shsimons, riverpark, catfish, 7-6-10, Scott, and the curse

[FishNews]

I am probably one of the luckiest fisherman you will ever meet. We went back out this evening, armed and ready to go with a freshly charged trolling battery in case the battery quit again. I also had an extra starting battery which sort of saved the night, but I digress. (I always wanted to say that)<br /><br />We loaded up on bluegill at the dam. My plan was to fish holes all the way to downtown, never fished downtown. I'd stop at every suspicious looking area possible. We made our first anchor near a wooded bank. Bluegill and skipjack. I hear a click click on my rod, over and over, thought maybe the bluegill was just pulling on a loose bait clicker. Thought I was hung, and I was probably in a tree, but I pulled out a flathead that ate a bluegill its size. We fished a few holes downriver, no luck. Pulled up to some barge tie offs, and we were thinking flattie. One of my rods goes off with a live gill, I pick up, and ole flattie drops the bait. Maybe it was a blue. I throw back to the same spot. I saw the classic "shake shake" of the bluegill getting nervous. Then it got crushed, peeling drag. I pick up again, nothing! Turns out ole bluegill found the bottom of a big cat's mouth. I'm a little ticked, thinking maybe it was a big flattie and a big one for scott to reel in. I think, ok, downtown bridges here I come! Plus I've always wanted to catch a fish at the hunter museum bluff. Oh wait, the boat won't start! Time to put on the other battery. Scott says, "I'm not going downtown, we won't make it back." I whole heartedly agreed. We ran upriver, planned on fishing a hole we hadn't hit yet. Spread out an even spread of live bluegill and cut skipjack.<br /><br />Then, we got the bite. One of the rods out in the channel got busted and I picked up, the big fish stripping quite a bit of drag. I hand the rod to scott, and it goes limp, wait, it's swimming toward the boat. It buries under the boat, yes yes, I've put Scott on a trophy blue! Scott is complaining about my head light, fighting the fish awhile longer. It's getting closer to the boat, I know it's a brute because I felt the power in this fish. I'm getting excited with the net, my first trophy night fish by myself. I did my guiding job for my budy, then it's all over, the hook comes out. I am ticked off, just feeling my face boil with hot blood. so we head up near the dam, check a shallow spot where Scott catches the world's smallest flathead on cut skipjack. I tell him, let's go fish the flood gates and hang out awhile longer. The boat won't start, so we start trolling back, and my trolling battery is weak right away. I barely squeaked out of the way of a barge, well, not barely, but enough to be a little nervous and wonder about my swimming skills in full clothing. <br /><br />I get in the water up to my waste to put the boat on the trailer, we head to wal-mart looking like you know what, and I pick up a legit battery charger instead of the cheapie I have. Will this solve the problem? Or is there some mysterious force that Mike Mitchell is using so I continually have to book guide trips with him to go catfishing? Can you believe 2 more days of this? So total for the day was too many bluegill to count, 6 lb channel, 17 lb, 21 lb blues, 2 small flatties, and 1 trophy that I'm still trying to unwind from not getting to net. I am going to bed for a long time now, and darn it if I don't put Scott on a trophy, it's driving me crazy!