Today was a day of good fortune so to speak.  We got a jump start on Day #13 the night before when we rolled into Warsaw, Missouri.  After checking the weather forecast we concluded that we needed to try to get on the water that night and beat the early morning thunderstorms that were heading our way.  Fortunately our guide, Anthony Ford, intercepted our phone call and was available to go out that evening. We met Anthony around 8PM and by 9PM we were on Lake of the Ozarks trying to catch shad, our bait fish.

If fished for catfish hundreds of times, but never blue cats which act entirely different.  These fish do some sort of bizarre line slimming exercise with their bodies and tail long before they ever decide to eat your bait.  As a result your poles are bouncing and twitching all night.  At times every one of our 6 rods was bouncing up and down as if there was some sort of underwater disco going on.  But when they hit the bait you knew it.  They would hammer the shad, some pushing a half pound themselves, and hook themselves in the process.  Your job was to hold on from that point on.

We caught a half dozen night cats, but Taylor got the best of the night with a beautiful 14 pounder.  After some photos we released him for another fisherman to enjoy his fight another day.

After about 5 hours on the water we called it a night and headed back in.  The lights went off in our RV around 2:30AM.   We awoke at 8:30AM and set our course for Lawrence, KS where we would be meeting my father, mother, uncle, aunt, brother and family, and friends for a small mid-journey BBQ before departing around 9PM for Milford Reservoir in Kansas where we would fish on Day #14.  Tomorrow we will tackle the emphasis hybrid White-Striped Bass which are known to be incredible fighters.