It was a pretty good bite all day long according to B’n’M prostaffer Mark Blauvelt. “Water was on the rise, raining and overcast all day. Those conditions seemed to keep the bite pretty good all through the day.”
Blauvelt was fishing with Shannon Dotson in the May 6, 2017 Cabela’s King Kat Tournament Trail on the Monongahela River at Morgantown, West Virginia. For anglers that don’t win the tournament, the next best thing may be to get the Big Kat honors and the braggin’ rights that go with it. That’s exactly what Blauvelt did, but it was even better than expected.
“It is mostly a channel cat fishery with a few flatheads in the mix,” reported Blauvelt. “No blues. Everyone knows the trick here is to catch a flathead or two to get good weights. With that said our plan was to beat current seams, creek mouths and shoreline wood. We put on our NeverSnag anchor game face and got to work.”
“We started fishing with smaller baits and 5/0 Daiichi hooks with the idea of putting some channels in the box, continued Blauvelt. “We moved a lot looking for active fish and the plan worked well. One to two fish, per spot, was the norm. The water was getting muddier and swifter through the day.
The team’s strategy was working well, they had 6 channels when the big fish hit a piece of cut shad about the size of a quarter. They were set up on a creek mouth that was blowing hard into the main river in about 6 to 8 feet of water.
“She hit like a channel and had a lot of headshakes. It wasn’t until she stayed deep under the boat that I started to think it was a flathead. I just kept the pressure on the 7.5-foot B’n’M Silver Cat rod until she came up. When the big fish surfaced I couldn’t believe how big it was! That’s when it gets tense, after seeing the fish, and having it make a few more short runs, you are praying you don’t loose it.”
“Shannon did a great job of getting the fish netted on the first chance it gave us, so it certainly was a team effort in the 2.0 mph flows! Once in the boat we quickly put her in the live well without weighing it. We both guessed about 36 to 38 pounds. We were spot on,” concluded Blauvelt.
Blauvelt and Colley went back to fishing and put a couple more small flats in the boat and a few more channels to end the day with just under 60 pounds. They fell short of Willie Smith and Nick Anderson by only 1/2 pound to place second.
The big girl weighed 38.84, and she brought bragging rights bigger than expected. Blauvelt’s flattie was a new King Kat trail record for Morgantown. In the 9 years the event had been there, the 38,84 pound flathead caught by Blauvelt was the biggest yet!
