Keith Lusher For some fishermen who live on the Northshore, the name “Mike Jones” and the words “Big Fish” go hand in hand. Mike has been fishing the rivers and bayous here on the Northshore since he was a kid. He’s caught numerous catfish over 30 lbs. and just last year he landed a 26 lb. striped bass in the Rice Field Canal just off of the Tchefuncte River. Now Jones has another fish to add to his list of river monsters that he’s caught.
After a frantic fight on the surface of the water Jones finally landed the paddlefish Every year Mike runs trot-lines in the Tchefuncte River and this year is no different. He’s been having good results using live mullet on his lines. “Fortunately, I now have a honey hole close by that has been producing enough finger mullet for me to keep bait on the line continuously,” Mike says. Mike decided to run his lines at night and was excited to see what was in store. The last time I checked it I caught 3 catfish that were around 12 lbs. and one really big one that was 45 lbs. I haven’t caught one like that in a while and it gave me the rush I was looking for,” Mike says. Unfortunately on this trip Mike started checking the line and noticed that it was slack. He started pulling in the line and discovered that it was cut. Mike’s friend, Enoch Wilson, came along to help run the lines and took over pulling the line in as Mike baited the hooks with fresh mullet. “Just as we were almost done baiting the hooks my friend all of a sudden lights up and starts talking really fast! I was trying to figure out what he was saying and all of a sudden I realized he must be feeling a fish on the line,” Says Jones. As Enoch pulled the line closer he continued to struggle to figure out what it was. “He’s yelling I don’t know what it is! It doesn't look like a catfish it keeps splashing around!” says Mike.
"It almost felt like I caught something not real" Mike says Thinking they hooked an alligator, Mike turned on the spotlight to see what was jumping franticly out of the water. After shining the light on fish Mike couldn’t believe what he was looking at. “It almost felt like I had caught something not real - I don’t know how to explain it,” the bewildered angler says. After regaining their composure the friends haled the fish into the boat. They had just caught a 4 ft. paddle fish. They took a few pictures with the sharklike fish and then released it. Paddlefish are very rarely caught by anglers because they feed on plankton. The fish is closely related to the sturgeon family and take on the appearance of a shark. Paddlefish are edible and have a daily limit of 2 per angler in Louisiana. Mike says it’s a night he won’t soon forget. “Another species to check off the bucket list! I sure am happy about that!”
