BY LYNN BURKHEAD

HERALD DEMOCRAT

In the times that I have fished with Brett Graham, big largemouth and smallmouth bass have usually been what gets the blood boiling for the fervent angler and owner of Sherman's Graham Truck Center.

Not a few weeks ago, however.

Fishing near Washita Point with a Bandit 700 deep diving crankbait, Graham was dutifully working some big rock piles near the point, hoping for a big autumn smallmouth bass.

"After I found these big boulders and piles I set them on my GPS and then backed off and started deep cranking," he said. "I got hung up, and after trying like heck for a couple of minutes to get my crank bait of the rocks, I realized the rock pile was moving."

Needless to say, as Graham said, the fight was on.

"This big blue cat pulled me over, around, and through Washita point a couple of times," he said. "After about 45 minutes I finally got him up."

With no one else in the boat, Graham said that a man and his wife finally came over and offered to net the fish, an offer he was all to eager to accept.

That's when things got a little crazy.

"It immediately ripped through the bottom of the net, so now I was fighting a 5 foot catfish with a six foot net wrapped around his head."

This fish tale can -- and does -- get worse.

"As I tried again to drag the fish in the boat, the line broke," Graham said. "Out of desperation I grabbed the handle of the broken net, and luckily the crank bait had tangled in the net.

"I finally sucked it up, bear hugged this sticky behemoth and pulled it in."

Graham said that the big blue was a bit more smelly and slimy than the bass that he is accustomed to catching.

But that doesn't mean he didn't quickly appreciate the big blue.

"Realizing it was likely older than I was, I shot a few photos and quickly eased it back into the water," he said. "If I was guessing it's weight, I would say 60 to 80 pounds. It bottomed out my 50 pound scale."

And that's no fish story either.

Graham has the photo -- and the broken net -- to prove it!