position to grab the pole. If the fish had hit one second later, I would have had the pole in my hand. What a Friday the 13th...

Dang!

What a crazy day! Sorry to hear about your pole. Maybe if you will find it again?? Unless the fish kept it as a trophy!

stace

Man I feel ya !! I was plunking on the Puyallup a few years ago for Kings, I had my nephew with me and he wanted to hold the pole so I let him then he wanted a soda so I told him to put the pole back in the pole holder and went to the truck to get him one as I was walking back down to the river and I see him playing around with his dump truck he had brought but he didnt put the pole back in the rod holder as I was about 15 feet away I watched my lamiglas shoot out in the river that was the last i saw of it. I even went down to the hatchery and told them what happend in hopes the fish would drag my pole all the way back there but no luck (even though it would have been probly all beat up ..it would have been cool to get it back!)

I went up to Gissberg to see if someone had turned in my keys today, and figured I might as well try and get revenge on the fish for stealing my pole while I was there. It was a rainy day, so there were only a few people at the park. Fished for about 4 hours, and caught two very nice catfish. Combined weight for the two of them was around 13 pounds. And I got my keys back too! Only thing that could have made it better is getting my pole back, but alas, that didn't happen. Oh well. Now I have enough for a fish fry!

just for curiousity's sake... how long is a 6 pound channel cat?

I remember fishing for them back in Maryland and want to compare lenghts to see which side of the country has chunkier catfish.

I caught one back there that went 24 inches and I was surprised what it weighed.

Chunky fish Zen ,not chunky cookies like what you dunk in your Milk. Give a call Bill I'm at home.

Both of them were about 20 inches, one was just a bit fatter than the other. I need to get a real fish scale. I was trying to weigh them with a digital bathroom scale by stepping on it to check my weight, and then stepping off and picking up the bag and weighing myself again, but the scale hit its top end when I was weighing the fish and errored out.