Career Day at Mattawoman

[YakMan1731]

Hit Mattawoman today from 6am to 2pm throwing raw chicken soaked in garlic salt on one fishfinder rig and two Santee rigs. Ended with 12 blue cats and one channel with 3 of the blues in the lower 30” range which was a blast. The post-worthy moment came around 9:45 when my fishfinder rig had a strong takedown. It was my lightest rig with only 15lb braid/15lb flouro leaders and the fish immediately took charge and pulled drag about 30 yards down stream. After a long fight and a less than graceful landing I was slimed by a 43” blue cat which by my best judgement was near or over 40lbs. I use a 10’ sit in yak and was solo today so the landing was extra sketchy but eventually successful. After some pictures I sent her back in and she swam off strong! It was a day I’ll always remember. Big thanks to Pat (yakscientist) and Ron for their teaching and help. Pictures attached. E992FADC-1F33-4B4F-AA7D-680032D64754.jpgB6AF0ACA-B4BD-4320-A39F-6245D9FCA071.jpgEC62D488-962C-45E1-8B82-A1CA095A6FA6.jpgE7104102-8DC0-4AFE-B362-4EA3B2091E65.jpg

[firsttimer]

Man that is just awesome!!! what a great day

[Dan the Man]

Yes!!! Congrats!

[ronaultmtd]

Good work, Matt...glad you connected...

[brianisoutside]

Congrats! I’m hoping to get down there in two or three weeks


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[GUNS&ROTORS]

Congratulations!

That girl is huge ... landing her in a 10ft sit in must've raised your bp a few tics!

[Mark]

Remind me to never fall into the water at Mattawoman.

Those are beasts, Matt.

Your catches are amazing.

[ronaultmtd]

We had a meet and greet at Mattawoman a few years back...If my old failing memeory is correct Memory Maker had a homemade lure on...and caught a 50 pound blue catfish that he released...so that old girls should be 70 (+) pounds by now...and Chemo had a 35# cat he released that should be 50 (+) by now...and I have released several 30-40 pound fish that should be considerably bigger...Mattawoman should have some real monster cats swimming around looking for your baits...

[YakMan1731]

Congratulations!

That girl is huge ... landing her in a 10ft sit in must've raised your bp a few tics!

It definitely was nerve wracking! She came over the side and luckily I’d watched some videos when guys in sit ins landed big fish and knew to lean to the opposite side to counter-weight it. I definitely didn’t win any style points!

[YakMan1731]

We had a meet and greet at Mattawoman a few years back...If my old failing memeory is correct Memory Maker had a homemade lure on...and caught a 50 pound blue catfish that he released...so that old girls should be 70 (+) pounds by now...and Chemo had a 35# cat he released that should be 50 (+) by now...and I have released several 30-40 pound fish that should be considerably bigger...Mattawoman should have some real monster cats swimming around looking for your baits...

I don’t doubt it for a second Ron! So many good fish in that area and they fight so differently from stripers it’s a fun change up. Plus, there’s nothing quite like having the relaxing silence shattered by a massive takedown on a rod.

[YakMan1731]

Remind me to never fall into the water at Mattawoman.

Those are beasts, Matt.

Your catches are amazing.

Thanks Mark, I appreciate it. It’s a quality spot for some slime wrestlin’ with those beasts haha

[ronaultmtd]

Think I will hit it Wednesday morning around 8 if you’re rested up....

[YakMan1731]

Think I will hit it Wednesday morning around 8 if you’re rested up....

I probably won’t be back down until my students go on Spring Break the second week of March, but I’ll let you know when I’m heaisng and maybe we can tag team it. Good luck Wednesday!

[Noahtom]

Nice fish. How deep were you?

[YakMan1731]

Nice fish. How deep were you?

On that fish about 13-15 but had bites everywhere from 10-18 feet throughout the day.