Clay Bishop and his daughter Sophia have been fishing for big catfish for half of Sophia’s 14-year life. Clay says she’s a veteran angler, his chosen fishing partner, and the important half of their “Team Reel Down” angling duo.
On March 21 the Bishops were in their Excel Storm Cat 230 boat targeting deep structures on 20,000-acre Lake Oconee in north-central Georgia.
“I was looking for drop-offs and ledges in channels and for small, scattered pods of baitfish,” Clay tells Wired2fish. “The water temp was 68 degrees, and we found small bait pods in 18 to 30 feet of water to start fishing.”
When they found scattered bait deep, Clay figured that’s where catfish would be feeding. He used his electric motor in “spot lock” mode to hold his boat in position above the bait schools.
Once positioned, the Bishops would set up eight heavy-duty rods with revolving spool Shimano reels spooled with 30-pound mono line, 80-pound test fluorocarbon leaders and 10/0 circle hooks. They used cut shad fished on “Santee Cooper Rigs,” which hold baits just off the bottom with a float on 2-foot leaders.
“We started fishing shallow, but the big fish were deeper,” said Clay, of Monticello, Ga. “We got about 15 smaller cats that day, up to about 15 pounds. The biggest three fish we hit about noon, and Sophia caught them all in about 30 minutes.
“She caught every fish, except one small 2-pounder I got.”
Sophia hooked her big blue deep and battled it to their boat where Clay netted it and put it in their 100-gallon well-aerated live well. All cats for the tourney must be alive at weigh in and all are released back into the lake they were caught per tournament rules.
“She whipped that big 60-pound blue cat in about five minutes,” said Clay, who works for an insulation company. “The pair of flathead cats she caught weighed 37- and 29-pounds.”
That afternoon the Bishops weighed in Sophia’s three catfish tournament limit that had a combined weight of 126.5 pounds. That was good enough for Team Reel Down to win the tourney top prize of $2,100, plus 8th grader Sophia pocketed another $200 for a youth fishing award.
The Bishops topped the second place tourney anglers by nearly 50 pounds.
“I gave Sophia a big hug,” said Clay. “She told me she was ‘So excited I can’t stop shaking.’”
