So I was out at good old San Pablo dam recently, doing my best to catch a bass. Bass fishing has been really off this year at my favorite lake. Lots of reasons for it, but just overall a down year.

So I'm cruisin along when I see a big dark shape sitting in the shade under one of the few pieces of shade left in the lake. I actually saw the fish just as I had made my cast with a texas rig tube bait, and as soon as my bait hit the water, the fish disappeared. A split second later I see the water bulge and swirl on the surface. I didn't feel anything, but since my bait was still falling, it was one of those ones where you just have to assume you are bit. I gave it my best hookset, and it was like setting into a snag. Except that the second the fish was hooked, it took off like a bat out of hell and ripped about 50 feet of line off my reel!

Well there was this small part of me that thought maybe it was a bass, but I've tangled with a few cats at Pablo before, and pretty soon it was evident that this was the large whiskered variety. After a 5 minute battle on 20lb test I got it in the net. A 20.5lb channel cat :o :P

So I finally got my 20lber at San Pablo! lol.

http://calfishing.com/albums/misc_freshwater/9_1_04_rob_20_5_catfish.sized.jpg