Topeka, Kansas angler Brendan Handy holds up an enormous drum he caught while fishing with a Rapala BX Brat crankbait recently on Lake Shawnee. (Photo by Josh Rouse)
The crankbaits struck again earlier this week at Lake Shawnee, including one of the biggest fish I’ve ever seen in person.
Brendan Handy and I were fishing at the same spot that I had the week before, when I caught a 22-inch saugeye and a pair of blue catfish on my Storm Arashi Square 3 crankbait in Hot Blue Shad coloring. This time I brought Brendan out, and set him up with the new 2-inch Rapala BX Brat square-billed crankbait. The lure I gave him also was shad-like in color — the official name of the pattern is Blue Ghost — and had a 3-foot running depth.
You may remember Brendan for a huge gar he caught a few years back on Lake Perry.
When we got to the spot, there were several other anglers — a father and his two sons — fishing with live bait on the bank where I had caught my saugeye. This caused us to move a bit downstream into shallower water, where we were casting from a high cliff above the lake.
You may remember Brendan for a huge gar he caught a few years back on Lake Perry.
When we got to the spot, there were several other anglers — a father and his two sons — fishing with live bait on the bank where I had caught my saugeye. This caused us to move a bit downstream into shallower water, where we were casting from a high cliff above the lake.
Brendan Handy measures the huge drum he caught next to his shoe. (Photo by Josh Rouse)
On my first cast in this area, I almost immediately felt a huge tug on the end of my line and heard the whirring of the line as the big fish took it out into deeper water. The fish fought hard, but my 20-pound Sufix Siege line held up and I got it to the shore, where it got stuck in some weeds. I finally finagled it out of the vegetation and swung it up onto the high cliff above the lake. It was a big catfish — not quite as big as the one I caught last time but still a good 6 1/2 to 7 pounds with a fat belly.
The treble hooks on the crankbait stuck the big catfish in both the mouth and the head, which helped keep the heavy fish stay as I fought to get him up the cliff. As I went to put the catfish on a stringer, Handy cast out in the same spot and soon had a monster on the end of his line.
“Oh my gosh,” I could hear him exclaim. “This thing is huge.”
He got the fish to the bank and I asked him what it was.
“A big carp,” he said. “It must weigh about 15 pounds.”
Yeah, sure it does, I thought to myself. There’s no way he caught something that big. But as I walked over to the cliff, my jaw dropped.
The treble hooks on the crankbait stuck the big catfish in both the mouth and the head, which helped keep the heavy fish stay as I fought to get him up the cliff. As I went to put the catfish on a stringer, Handy cast out in the same spot and soon had a monster on the end of his line.
“Oh my gosh,” I could hear him exclaim. “This thing is huge.”
He got the fish to the bank and I asked him what it was.
“A big carp,” he said. “It must weigh about 15 pounds.”
Yeah, sure it does, I thought to myself. There’s no way he caught something that big. But as I walked over to the cliff, my jaw dropped.
What I saw before me was the most massive fish I’ve ever seen. At first, I thought it was a carp, too, but after we took some pictures and consulted with a few fellow anglers by text, we realized it was actually a giant freshwater drum, also called a sheepshead.
Unlike carp, drum are actually fairly tasty white-meat fish, but they are difficult to clean and as a result are treated as a junk fish by many anglers. They are very hard fighters and can grow up to 50 pounds. Shad are a big part of their diet during the fall, and they are mostly nocturnal hunters.
Handy carefully scaled down the rocky cliff to get the big fish and then somehow managed to get back to the top where we could safely unhook it and get pictures and video. I initially laughed off the guess that the drum was 15 pounds, but now I’m starting to think that may have been a bit too conservative of an estimate. It could easily have been 20 pounds. Unfortunately, I didn’t bring any scales with me to get an accurate measurement, but we released the fish back into the lake so we could come back a different day and catch him.
We think Handy may have nearly caught him again later on, because his Zebco Rhino rod and reel combo nearly bent in double on the initial hit on his crankbait, but his foot slipped one the wet rocked when he went to set the hook and the fish got off. I was pleasantly surprised how well the BX Brat crankbait held up during the fight with the mighty drum. The VMC No. 6 Black Nickle treble hooks weren’t even a little bit bent after that epic battle with the giant fish.
The BX Brat has a balsa wood core encased in a co-polymer shell, which accounts for the toughness of the body despite its great buoyancy. The Brat comes in two options — the 3-foot running depth and 6-foot running depth, both of which weigh just three-eights of an ounce.
Professional angler Mike Iaconelli also sang its praises in a recent news release from the company.
“A lot of straight balsa baits, you know, they’ll get a little beat up,” Iaconelli said. “But not the Brat. It’s the perfect lure for fishing around heavy cover. It’s got all the characteristics of balsa, but with plastic on the outside to protect the bait.”
We can now speak from experience that it is, indeed, a tough little crankbait, and the pro anglers aren’t just playing it up to get a paycheck. As a side note, another Rapala crankbait worth checking out for deeper waters is the Rapala DT series. The DT flat-billed crankbait comes in multiple depth options, ranging from a 4-foot running depth to 16 feet. The DT-4 and DT-6 are the same length but a bit bulkier than the Brat.
Unlike carp, drum are actually fairly tasty white-meat fish, but they are difficult to clean and as a result are treated as a junk fish by many anglers. They are very hard fighters and can grow up to 50 pounds. Shad are a big part of their diet during the fall, and they are mostly nocturnal hunters.
Handy carefully scaled down the rocky cliff to get the big fish and then somehow managed to get back to the top where we could safely unhook it and get pictures and video. I initially laughed off the guess that the drum was 15 pounds, but now I’m starting to think that may have been a bit too conservative of an estimate. It could easily have been 20 pounds. Unfortunately, I didn’t bring any scales with me to get an accurate measurement, but we released the fish back into the lake so we could come back a different day and catch him.
We think Handy may have nearly caught him again later on, because his Zebco Rhino rod and reel combo nearly bent in double on the initial hit on his crankbait, but his foot slipped one the wet rocked when he went to set the hook and the fish got off. I was pleasantly surprised how well the BX Brat crankbait held up during the fight with the mighty drum. The VMC No. 6 Black Nickle treble hooks weren’t even a little bit bent after that epic battle with the giant fish.
The BX Brat has a balsa wood core encased in a co-polymer shell, which accounts for the toughness of the body despite its great buoyancy. The Brat comes in two options — the 3-foot running depth and 6-foot running depth, both of which weigh just three-eights of an ounce.
Professional angler Mike Iaconelli also sang its praises in a recent news release from the company.
“A lot of straight balsa baits, you know, they’ll get a little beat up,” Iaconelli said. “But not the Brat. It’s the perfect lure for fishing around heavy cover. It’s got all the characteristics of balsa, but with plastic on the outside to protect the bait.”
We can now speak from experience that it is, indeed, a tough little crankbait, and the pro anglers aren’t just playing it up to get a paycheck. As a side note, another Rapala crankbait worth checking out for deeper waters is the Rapala DT series. The DT flat-billed crankbait comes in multiple depth options, ranging from a 4-foot running depth to 16 feet. The DT-4 and DT-6 are the same length but a bit bulkier than the Brat.
Topekan Brendan Handy holds up a huge drum he caught on a Rapala BX Brat square-billed crankbait recently on Lake Shawnee. (Photo by Josh Rouse)
After we got his drum back in the water, it only took two more casts for me to hook into another catfish. This one was a bit smaller, about 5 pounds, but still a nice catfish with a nice, fat belly. I’m shocked to see how well these crankbaits have worked to catch catfish in shallow water, and it makes you sort of rethink everything you thought you knew about catfish or fishing in general. When I was growing up, we were always told to fish with stinkbait in deep water. The pool of water we caught the massive drum and the catfish in couldn’t have been deeper than 5 feet at its maximum depth, and was closer to 2 or 3 feet where he hooked the drum. Grass was sticking out of the water right beside the spot where he cast out.
It isn’t completely unheard of, however. Andy Fanter, of Marion, says that he catches more than 100 catfish each year trolling crankbaits and Mister Twister Sassy Shad.
“Biggest this year was 13 pounds for channels,” Fanter said. “Flatheads this year gave ranged from 2 pounds up to 65 pounds — all trolling.”
He also offered a solution to my fishing rod woes, as I’ve had a few break this year.
“We have been using Berkley Cherrywood rods the last three years,” he said. “We troll over 500 hours a year, and this year have caught over 7,000 fish. Rods are around $25 and take a beating.”
Thanks for the great advice, Andy, I’ll be sure to check them out!
It isn’t completely unheard of, however. Andy Fanter, of Marion, says that he catches more than 100 catfish each year trolling crankbaits and Mister Twister Sassy Shad.
“Biggest this year was 13 pounds for channels,” Fanter said. “Flatheads this year gave ranged from 2 pounds up to 65 pounds — all trolling.”
He also offered a solution to my fishing rod woes, as I’ve had a few break this year.
“We have been using Berkley Cherrywood rods the last three years,” he said. “We troll over 500 hours a year, and this year have caught over 7,000 fish. Rods are around $25 and take a beating.”
Thanks for the great advice, Andy, I’ll be sure to check them out!
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