Catfish city
Helena-West Helena event serves up monster catch
HELENA-WEST HELENA — The mid-South portion of the Mississippi River showed why it is the nation’s top destination for catfishing Friday and Saturday during the Helena 2021 Catmasters tournament.
During the event, 103 teams weighed in a total of 9,081.48 pounds. Friday was the better day, with anglers weighing in 5,116.54 pounds. Saturday’s weight fell to 3,964.94 pounds.
George Young Jr. and Tim Spencer of Memphis won the event and $15,000 with a two-day catch weighing 223.44 pounds. They also caught the biggest fish of the tournament, a blue catfish weighing 65.74 pounds, to win an additional $1,600.
Les Thompson, Nooner Hall and Trenton Thompson of Caruthersville, Mo., weighed in 202.58 pounds to win $7,000. Their biggest fish weighed 61.87 pounds.
Finishing third were Casey Tutorow and Nick Han of Indianapolis (201.51/$5,000), followed by Jeff Dodd and Jonathan Dodd (200.74/$2,500).
Finishing fifth were Roy Harkness, Don Sweat and Bill Dance of Ripley, Tenn., (198.51/$2,000). They caught a blue cat weighing 63.99 pounds on Friday to win first-round big fish honors worth $1,000.
John Berglund, John Hoverson and Eddie Henney caught a 61.19-pound blue cat, and Larry Muse and Dino Meador caught a blue cat that weighed 61.03 pounds.
The biggest fish caught by a military veteran was a 58.64-pound blue cat caught by Joe Stringer, a U.S. Navy veteran.
Cam Pitts was the top-finishing woman. She weighed in 164.04 pounds to win $250, followed by Jenny Tholl with 156.08 pounds and Cye Duley with 138.22 pounds.
Cassidy Tholl was the highest finishing youth angler, weighing in 156.08 pounds to win $250.
Despite hot, humid weather, the fishing was excellent throughout the event.
That was partly attributable to the Mississippi River being low and slow, which enabled Young and his crew to use his bumping technique at slow speed along ledges to catch their winning weight.
Young said he uses cut skipjack on his own signature three-way rig. Young said he uses a 4-ounce weight to get the rig to the bottom.
Young said he found a 2 mph current and used his trolling motor to cut the drift speed in half. That means the bow of the boat is facing upriver as it drifts downriver.
“I keep bumping it along the bottom about 150 to 200 feet behind the boat,” Young said.
Young said catfish move up and down on the ledges. They might be at 80 feet in the morning and at 40 feet in the afternoon. Sometimes the bites are vicious, Young said, and other times they are mere taps.
“It’s always different,” Young said. “Sometimes they just smoke your drag, but a lot of times it’s a tap. If it’s a big one, you can tell when you rare back, it’s just dead weight. He’s glued to the bottom. You reel down and pull again, and he don’t move. That’s when you know it’s a good one. You turn the trolling motor off and drift back to him. You might pull him out of 60 feet and bring them to the top, but they’ll smoke the drag and go back to the bottom. There’s no stopping them.”
Young said he fishes around Helena two or three times a year recreationally, and he fishes a couple of tournaments in the area annually.
He also shoots a TV show annually with Bill Dance, a well-known angler from Memphis.
The heat made this tournament unusually challenging, Young said, but he’s rigged his boat to make it a little more tolerable.
“It’s tough in that hot weather,” he said. “I installed two big floor fans in the back of the boat with a little generator in front. Buddy, when I turn them on, it’s a life-saver.”