It was February 12, and Caleb “Action” Jackson and his fiancée, Meadow, had just checked in to a lakeside cottage at Black’s Fish Camp on famed Lake Moultrie, South Carolina.
They launched Jackson’s 18-foot aluminum G3 bay boat and headed out to some spots that the 24-year-old regional firefighter had learned hold big catfish.
“I’ve fished Moultrie since I was a kid and started checking some spots with sonar for baitfish and big catfish,” Jackson told Wired2fish. “We looked for an hour at the south end of the lake. Finally, about mid-day I was scanning a deep-water channel ledge. Where it made a turn there were some sonar marks from baitfish and some big fish, too.”
Jackson said he felt good about the 44-foot-deep spot, so he anchored his boat and set up six heavy-duty catfish rigs on conventional gear. He used 30-pound monofilament line, with 50-pound leaders, then tied to 10/0 Gamakatsu circle hooks. Each hook was baited with a 2-inch chuck of center-cut shad, deployed deep with 3-ounce coin sinkers.
The Bite Happened Fast
“We’d just got all six rods set up and settled into fishing, when I noticed one rod kind of quiver,” said Jackson, of Moncks Corner, South Carolina. “There was a slight tap on the rod, and when I got to it and reeled down, I thought it was a small fish.”
The fish had tangled the fishing line around another fishing line, and as Jackson worked to free it, the fish wrapped around one of the boat anchors. Jackson fought to free the line, finally cranking up the anchor and unwrapping the mono from it.
“When I got it clear the fish went straight down, taking drag,” he said. “I’d reel in line, then the fish would take more line off my reel. That’s when I knew this was the big catfish I wanted to catch.”
After a 10-minute fight on a cloudless 50-degree day, Jackson brought the fish close to the surface, knowing the catfish was a giant.
“When we saw it Meadow and I were ecstatic,” Jackson explained. “I didn’t think I’d get it in my landing net, so I put on some heavy gloves and grabbed its mouth and hauled it aboard.”
Documenting the Impressive Catch
With the fish in the boat, they shot photos and videos of the giant catfish while unhooking it and weighing it quickly so they could release it fast, ensuring its survival back in Lake Moultrie.
“It weighed 73 pounds,” he said. “Then I released it. It went deep and swam very strong. I grew up fishing the lake and it’s the biggest one I ever caught.”
They returned to fishing, trying for Meadow to catch a big one, who later that afternoon caught and released a 10-pound cat.
“We fished three days and caught about 20 different blue cats,” Jackson explained. “Meadow got a 21-pounder.”
Jackson says he’ll not get a replica mount of his personal best 73-pound blue catfish.
“There are some much bigger cats in Lake Moultrie,” he said. “I’ll wait to mount one that weighs more than 100 pounds.”
