New Catfish Pictures (From Virginia)

[Bearcarver]

New Catfish Pictures (From Virginia)​

So Bear Jr and his trusty Helper “Brian” left yesterday morning at 4:30 AM, headed Southwest to the James River, in Virginia.
They got there at about 11 AM and fished all day. Then they texted some pics to us. Then they fished some more this morning.
Then they texted some more Pics, before they left down there.
They aren’t home yet, so what you see is all I got.
BTW: Brian is a nice little guy who Bear Jr met through shooting pool.
Bear Jr is the Captain of a team that Brian joined up with. Some time after that, Bear Jr. hired Brian part-time in his new Wood Shop, inside his Tower Barn. Bear Jr has been teaching Brian everything he knows about Cabinetmaking & Carpentry. Then since Bear’s Director of Operations quit his Tower Corporation, & moved on to a cable TV place, he gave Brian that job, and has been training him on all of the things that job includes.
Brian loves fishing, so whenever Bethany doesn’t go along, Brian does. And when Brian goes, they get into more serious fishing.


Enjoy,


Bear

On Edit !!: MY MISTAKE !! These were all "Blue Catfish"---Not Flatheads. Now that Bear Jr came home, he straightened me out. I have never seen any catfish that big. We never caught Flatheads or Blur Catfish in my Day.

Bear

Another New EDIT : Below is a picture of the last one Bear Jr caught, before they left to come home. It is a 55 pound Blue Catfish.

Bear

Bear Jr with his First Flathead of the Day, Yesterday:

Brian with his first Flathead of the Day, at just under 50 pounds:

Bear Jr Again:

Brian Again:

 

[BrianGSDTexoma]

Wow!!!

 

[sawhorseray]

Boy howdy Bear, them are some hogs! RAY

 

[tbern]

Great looking fish!! Great your son has a good worker and fishing buddy!

 

[civilsmoker]

NICE....watch you fingers....I mean hands... Them is some good size fish!

 

[JckDanls 07]

Nice Catch's

I'm assuming they took their own boat ?

 

[clifish]

New Catfish Pictures (From Virginia)​

So Bear Jr and his trusty Helper “Brian” left yesterday morning at 4:30 AM, headed Southwest to the James River, in Virginia.
They got there at about 11 AM and fished all day. Then they texted some pics to us. Then they fished some more this morning.
Then they texted some more Pics, before they left down there.
They aren’t home yet, so what you see is all I got.
BTW: Brian is a nice little guy who Bear Jr met through shooting pool.
Bear Jr is the Captain of a team that Brian joined up with. Some time after that, Bear Jr. hired Brian part-time in his new Wood Shop, inside his Tower Barn. Bear Jr has been teaching Brian everything he knows about Cabinetmaking & Carpentry. Then since Bear’s Director of Operations quit his Tower Corporation, & moved on to a cable TV place, he gave Brian that job, and has been training him on all of the things that job includes.
Brian loves fishing, so whenever Bethany doesn’t go along, Brian does. And when Brian goes, they get into more serious fishing.


Enjoy,


Bear

Bear Jr with his First Flathead of the Day, Yesterday:
View attachment 647642

Brian with his first Flathead of the Day, at just under 50 pounds:
View attachment 647646

Bear Jr Again:
View attachment 647647

Brian Again:
View attachment 647648

Those are huge, did they rent a boat or trailer one down from PA.

 

[Cody_Mack]

Oh yeah, Flatheads, Yellow Cats, the meat is excellent, IMHO! Cut them into 1" thick steaks to take the texture and flavor to another level.

Rick

 

[Hijack73]

NICE!

Those are some picture worthy and for sure bragging rights catfish.

Those big boys (or girls) are all actually blues. Sometimes it can be hard to tell based on color alone, especially with smaller blues and bigger channels, but the fins don't lie. A flathead will have a much smaller fin (no matter how big the fish it will only have about 15 or so spiney fin) on the bottom right in front of the tail, and the tail will be almost square rather than forked. The blue will have upwards of 30 spiney spikesIf he kept anything for meat, the taste won't be anything like a flathead. Blue is the least tasty of the 3. It is more......fishy - and not fishy in a good way.

This is a good pic to help with the differences. Middle is a channel cat and they rarely get above 10 lbs. If you ever hook a channel in that 10lb range - man is it a fight. Pound for pound they fight twice as hard as a flat and 50x harder than a blue.

Here is a good pic to show how deceiving looks can be. If I just took a quick glance at the below I would have said that it's a blue and a flat. The tail is a quick giveaway. I think they are probably both channels, though I can't see the fin on the top one. Bottom is for sure a channel, see the forked tail and the fin has about 30 spines.

 

[bauchjw]

Wow Bear! That is a haul! What a great day out!

 

[MJB05615]

WOW! Those are huge and impressive! Thanks for sharing John.

 

[mr_whipple]

Strong work! They catch some big blues up there, but the heavies seem to get caught in the winter. 70 lb and up blues are not rare.

 

[smokerjim]

That's some Nice fish bear

 

[chopsaw]

Wow ! Nice catch .

 

[Bearcarver]

Wow!!!

Thank You Brian!!
And Thanks for the like.

Bear

Boy howdy Bear,

them are some hogs! RAY

Thank You Ray!!
Appreciate that!

Bear

 

[indaswamp]

Awesome fish Bear! Looks like an untouched fishery...kinda like the Mouth of the Misissippi river for catfishing. Nobody does it and there are some HUGE fish down there.

 

[tallbm]

So cool to see, great post! :D

 

[JLeonard]

Wow! Do they eat them? Wondering how the meat tastes when they get to that size.
Jim

 

[jcam222]

WOW!! That is simply awesome

 

[motocrash]

Good day on the James!

Glad he got to experience the James and did well at that. The night fishing is normally better, but as seen here you can pull 40-60 pounders all day. The big boys prowl at night...