58 pound Chickamauga, TN. Flathead!

My TWRA friends from Morristown, TN (Rob & Jim), along with another friend from Knoxville, TN (Roy) came down for some fishing this morning, and asked me as a special treat to take Rob's old school friend (Scott Dugan) and his brother Mike, both from Minnesota. Scott suffers from Huntington's disease, and has limited use of his hands, arms, and legs. We put him in the rear seat and Rob took the middle, while Mike and Jim got into Roy's boat.
What a beautiful day! The fishing was slow, with Scott and Mike - who left 3 feet of ice on their lakes to fish here - kicking our butts by catching 6 fish each. Mike got the big blue cat of the day at 17 pounds (his biggest fish ever), and Scott whupped on us all by hanging a 58 pound MONSTER flathead catfish! With his limited strength and coordination, it was quite a battle, but he did wonderfully and after about a 20 minute fight we had color, but it was the wrong color! Rob realized that it was a flathead and whooped and hollered and chased it with the net and finally got it. Rob and I had to lift the net into the boat, and when we did we hit Scott in the center of the chest with the handle of the net and almost knocked him out of the boat! A quick grab by Rob kept us from having to net Scott too!
This was Scott's personal best fish - by 45 pounds - and the man couldn't stop grinning. I was just as happy as I could be for the brothers. Another fabulous day on the river!!!