Myself, Tom Holtman and his son Trey Holtman fished the Catfish Chasers Tournament Series-new tournament in St. Joseph, Missouri. We fished against the best of the best of 168 boats from all across the country.
The tournament started Saturday with us taking off the boat ramp at 5pm and we finally got to our spot at around 615pm. We waited till official fishing time at 7pm and threw our rods out and figured we were in for the long haul with high water dropping.
After watching the GoPro around 8 and a half to 9 minutes into the tournament we had our first fish hooked. Trey reeled in a 57 pound blue cat for his first ever Missouri River Blue and first ever blue catfish ever. Trey did a great job reeling in his first fish being that big had to have a little help but we did everything together.
As we were getting ready to weigh that fish my outside rod bent over and line began screaming. I reach up set the hook and a few seconds later watch what looked like a whale come up and out of the water. After a battle to where at one point I thought we were going to have to release the boat we netted in a 89 pound blue cat shattering my personal best by 41 pounds.
Now approximately 23 minutes into the tournament we have 146 pounds in the boat with only two fish. Yes I said only 23 minutes into the tournament. Never in my life have I seen or heard of anything like that happening. Now mind you all of this was caught on a GoPro as I turned it on right after we put our lines in the water.
At that point we made the decision to go back up river another hour and 15 minute boat ride to weigh in the two fish to ensure their health stayed good. After a long nervous boat ride and running out of gas two miles from the ramp (I had extra gas on the boat) we weighed in the fish and went back out.
The night only got harder and around 2-3am Tom caught another 5 pound channel.
The waiting game pulled on me all night wondering who caught more fish and what did they catch.
When it was all said and done we actually ended up winning the largest catfish tournament ever held in Missouri and the larges payout in the nation.
Finally around 3pm Sunday afternoon we are told we won the tournament with our three fish for a total of 151.5 pounds.
I cannot thank my sponsors enough for supporting me through this.
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Hooker's Terminal Tackle
Catch Me If You Can Bait &Tackle

Every fish was caught on a Big Cat Fever Rod Series with Slime Line Fishing Line on the 10/0 MadCatter hook from Hookers Terminal Tackle.

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