Catching catfish fever

The fish was big, and he was ugly, with a wide, gaping mouth and pale bluish pink skin.

To Matt Richter and Dave Mirly, the men who caught him, and the crowd gathered to gawk at the 50.9-pound blue catfish, he was a thing of beauty. He would be to any catfisher.

"Y'all can put a saddle on this one and ride it home," tournament director Richard Williams said while it was weighed.

To Mirly, a newcomer to tournament fishing, it was the catch of his life so far.

"We really didn't think it was that big," said Mirly after weighing the monster, his hands bloody from catfish bites and fins. "We were pretty shocked when it tipped the scale at 50 pounds. It was the biggest fish I ever caught."

Bigger cats have been caught on the Mississippi, but the Jackson team's 50-pounder was enough to win them the big fish prize in the Cabela's King Kat qualifying tournament that took place around Cape Girardeau on Saturday.

Starting in the pre-dawn dark, 36 teams of two fishermen each assembled at the Red Star fishing access in Cape Girardeau to begin a long day of fishing. They would disperse to spots all along the river, as long as they made it back to weigh in by 4 p.m.

Richter and Mirly caught their $500 winner near Chester, Ill., while others went far south to places like Columbus, Ky., near the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers.

And they came from many states, like Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee and Indiana. Competition winners Chris Stephens and John Troutt came from Newbern, Tenn., and pulled 153.6 pounds of catfish from the river.

The winners are weekend fishermen, like the majority of the teams at the tournament. But they all have a passion for the sport.

"I've got a job, but when I'm not working this is what I do," said Stephens, an experienced tournament fisher.

They were joined at the weigh-in by fans who also have a passion for fishing. Nick Tibbs of Fruitland and Al Buchheit of Cape Girardeau were there to watch the boats come in and see the fruits of the sportsmen's labor.

"We do some fishing on the river, but we wanted to watch the big boys do it," said Buchheit, whose biggest fish is in the 30-pound range. "It will humble you."

The beautiful weather helped make the tournament a great way to pass the time for Tibbs and Buchheit.

"If I wasn't doing this, I'd be at home mowing the yard," Tibbs said with a chuckle.

Some in the crowd were getting an early start in the fishing culture. Jennifer Sweet and her 2-year-old daughter, McKenzie, were at the front of the crowd where they could see the big fish up close.

McKenzie got a thrill out of seeing the huge cats in her first time at a fishing tournament, Sweet said.

The fishing wasn't good for all the teams, like Bill Tanner and Jerry Whitehead from New Madrid, Mo. They only caught 18.85 pounds, but they were still in the top 20 to qualify for the national tournament in Alabama.

"We should have went to Mounds," Tanner said. "This is about the worst we've done."

Regardless of the catch, he said, it was still a beautiful day to fish.

The fish may not agree, but every one of them made it back into the water alive. Maybe someone else will get that 50-pounder again.

msanders@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182