Dan Washburn’s Sporting Life

Hands are bait when grabbing giant catfish
June 20, 2002 — Forget about forethought — or any other type of thought, really — when you stick your hand in front of a 40-pound catfish, hoping that the monster mistakes your fingers for food. Thinking can only cause problems. It’s best to do such things with your [...]

Mississippi ‘masters’ lure lunkers … using only their hands as bait

Mike Willoughby emerged from the mud-brown Mississippi water as if he were part of a river baptism, as if the very spirit of the Holy Ghost had taken possession of his being.

But Willoughby didn’t come up from the Big Black River singing. He didn’t say, “Hallelujah.”

Instead, Willoughby grimaced and grunted. He appeared to be in pain.

“He come up and bit me and twisted off,” the 33-year-old paint contractor from Jackson, Miss., said before groaning again. “Felt like a good fish.”

Then, Willoughby took a deep breath and disappeared into the water again. He was trying to coax a giant flathead catfish into biting his hand.

After his third dunk into the drink, Willoughby spit water, gasped for air and warned us again that the fish was “a good ‘un.”

“Alright, I’m fixin’ to come out with him,” Willoughby announced before going under a final time.

I suppose I shouldn’t have reacted with so much shock when Willoughby struggled to the surface with a 53-pound creature in his arms. I mean, I had seen photos and read accounts of men fishing for colossal catfish using only their bare hands. But I always remained skeptical.

Even after Willoughby lugged his leviathan to the boat and placed its still spasmodic body into a cooler, part of me — the logical and rational part — questioned the validity of the whole venture. To the uninitiated onlooker, what goes on under the cover of muddy water is a mystery.

June 6, 2002 — He is a predator of the sea, lurking deep beneath the surface, hiding inside cracks in the coral reef, waiting for dinner to swim by.
But Wendell Ko does not have gills. He cannot breath underwater. Although, at times it seems like he can.
Ko is a Hawaiian spearfisherman. He is also a [...]

June 12, 2001 — The phone rang and rang. But it remained unanswered.
The person trying to telephone the Magic charter fishing boat would have to wait. A fish was on the [...]

May 22, 2001 — Forgive me. I’m having trouble concentrating.
I keep looking out the window instead of at my computer screen. I’d rather be out on the Chattahoochee [...]

April 3, 2001 — Think good thoughts. And set your alarm for 5 a.m.
That’s what Henry Cowen’s father would say to him the night before a fishing trip.
But, like clockwork, little [...]

February 27, 2001 — Fly-tying is all about thread control, I was told. However, I’m not sure if thread control matters much to the fish. They’re just looking for something [...]

July 4, 2000 — Right now, somewhere in Lake Lanier, two gar are likely reminiscing about the species’ halcyon days: the 50 million or so years before Jack Barnett started [...]

August 24, 1999 — The moonlight helped a little.
I was having trouble seeing my line, let alone the tip of the fishing rod it was attached to.
I hunkered down atop the [...]

May 4, 1999 — Not until you’ve set the hook, won the battle and held the fish in your hands can you fully appreciate the thrill that is trout fishing on the tailwaters [...]

March 16, 1999 — George Forrester doesn’t eat much.
I met the FLW Tour angler at the Little River boat ramp while the sun was still rising, and neither of us had anything in our stomachs.
But Forrester isn’t going to let a little thing like breakfast get in the way of chasing his dream.
The 41-year-old Brookton [...]

January 12, 1999 — I was watching a sea gull when it happened.
I was hypnotized by the bird. It would dive to the water’s surface, bounce back into the air, and hover. Then it would do it again.
Up. And down.
Fishing for striped bass is a waiting game. And a day spent marking stripers allows you [...]