Tennessee Angler Won’t Let Cancer Stop Her from Catching Giant Catfish
Paula Curtis Smith recently landed a huge 69-pound catfish on the Tennessee River
By Bob McNally | Published Apr 6, 2022 4:02 PM

Paula Curtis Smith has been catching giant blue catfish for years, and she’s not letting a recent cancer diagnosis slow her down. On April 3, she landed a 69-pound blue catfish (one of her biggest ever) from the Tennessee River, according to the Tennessean newspaper. Smith is from Waverly, Tennessee, and was fishing in Humphries County west of Nashville when she hooked the big cat. The fight and the landing were recorded on video and posted to Facebook.

Smith hooked the catfish in 45 feet of water using a cut skipjack herring bait. In the video she is seen fighting the fish deep in the middle of the Tennessee River, using stout catfish tackle.
At one point she has to maneuver her rod with the hooked catfish around another rod in a stern holder, and she jokingly says that maybe the fish is “just a 5-pounder.” But it’s obvious that she’s hooked into a giant. It takes Smith about 10 minutes to beat it.

Eventually, she works the fish to the surface where it slashes and splashes. There’s immediate urgency from her fishing companion as he locates a landing net and Smith struggles to lead the catfish into the hoop of mesh.

She tries to lift the net, but it’s too heavy, and for a moment the fish almost pulls the net back into the river. Smith’s companion grabs the net and hauls the fish aboard their boat, showing the cat’s enormous size and stomach.

As Smith works to unhook the fish, she says: “You have made my day – don’t bite me.”
She grabs the cat with both hands in its mouth, and struggles to lift it, getting its head and most of the body up for a final look before the video ends.

After the blue was weighed, it was released alive back into the river. While the 69-pounder is a giant for anyone, anywhere, Smith has caught bigger catfish, including a 70-pounder last May, and an 88-pounder four years ago. Her goal is to catch a 100-pound catfish. Smith started fishing again recently while undergoing treatment following her diagnosis in October, according to the Tennessean.

“No one should ever give up regardless of what they are facing,” Smith told the Tennessean.
Video 3:17 www.facebook.com/100001311862425/videos/314973310566443/
Link: https://www.outdoorlife.com/fishing/woman-fights-cancer-catches-giant-catfish/

Well guys I spent the morning in the Dr.'s office with Suzanne to find very good news, she's been having back problems and we were afraid it was a vertebra but turns out it pulled muscles in her back. Some PT should get her straightened out.

Got home late but thought I'd fish for an hour and a half before dark. Cranked the motor and went 100 yards or so to a point across from the ramp. There's a nice flat slate rock point there that extends out into the mouth of a small cove. One side of point borders the main lake and falls quickly off into 60 ft. of water then deeper just 20 to 30 feet off one side. the other side flattens out into the cove providing a good forage flat after several feet of slate rock. Setting the boat down on the deep side of the point I dropped the trolling motor and tied on a 5/32nd aspirin head I pore with a #1 Mustad jig hook and threaded on a Roboworm Alive Shad and moved up to the and cast across the point and let the bait sink till it hit bottom, quickly picked up the rod tip and started slowly reeling. Then there was weight so I sweeped the rod to find a heavy fish tugging back, giving the rod a good tug the fight was on. A real nice Smallmouth burst out of the water shaking it's head and doing a tail dance till it flopped back down. Several good runs and an extended fight at the side one the boat, I don't carry a net, I finally grabbed it's lip and the withe was over. Beautiful tough fighting Smallmouth when put on the board measured right at 20" a 4 pound 10 ounce dandy for the first cast of the afternoon. Moved on down the bank and caught one a 17" then another at 16. By this time the sky was getting dark with rain clouds so I called it quits. A very fun hour and a half on the lake this afternoon.

It was either 2018 or 19 that I received the Email from a lawyer in an African county that informed me I might be the heir of a deceased relative. This relative, along with his wife and teenage son all died together in an automobile accident recently and this lawyer was trying to find their lost relatives.

I immediately smelled a skunk and wrote back that I had no relatives in East Africa, that he was just trying to promote a hoax. I then sent a copy of his letter to my attorney asking his advice. His advice was the same as I had thought, this was a fraud and one I should avoid participating in. I am no longer in possession of the correspondence from the attorney and am not even sure of the African country but believe it was Burundi.

I answered back that I was not going to participate, that I wasn’t interested in any fraud, nor would I swear any false statement in order to inherit money. I did not have any relatives in Africa. This did not keep him from continuing to write.

He explained that since there were no other living relatives, the funds which were over four million in equivalent to U.S. Dollars, along with several hundred thousand in gold bullion and gold coins, would all eventually escheat to the government. He said neither he nor the bank officials cared to see that happen. He offered to split the estate 50/50 after about $100,000 in expenses for his firm. He finally said that it did not really matter that I was not actually related, that since the deceased was named Jonathan Robert Samples, and I was Robert Joe Samples, he believed that would be adequate to secure the transfer.

I never agreed to any part of his fraud, and doubt that I would have ever seen anything if I had
been gullible enough to have played along with his plan . Regardless, it was a fun exercise to daydream about having a couple million dollars to play with. What would you have done? Just Sayin…RJS