Despite negative reports for john martin, I decided to take the long haul to john martin friday afternoon to go fish the spillway. The fishing started of slow with only a few fish here and there. Then about 1am it was game on. Started slaying the cats all the way untill morning. I probably caught atleast 30 fish with the biggest being 9 pounds. Most were channel catfish but I also managed 2 blue catfish and 3 flathead. On Saturday I was very temtpted to leave due to the extreme heat but I decided to stay and fish one more night. Right about dark on Saturday night a wicked storm came through with 80+ mph wind and lighting. A giant cloud of dust came through and dam near knocked me off my feet. There was two other guys fishing by me that took a sprint for the truck so I figured I better do the same. About the time I got to my truck all the lights on the buildings and on the dam went out. The dust was so thick and it got so dark I was sure I was in the middle of a dam tornado. I had small rocks start hitting the side of my truck and things started to get a bit eary out there. I have never seen the sky so black and the wind blowing so hard. If it wasnt for my fishing gear still being down at the lake I would have booked it out of there. After about 30 minutes the storm finally passed and it calmed down. I was told there was an unconfirmed report of a tornado but I never saw it myself. Either bway it was the most wicked storm ive ever been in. After things calmed down I decided to go fish for a few before I left. It didn't take 5 minutes and I caught my personal best flathead at 8 pounds. About 15 minutes later I hooked into something bigger. After a 10 minute fight I reeled in my second biggest channel cat ever. At 17 pounds, this was my biggest from john martin yet. I was very stoked! Despite all the slow reports from other people down there, I managed to get dialed in very well down there. This was my 4th trip down there this summer and I have did better every time. The fishing appears to be tough at first glance but once you get dialed in to what the catfish are feading on, there are more than plenty of nice cats to be caught at jm. Awesome way to end my catfish season for sure.
