Her once-in-a-lifetime fish came
while fishing with her mentor.
Melissa Redger (Missi Duerksen) runs a single-parent household. Nevertheless, she has a passion for catfishing. That passion was evident when she joined Joe Stringer (Stringer Guide Service) on the Mississippi River near Memphis TN to fish the Mississippi River Monsters catfish tournament. To her surprise and excitement, she ended up making some awesome memories by catching one of those Mississippi River Monsters.
“We pre-fish a hole on Thursday and lost a big fish,” reported Joe. “We got in late and we didn’t have any fresh bait so Missi was using Kool-Aid chicken, one of her favorite baits. She hooked a big fish but we didn’t get it to the boat. We mark a good fish on Thursday but couldn’t get back to him Friday because the Trolling Motor broke.”
“Of course, nothing goes as planned,” explained Missi. “Our biggest setback came on Friday. The trolling motor decided to have a mind of its own—and its mind was crazy! Joe worked on that thing almost all day on Friday and while he was trying to figure the trolling motor out, I met the man bringing Joe his new boat trailer and got that taken care.”
Registration was Friday afternoon so the pair loaded up the boat and thought about what to do next. They went on to registration at Bass Pro Shops at the Pyramid where they purchased a new trolling motor. They knew what they got wouldn’t be enough for Joe’s boat, but they didn’t really have any other options. Joe and Missi installed the new motor in the parking lot.
“We prayed that tomorrow would be a better day,” continued Missi. “It was around 10 pm the night before the tournament and we had no game plan. I left the decision up to Joe. He has fished the river a lot more than me and he had a good idea where the fish would be. I told him that I’d support whatever he decided.”
So, with 2 hours of sleep, they headed to the livewell check at 3 am and then trailered to Helena. After launching the boat, they headed for a spot where they had found fish two days earlier.
“We just crossed our fingers they were still there,” recalled Missi. “When we arrived at the spot, there was a boat already sitting there waiting for 6:30 am to start fishing. We moved out closer to the middle of the river where the current was pretty strong.”
Joe and Missi got their bumping rods rigged and waited. At 6:30, on the dot, they started fishing, not knowing if the new trolling motor would hold up for the day.
“We knew we had nothing to lose,” Missi said. “Our day could not get any worse than our pre-fishing days had been. We had plenty of bait and Joe had put us on some fish so we were just going to see what the morning would bring us.”
Missi had learned to bump just two days before the tournament. She didn’t think she had developed a “good rhythm” after only attempting it a couple of times. She indicated that she didn’t even know what a bite would feel like.
“The current was strong and it was windy,” recalled Missi. “I remember saying how fast we were drifting. We knew the trolling motor was a problem, but it did what it needed to. About 20 minutes into fishing something amazing happened. Both of us had our lines out around 300 feet. We were in pretty deep water, ranging from 84-87 feet deep. I remember telling Joe I was going to reel in and right then, at the same time, we both got a bite.”
The strong current made it difficult for Missi to determine what was on her line. As it turned out they both had fish, but they were each tangled in other’s lines. Joe had a small fish which he landed. Now they had the chore of untangling the lines to try and land the fish still on Missi’s line.
“I knew I still had a fish on,” offered Missi. “We just hadn’t seen him yet and I couldn’t reel anymore because of the tangle. Joe gave me the scissors and told me to cut the lines while he held my pole. He felt the tug and knew it wasn’t a small fish.”
Joe took the scissors and gave the pole back to Missi just as the monster fish realized he was hooked and decided to start the fight.
“He must have been swimming towards the other fish when I caught him,” said Missi. “Up until then, it hadn’t been much of a fight. As the big fish got closer to the boat he decided to go back to the bottom. He wanted to go every way but the way we wanted him to go. I held on until I thought my wrists were going to break. I kept reeling but felt like I was getting nowhere. We had yet to see the fish when Joe took over.”
Missi grabbed the net and about 30 minutes into the fight the giant blue came to the surface. Missi almost fell in as she readied the net to boat the fish. A couple of misses made things exciting but Joe calmed her down and reminder her that they had to get the fish in the boat. On the third pass, he was in the net.
“Both of us pulled with all our might to get him in,” remembered Missi. “And when we did, I sat down on the live well and just cried. This was the biggest fish I had ever seen and I had caught it. Joe was speechless and I think he may have had one happy tear in the corner of his eye. We were both in shock.”
With the big fish in the boat, the lucky anglers decided to head for the weigh-in knowing that time was of the essence for proper fish care.
“When you have a monster like that, in your boat you don’t want to waste time,” Missi stated. “You don’t want to risk losing something that is a once in a lifetime catch. Plus, we couldn’t fit another fish in the live well. So, we made the decision to get him back to weigh-in ASAP.”
With a long drive ahead of them the Kansas anglers filled two coolers and a bucket with fresh water to add on the way back. They also added ice, salt, and oxygen to care for the trophy fish on the way to the scales.
“I asked if I could sit in the boat with the giant fish,” explained Missi. “Joe didn’t think that was the best idea, so we stopped 3 times on the way back to add water, salt, and oxygen if needed. It seemed like we made it back to Memphis pretty quickly. When we arrived at weigh-in our big fish was in pretty great shape.”
The big blue’s weight surprise them both. They had attempted to weigh him in the boat but couldn’t get an accurate reading. The big blue weighed in at 93.08 pounds and was 60 inches long. Missi’s first fish bumping lifted the team to 5th Place overall, Big Fish of the tournament, and Top Female Angler for Missi.
“I caught my once-in-a-lifetime fish with the help of the man who taught me everything I know about fishing,” declared Missi. “It will always be one of the proudest moments of my life. I couldn’t have done it without Joe and that’s what being a team is about. We may not have won the whole tournament, but both of us won. And we gained mutual trust and respect in each other. It was a day we will never forget.”
After returning home and still savoring the Memphis experience, Missi concluded, “I’m trying to paint my daughter’s room right now. I just can’t keep up with everything these days! Haha! I’m a single mom of 4 and let me tell you, fishing has been my escape!”
Epilogue:
Joe and Missi fished from a SeaArk Boat using Big Cat Fever Rods and Okuma Coldwater Reels spooled with 80-pound Suffix braid. Hummingbird electronics, Minnkota trolling motor, and 12/0 Dales Tackle hooks helped them bring 116 pounds to the scales on tournament day.
