This one isn't mine - but is fun nonetheless. When I was young my stepfather told me about when he worked as a construction foreman during the building of a locks and dam on the Ohio River. He said that one day the divers (underwater welders - though I don't know exactly how that works) came up fearful because they had been working in the muddy water (the Ohio is deep and often murky) and turned around and seen eyes in the water as big as golf balls. The eyes of fish. They weren't sure what they were, but upon further investigation it turned out to be massive channel cats living in the center of the river that were 6' long. I always thought there might be some truth mingled with typical fish story here until one day, many years later, I walked into an Ohio River tackle shop and was advised to take a look at the wall - where there was a picture of a guy with a channel cat that stretched from the top of his head to where its tail bent on the ground.
Here's the really fantastic part - but, hey, they say all legend starts with truth. There was supposed to be a guy, an old salt, who would fish for these cats specifically with his Jeep. He would kill a groundhog - some say woodchuck - with a rifle, cut it open, sun it for a few days, cut it in half and attach it to a hook he machined himself - something like a 50/0, it must be assumed. Then he would attach the hook to a leader which was ATTACHED TO THE WINCH ON HIS JEEP. Guess that's the only way to get them in. I can personally vouch that a 10 pound channel cat in moving water pulls like a grown man. Didn't dawn on me until I was a little older - how did he cast???
Here's the really fantastic part - but, hey, they say all legend starts with truth. There was supposed to be a guy, an old salt, who would fish for these cats specifically with his Jeep. He would kill a groundhog - some say woodchuck - with a rifle, cut it open, sun it for a few days, cut it in half and attach it to a hook he machined himself - something like a 50/0, it must be assumed. Then he would attach the hook to a leader which was ATTACHED TO THE WINCH ON HIS JEEP. Guess that's the only way to get them in. I can personally vouch that a 10 pound channel cat in moving water pulls like a grown man. Didn't dawn on me until I was a little older - how did he cast???
Interestingly, I thought it was a channel cat because it was thin, not bulky in the middle like a giant blue. Who knows what's out there - look at this:
