The boat ramp around the Bass Pro Shops Big Cat Quest (BCQ) trailer was brimming with activity on Saturday, July 16, 2016. Catfish anglers were registering and launching for an overnight encounter with whiskered critters of the Apalachicola River. This is Ken Freeman’s first visit to Florida with the BCQ Tournament Trail.
Locals described the river as low and indicated anglers should be extra cautious as they navigate to their favorite fishing holes. There are plenty of exposed sandbars in the river right now and that means there are plenty of unexposed ones too.
One local and knowledgably angler, Jim Whaley, past president of the National Catfish Association, was on hand for the tournament. “The river right now is on two foot,” said Whaley. “It’s gonna’ be steady, not rising. We are not going to get any rain. This river used to stay on 12 feet, it was normal river at 12 feet. If it got down to 6 feet we thought, it was low. Now, Atlanta and all the places are pulling the water out and the river stays at about two foot.”
Two local anglers, one of which is Whaley reported that they were going to target flatheads in the tournament.
“We scouted our places out and we are gonna’ flathead fish,” suggested Whaley. “I think a lot of these anglers are going to go for the blues and the channel cats, but we think the flatheads are a bigger fish and they are easier to catch.”
“Basically we are going to fish all night,” continued Whaley. “We are going to have a hook in the water from 6:00 o’clock until the time we have to leave. Our boats are lit up and we are ready to go. Fishing ends at noon on Sunday and we have to head for the weigh-in station.”
“If you catch a fish during the night that you want to weigh, Freeman is opening the scales at 10:00 o’clock PM and all the way to the end. That is a good conservation measure if you have a fish in trouble. They won’t weigh a dead fish.”
“We have had some good tournaments down here,” claimed Whaley. “There are a lot of good fishermen in the area. They really know how to fish and the competition is going to be stiff. These out of town boys have got a big challenge on their hands. The local guys are gonna’ bring some fish in, their ain’t no doubt. I think it will take a 120 pounds of fish to win this thing. There ain’t no second place,” said Whaley. “We come down here to win this thing.”
Guy Nichols, Jr., another local angler will be fishing the tournament with his dad, Guy Nichols. They are also choosing to target flatties.
“We are going to start on the river on the other side of Blountstown,” said Guy Jr. “We are going to fish all the way from the boat ramp at Stiff and Ugly back here to the weigh-in site.”
“We will rig up with 6 to 8 ounce sinkers because some of the holes we fish are pretty swift,” reported Nichols. “You are going to have to be able to keep that bait down. A lot of people use a rig where the sinker is at the bottom and the hook is on top. We rig just the opposite. We actually fish with the sinker above the hook because we have found that we get better hook ups that way and we catch more flatheads that way.”
Nichols uses a three-way swivel with a bait line on one eye and the hook line on the other. “For this tournament we are going to have two poles set up with decent size bream and we will have one really, really big bream on another pole. That way if a big one swims by and he’s hungry he will pick it up.”
“Two of those poles will catch any fish and the other one will hopefully catch something big. We have been prefishing and we have not had a lot of luck with the bluecats. We have caught some 20- to 25-pounders, decent fish, but if you are catching 35 and 40 pound flatheads that is gonna’ be your target,” said Nichols.
“I enjoy catfishing and I have devoted a lot of effort into it,” concluded Whaley. “We are really proud of Ken Freeman for bringing this tournament in here and think it is going to be very big and grow in the future. If it is good this year it will be really big next year.”
If you have any questions about BCQ contact Ken Freeman at 731-234-1888. Follow the BCQ Website and the BCQ Facebook Page for more information, updates, results and photos from the tournament.
For information on visiting the area you can browse the Calhoun County Chamber of Commerce Website.
Epilogue: As of this writing Lonnie Fountain of Jasper, GA and Jonathon Long of Talking Rock GA weighed in two fish just after midnight. The two fished weighed 92.10 pounds. (See Photo)