Next River Rat Meet, St. Peter - August 27, 2005 The "Next River Rat Meet" is exactly as described, a bunch of river rats meeting to chase after our beloved Flathead Catfish. Although the gathering was small in comparison to others, the fish caught were not. A fine group of FishingMinnesota.com Family & ProStaff, BP Cat League members, and a fisherman who is "Not A Guide" all showed up to make this a fun event. The location was the St. Peter landing on the Minnesota River in downtown St. Peter, MN. The day seamed like a classic summer catfish day- hot & humid.

My trip started with meeting Dennis Steele and heading out to catch bait. The bullheads were hungry and we had our flathead bait ready in short order. We arrived at the St. Peter launch to see a RiverPro waiting to launch. Looks like "Papa Grump" (Brian) & "dtro" (Darrin) from FishingMinnesota.com beat us to the launch. They were already chatting it up with "Rushing" who organized this great little event. Without warning, our group became the talk of the launch with 2 RiverPro boats beached on shore. If you are unfamiliar with a RiverPro boat, the ultimate river rig, check them out at www.RiverPro-Boats.com. My dream is to someday own one of these ultimate river rigs. Once out on the Minnesota River, we headed out upstream and I was truly impressed with the amount of structure available. In fact, I was overwhelmed. There are plenty of quality flatheading spots to fish, and plenty to go around. We initially set up on a rocky point shooting out into the river and placed baits on the upstream side and out towards the main channel. We waited it out for awhile and decided to make a move to a big snag on a cutbank while darkness was falling. Within about 15 minutes of arriving at our second spot, the clicker on Rushing's rod went off. He set the hook on the fish and worked him out of the snag. Flathead #1 was in the boat, a modest 15 pounder. With the flattie safely released, Rushing baited back up with a fresh, lively bullhead.

While waiting for our second bite, Dennis's cell phone rings. It was "Papa Grump's" phone, they just landed their first flathead a little downstream from our location. And it was a nice one at that, 32 pounds! Oh well, our time is coming for us to make the phone call to them. Ring! Ring! Dennis's phone rings once again and guess who? Papa Grump! They just landed another flathead that weighed in at 33 pounds from the same spot, approximately 20 minutes apart! Their second fish was obviously a sign that we needed to move. Our boat was planning on spending the entire night on the river and decided our next spot would be the spot we camp out on. As the hands on my watch continue to go around, the excitement in the boat starts to dwindle as we all take turns catnapping carefully listening for that telltale clicker.

Zzzzzzz...Zzzzzz...Zzzzzzz!!! I know that sound!! Thats the sound of the baitfeeder on my Okuma reel. I spring to life and grab my rod. My instincts are naturally taking over at this point. I tighten the line, feel the thump of the fish, and set the hook! Meanwhile, Rushing is yelling at me "Thats the circle hook!" Ooops. A swing and a miss! I forgot that Rushing had retied a circle hook on my line last time I snagged up and had to retie. The basic rule of circle hooks is not to set the hook. I forgot, and lost another fish to an equipment problem. Or you could consider it an operator problem. The rest of the night was pretty slow with Dennis pulling in another 15lb Flathead cat at dark thirty in the morning. Dennis was excited though, he rearely reels in a fish while he's guiding and got to land one tonight. Not a biggie but still a fish caught. The Next River Rat Meet was definitely a good time. It was fun to spend the night on the river with Dennis & Rushing. Rushing knows this stretch of the river well and I learned alot from both of these anglers on this trip. I can't wait for next year's Rat Meets!