SELKIRK, Manitoba _ Early September catfishing on the Manitoba side of the Red River has become a pre-fall tradition in recent years, and a reecnt annual trip north didn't disappoint.
True to form, the catfish were big _ the heaviest tipped the scales at more than 28 pounds _ and they were abundant. During the course of two, six-hour days Sept. 10 and Sept. 11, three of us brought 87 catfish to the boat.
I say "to the boat" as opposed to "in the boat" because we released all but a couple of the very largest fish at boatside without weighing or measuring.
Gone are the days when we would meticulously measure and weigh every catfish and pose for photos. At the risk of sounding spoiled, one big catfish looks the same as the next after awhile.
The rod bend and the fun of the battle is good enough, and we got plenty of that last weekend. If not for a few botched hooksets and a couple of break-offs that occurred when lines snapped, our tally would have been closer to 100 catfish.
Factoring an 18-pound average _ an estimate that wouldn't be far off the mark _ we brought nearly 1,500 pounds of catfish to the boat.
We definitely had a ton of fun.
