47 pound blue cat cought on rod and reel from the bank

My hunting mate Rocket aka Rod shot this boar under a cactus late one after noon

Got these photos in an email today.  Here's the story that goes along with them.

"Had one of the best days of my life. After work I went to my parents house for some fishing off their dock (5 ac private lake) w/ my dad and girlfriend. We caught 8-10 small bass and were getting cold from the strong winds. About 6:15 I hooked the biggest bass of my life w/ my dad right there next to me.

I could tell it was big but didn't freak out until it was about 20 ft from the dock.

It weighed in just over 7 lbs on my scale and measured 23". I'm not a big time fisherman and normally take guided trips (don't own a rod and reel worth more than $30) so this was a trophy by my standards."

Great fishing strory and GREAT looking bass!

You pull the door up to the roof of the trap and peg it with a "L" shaped piece of metal rod. Then tie wire to the "L" and run it to the bottom, back side of the trap and when they bump the wire it pulls the " L" out from under the door, allowing it to fall. This hog was big enough that if we would have been any longer getting to it he would have got out. The trap is wired to the t-posts that you see and he already had it worked loose from them. He was not happy!!

Our two Chocalate Labs that passed away two years ago after escaping from our fenced in yard and getting run over off Interstate 37 by an 18 wheeler.  We miss these guys who loved going hunting with us!!

caught on rod and reel.

Castle Rock Flowage cat caught at night drifting a crawler. My wife caught this cat on an ultra light rod with 6lb line. Awesome to watch her in action. 

This one almost broke my rod.  A strong fish. 10.8lbs. Caught and released using giant Castaic swimbait.

What a beast. This one DID break my rod. Another giant on a topwater. 11.9lbs

From an email – pretty interesting story:

I got a call today from a good friend Jeff. He is a flying / hunting buddy and he also happens to enjoy fly fishing with his wife Mimi. This weekend he and his wife decided to head up to the  White Mountains for a little trout fishing. As the day wore on Mimi got cold in her fishing tube and decided to head out to the truck to warm up a bit. When she was leaving the lake the brush behind Jeff started crashing and creaking with the sounds of an animal coming to water in the afternoon. To Jeff's surprise less than a hundred yards away a bull elk appeared and walked out into the water to cool off and drink. The bull had a nice rack but appeared emaciated. The farther the bull went in to the water the closer he got to Jeff in his tube. The bull would stick his head under water and surface again and didn't seem to mind Jeff's presence. Odd behavior for this time of year for sure! Jeff was enjoying this site and relishing the moment, until one of the bull's dunks seemed to take too long. Curious, Jeff paddled over to the bull which had now been submerged for a very long time. He could see the bulls head and his eyes were open, but he was not moving. Jeff got close enough to hit it on the back several times with his fly rod. Convinced that something had gone wrong Jeff grabbed the bull by the horns (no pun intended) and sure enough, the bull had drowned!
Amazed at the whole ordeal Jeff grabbed an antler and paddled for the shore. After pulling the bull on to the shore Jeff called the game and fish and waited for an officer to arrive. turns out the bull had an old compound fracture between the right ankle and knee. Infection had set in and was rampant throughout the bulls body. The game officer said that under these conditions the animal runs a high fever and stays close to water all day to go in and cool off. Unfortunately during this 'cooling session' he had finally ran out of energy to swim and drowned. Jeff was allowed to keep the rack and was issued a tag for it. The meat however was full of bacteria and was a loss.
Although the bull has yet to be measured yet I estimate it will be in the 320 - 330 range... just goes to show those big magnums are not always necessary!