MSrivercatfish.com

My friend Demetrius came back out this last Saturday to fish with me again.  You will recall a month ago, Demetrius caught a nice blue catfish just under 70 lbs.  He came back over with the hopes of catching about a 70 lb Flathead.

It was not to be.  He did, however, get to net my new personal best.  He brought along some nice fresh skipjack and we pulled out all the stops in putting some great bait out there.

The river had just started a hard rise.  It went up 3 feet over night and another 3 feet while we were out fishing.  Fortunately the trash in the water had not become bad yet.  We set up on some structure armed with big skipjack heads and filleted sides.  The wind was blowing hard and the river was white capping.  I thought I was going to freeze.

My outside pole with the skipjack fillet bobbed and went down hard.  I quickly grabbed the pole and I knew it was a good one.  He took out some line but not too much.  He moved around but stayed down.  Then he started coming toward the boat.  He moved down directly under the boat and just stayed there.  He would move back and forth some while taking out a little line but mostly he just stayed down.  Slowly I started to gain some on him, as I put the most pressure on him that I dared.  Finally he came close to surfacing beside the boat and we saw the swirl of his tail.  It was a long way from my main line!!  Wow, this was a good one.  He came up and Demetrius put the net under him.  What a beauty!!  My new personal best.  Just shy of 70 lbs.

We snapped some pics and released the beast to be caught by us again hopefully next year!  Unfortunately the days events were not anywhere near as exciting as our morning adventure.  I soon caught another blue after this about 12-13 lbs.  We fished behind a dike later on and Demetrius had one on that we estimated was in the 20lb class.  He got off just right before we could see him.  We saw the swirl, as he swam back down.  The day ended with Demetrius catching a flathead cat weighing 4 or 5 lbs out of 70 feet of water.  I don’t know why but this 70 foot hole has produced a number of smaller flatheads over the last few trips.

A cold, miserable, windy day but the fishing wasn’t too bad at all.  It’s those really pleasant days (weather-wise) that you have to look out for!

Shane

My new personal best Blue catfish. Just under 70 lbs.

I got away on Wednesday morning to do a little catfishing after I dropped the kids off at school.  The water temp is dropping fast.  It was 65 degrees.  I found a few decent shad and set off to find some catfish!

I pretty much spent my time on the wing dikes.  Fished some downstream sides and upstream sides.  I caught 1, 2, 7, 8, and 10 lbers for my efforts.  The 2lber was a flathead.  Finally on my last spot I anchored just upstream of the dike.  I hooked up my biggest shad and tossed it out there.  I also put a couple other poles out with smaller offerings.  After about 10 minutes my pole with the big shad went down hard.  He took off and the fight was on.  There was some decent 12 ounce current in this spot, so it wasn’t easy.  I managed to get the net under him and he weighed in right at 30 lbs.  I was hoping for a nice 30 lb Flathead but I’ll take a blue catfish if I have too!  It’s always nice for the last fish to be the best.  Of course, you will take them any way you can get them!

Another great day on the river.

Shane

The water continues to go up, down and back up.  I believe it is cresting today and will start going back down again.

I went out on the 19th of September and didn’t have too much luck.  I had a terrible time catching bait.  I spent 2 hours throwing a cast net and only had about 8 small shad to show for my trouble.  The water had cleared up quite a bit and I was sure that the skipjack would be biting.  No such luck.  All of my “normal” spots produced absolutely nothing.  So I went fishing with my 8 small shad.  I ended up catching a 5 lb blue and a 7lb Flathead.  I did lose one other fish that I estimate in the 15-20lb range.  Got him all the way to the boat and he got off just before I could see him.

I decided to go out this past Tuesday (Sept. 29th) and ended up having not too bad of a day, although nothing of much size.  Overall, it was a very slow day.  I had a little trouble getting bait but I ended up with a good supply of small 4″ shad.  The water had come up so much that all the wing dikes were under water, so casting for skipjack wasn’t a possibility. The logs and trash in the water was real bad.  I really had to be careful driving the boat, as I just had my prop repaired a couple weeks ago.  I fished for 4 hours and only had a 5lb Flathead to show for my efforts.  That is, until I fished my last spot, which was a big cut.  This cut is large enough to where I can anchor in the back current going back to the main river.  In this last spot I caught a small blue and flathead (2 lbs a piece), a 5 lb Flathead and a 20 lb Blue.  They all came out of deeper 70 foot water.

So, like I said, it was a slow day until the last spot.  5 fish doesn’t sound too bad but when they are mostly lumped in the last spot, that’s a lot of “slack” time.

Here’s a few pictures! Until next time…

Shane