The Battle for Vicksburg produced the heaviest weight ever for Larry Muse and Dino Meadors. They enjoyed a day of fishing that all catfish anglers dream of. They brought 244.94 pounds of Mississippi River catfish to the scales. Their weight included a fish that weighed 86.35 pounds to claim big fish of the day.
“The Mighty Mississippi River was low and had been on hard fall for weeks going into the Vicksburg event,” said tournament director Hugh Thompson. “Coupled with cooling water temps and harvest season throughout the delta, the stage was set in Vicksburg for an incredible fishing opportunity for trophy catfish anglers.”
“The Mississippi Catfish Trail weighed in four monster blue catfish over fifty pounds,” continued Thompson. “Larry Muse and Dino Meadors had a once in a lifetime weigh-in, including two of those more than 50-pound monsters.”
“Muse called and asked if the scales were open,” continued Thompson. “He had over one-hundred and fifty pounds in the live well around ten o’clock in the morning. We talked for several minutes and I want everyone to know that this wasn’t a conversation full of bragging or celebration. He grilled me over details of caring for the fish.”
“I’d never heard an angler so concerned. He wanted to know if we have plenty of good water in the tank and if it would be better to use the trailer and keep them in his live well until he could release them in the channel after weigh in. His only real concern was for the fish that he and his partner, Dino Meador had caught.”
“He let me know the fish were doing good and that he would keep a constant watch on them. He indicated that if anything changed he would take action immediately. Not long after that, I got another call. They were headed in with around 250 pounds of fish in the livewell. They just landed a monster.”
“Muse told me the fish were all doing great, but taking a lot of oxygen and they wanted to get the fish back in the water. When he pulled up he made sure everything was going to go smoothly and that everyone was ready before taking a fish from the livewell. To save stress on the fish they were weighed on the Pro Tournament Scales right on the bow of his boat.”
“The fish were weighed one at a time and each released before proceeding to the next. The fish were literally out of the water for no more than one minute apiece before release. Larry Muse is a shining example for the fishing community.”
“I feel very fortunate to have witnessed one of the greatest catfish anglers of all times bring in one of the highest five fish total weights ever in a tournament,” concluded Thompson. “I was honored to have been a part of it and proud it was with the Mississippi Catfish Trail.”
First Place
“They have an untapped resource down in Vicksburg,” suggested Muse. “I always heard that folks down here mostly fished for eaters and almost nobody bumped with big bait. I’ve always wanted to fish the Mississippi River this far south to see if my theory that there were big fish there that were not being targeted. I believe I was right and it seemed to prove it Saturday.”
“Some of these cities need to organize some tournaments, because the fish are there,” continued Muse. “Me and Dino had the heaviest weigh-in we’ve ever had, and it’s our first trip to the area. We didn’t get to pre-fish. We looked around for about two hours on Friday afternoon and when I saw how sweet the current was I kinda’ thought we’d have a good day.”
Muse and Meadors bumped in 80 feet of water. “We had the trolling motor on 5 and drifting backwards between .5 and .9 mph,” reported Muse. “Man, you talk about sweet current. I’d like to stay a few days to check out some more of the river because my big fish of 86.35 was just 9 pounds off the state record. I think the MS record could be broken down there.”
Muse and Meadors thanked their sponsors and Mississippi Catfish Trail for having the Vicksburg event. “Those Warrior Cat Bumping Rods and 7/0 Daiichi Circle Chunk Lite hooks are the perfect combination,” said Muse. “Thanks to Hugh and Rose Thompson for a job well done conducting the tournament. God bless tournament catfishing.”
Second Place
Second place went to Barry Barnett, Michael Castallene and Walker Mize. They weighed in 123 pounds that included a 56-pound beast caught by 15-year-old Mize.
“We started our day with a 35-minute ride north toward Chotard Chute,” reported Barnett. “It was a place we pre-fished the day before. Once we got there we anchored off a bluff bank in about 20 feet of water and casted into about 35 to 40 feet of water. The first fish we caught was a 27-pound blue on cut skipjack.”
“We caught several more 10- and 12-pound fish there, before the bite just about stopped. Our original plan was to go to the dykes after our first hole, but we decided to stick with the bluff banks.”
“Traveling south we found a good looking cut bank,” continued Barnett. “We checked it on our depth finder and it had the structure we wanted so we started fishing. Not 30 minutes in, our youngest teammate, Walker Mize, was hooked up with the biggest fish of his life.”
“After a 25-minute fight on the lightest rod in the boat, Walker finally landed the giant 56.2-pound blue cat. We immediately went to weigh him in because we would hate to lose a fish that size. After weighing in we went back out to cull a few of our smaller fish. We ended our day in second place with 123 pounds in a five-fish limit.”
“The main thing that sticks out to me was that we fished cut/bluff banks all day. We don’t have the really expensive sonar, with side view and all. We rely a lot on what our daddy’s taught us. We have been fishing since we could walk. Thanks to Mr. Hugh and Mrs. Rose we can now fish competitively, and maybe even take it to the next level,” concluded Barnett.
Third Place
Mitch and Janice Langley filled the third-place slot with a total weight of 95 pounds. Their big fish weighed in at 55 pounds.
“We started planning a few days in advance by watching the river stages,” reported Mitch. “My wife decided at the last minute to fish with me because my brother was not able to. We had a plan with the water levels so low, to fish rock levees. But the ones that I knew to carry fish were taken.”
“We changed our plan to drifting. We worked banks I have fished in the past and caught a couple, but not what we needed to place. Using the Garmin, we found a pocket and just sat on it. We didn’t catch a lot of fish, but didn’t lose a fish. We landed every hookup.”
“My wife topped her personal best with a 55-pounder. We fished until the last minute, which earned us two fish in the last 15 minutes. They were good enough to put us in third place.”
“Vicksburg was my second ever catfish tournament,” concluded Mitch. “We have a small boat, nothing like some of the other guys that do this professionally. I’m hooked now. I only catfish. I am not a bass fisherman, so we are going to fish the rest of the tournaments this year. Maybe next year we will have a better boat.”
Fourth Place
David Magness and Bob Crosby took the fourth-place position with more than 91 pounds. “We started the day anchoring on wood in 35 feet water,” reported Magness. “Nothing happened there, so we went to spot number two and bumped a sandbar that was about 25 feet deep. We fished on the rope in our third spot. We were fishing a drop off that went from 28 feet to 65 feet deep. Still nothing.
“By 11:00 a.m. we had no fish. We moved to a revetment bank and bumped in 50- to 60-foot water,” continued Magness. “We caught four fish fairly quick. The biggest was about 30 pounds. We finished the day bumping mud bottom in 75 foot water where we caught some small fish.”
Magness and Crosby used skipjack and shad, but all the fish were caught on skipjack.
With river being on a fairly fast fall, the fish seemed to be deeper and holding tight to revetment edges with mud bottom,” concluded Magness. “We marked fish on the spots we anchored but no bites. It was similar on the sandbars. We marked scattered fish but they were inactive.”
Fifth Place:
The team of Rusty Jackson and Allen Houston placed fifth. “We struggled to find or mark any big fish,” reported Jackson. “It seems as though the falling river had them buried on the bottom. They were so tight that you couldn’t see them on the graph.”
“Vicksburg was a new area to me and Allen, so we opted to first get our 5 fish in the live well as soon as possible, before looking for the big fish. That part of the plan worked great. Allen had one in the boat at 7:03, before I even got my rod out of the holder!”
“We started our day anchored near a granary,” added Houston. “We caught lots of fish, just no big ones. Looking back, we probably should have moved to deeper water. But, It is hard to move when you are catching fish.”
“We were fishing in 15 to 60 feet or water with good current, light wind and structure. It was a perfect day for a tournament.”
“We had our 5 fish before 8:00 and tried to cull the rest of the day. We caught a lot of fish, just couldn’t get any quality fish. Most of our day was spent anchoring in 50 to 60 feet of water. Bait was scarce but we managed to have enough skipjack and shad to last the day. Every day of fishing is a day of learning,” concluded Jackson.
It was a great tournament run buy Hugh and Rose Thompson of the Mississippi Catfish Trail,” offered Houston, also known as Happy Cat. “Mr. Larry Muse showed everyone how it is done. He is definitely one of the best out there and shows us all the time. He is a great man of God and will help anyone catch fish. He is a great promoter for the catfish sport.”
The remaining top ten included:
Sixth Place: Chris Sisk and Charlie Hudson
Seventh Place: Adam Eubanks and Matthew Richardson
Eighth Place: Steve Black and Kenny Brucks
Ninth Place: Johnathan Rodgers and Justin Haile
Tenth Place: John Howard and Chad Holloway
Congratulations to all the winners and participants, and to the Mississippi Catfish Trail on their tournament out of Vicksburg. Additional kudos to the conservation minded anglers that put fish health before anything else.
It was one of those days that just make you wonder─will that weight ever be broken with a five-fish limit?
