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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

A friend of mine, Demetrius, from over in KY came out to fish with me on Saturday, September 5th.  Our fishing adventures go back 4 or 5 years and we’ve had some GREAT days & some not-so-great days on the mighty Mississippi river.  We had a day a few years back where Demetrius caught a couple of 40 class blue cats and finished the day with a beautiful 52 lb Flathead.  Those are the days that keep you coming back for more.  On the flip side, we’ve had some days when we couldn’t buy a bite.

Fortunately our latest trip turned out to be one of those good days.  With the water up over the dikes a little bit, we planned on hitting a few upstream spots on some dikes and then fishing the revetment banks.  Our first spot proved to be good.  I had a couple good looking bites that resulted in no fish but the next one took it down hard and headed for the channel.  He fought hard and I was expecting a 40 lb fish.  To my surprise he was only a 23 lb Blue.  I didn’t have time to ponder my disappointment, as one of Demetrius’ poles headed down.  He played the fish while I tried to get mine out of the net.  I netted his and then we took turns taking pictures.  His was a 20 lber.  Nothing huge here but, hey, it was our first spot.

We fished a few more similar spots and were disappointed with just a couple tiny taps.  So we headed to the revetment bank and found a promising looking spot.  What can I say??  It WAS a GREAT spot.  We through out some big skipjackheads and a couple fillets.  Demetrius’ pole withthe big head went down and the fight was on.  It was quickly obvious  that this was a good fish.  Not too long after all this started, the fish got hung up in Demetrius’ other line.  Then things got interesting.  As the fish started coming in, it hung up his other rig in the rocks.  So it got to a p0int where Demetrius could no longer gain anything on the fish.  The fish rolled on the surface behind the boat a ways and we both looked at each other.  Wow, this is a good fish!

I came up with a good idea.  It was actually a great idea, now that I look back on it, LOL.  Since the fish couldn’t come to us, we were going to come to him.  I got up to the front of the boat and started letting out more anchor rope.  We finally got to him and prepared the net.

As if things weren’t interesting enough, Demetrius’ 3rd rod took a dive and that fish started heading out.  I had just let anchor rope out and I grabbed the rod before he snapped off my rod holder!  This was another BIG fish.  I fought him for a while and he got into something.  I don’t know what it was but that one was not to be.  I then refocused on Demetrius’ fish.  I managed to get him in the net and Demetrius cut the other line holding back the fish.  We got him in the boat and life was good.

He topped the scales at 69 lbs.  Very nice!  I wish we also knew what the “one that got away” weighed.

69 lb Blue Catfish

We fished a few more spots before we called it a day on account of storms moving in.  I caught a beautiful flathead that was truly a “Yellow Cat”.  He was gorgeous although he only weighed a couple pounds.

What a day!  Another great one for the books!

Shane

Tony Miller and I headed out on Thursday afternoon around 4:15pm for a few hours of fishing.  Fortunately shad were easy to come by and we had 20-25 in around 15 minutes.  Off we headed to fish a few spots on the revetment bank.

It didn’t take long and I had 4 & 5 lb blues in the boat.  Meanwhile Tony was sure he had casted inside a well-placed jar.

We hit a revetment spot right on a big cut.  Tony caught a 10 lb Blue catfish here.  I turned around and caught a similar fish at 10 lbs also.  Then I caught a 13 lber right after that.

Our last spot was on a small cut in the revetment bank.  The current was moving good here.  I finally got a decent one on.  Of course, a couple minutes into the fight he crossed Tony’s line and it all went downhill from there.  As he pulled against Tony’s line, he hung up the entire rig in the rocks.  So I got to the point where I could no longer get him in, as Tony’s line was hung up and keeping me from being able to gain on the fish.  The Blue was just out of reach.  He was on the surface and was in the low 20 lb range.  A nice fish and I would have liked a picture of him.  I finally pulled hard enough and it broke my 40 lb test leader.  Oh well, he missed his photo opportunity.

Over all we had a great few hours of fishing.  Looking forward to getting out again!

Shane

Augsust 22nd, started off like any other fishing day, except that it is unusually cool.  Low’s in the 50’s in the middle of August?  Unheard of.  I had made up my mind that I was going to have fresh skipjack herring for bait.  I knew where to get them, I just don’t enjoy going downstream in my boat when I enjoy fishing a way upstream for catfish.  I bit the bullet and headed downstream.  The skipjack did not disappoint me, as I caught around 20 in about 15 minutes.  That was more than I needed but it was hard to stop catching them so that I could go after “real” fish.

What every catman likes to see in his cooler!

I then decided to head upstream to fish some rock dikes.  The water was down but was starting a hard rise.  I set up on my first spot.  65 feet of water at the hole on the backside of the dike.  I anchored in about 30 feet and cast to it.  I cast one pole with a big skip head into the hole and then 2 other poles in various other depths.  After 10 minutes the pole in the hole (yes, I’m a poet) went down slowly about half-way.  It just stayed that way with very slight movement.  Kind of odd.  After several seconds of that, I got up and gently grabbed the pole.  I pulled back some on it and it bent over farther.  He then slowly started taking out line.  My drag was set fairly loose, so no big deal.  I put a little more pressure on him and he turned.  He slowly came toward the boat and then moved up toward the front of the boat.  I wasn’t fishing in heavy current at all on the backside of this dike, so no big deal.  He turned again and headed toward the back of the boat.  He took a little bit more line.  Again, slow and deliberate.  He went back and forth between the front of the boat and the back about 3 times.  At this point I was thinking probably around 25-30 lbs.  That was great, it’s been too long since I’ve caught one that size. 

He finally surfaced right beside the boat and I just couldn’t believe it.  He didn’t really fight like a large catfish but I was looking at him.  Fortunately I already had my net extended.  I got his head in the net but was having trouble with the 2nd half of his body.  I dropped my pole to get another hand on the net and got him all the way in.  It wasn’t until I saw him on the bottom of the boat that I realized this was the biggest catfish I had personally caught.

I looked him over and this is what makes this even more interesting.  He was all scrapped up around the tail, which shows he is recovering from the spawn.  His head was absolutely huge, much bigger than the body that was on him.  He was relatively skinny.  He measured out at just over 51″ and weighed 60 lbs.  I was by myself, so I don’t have to tell you what a pain it was to get a picture of him.  Set the 10 second delay, push the button, heave the fish up and strike a pose.  Wow, that gets old fast.  My first picture only got the tail end of the fish but the second one turned out much better.

60 lb Blue Catfish on the Mississippi river

I put him back in the water and moved him back and forth for a while until he really started fighting me.  I let him go and he swam away peacefully.

I fished several hours and caught some other blue cats: 2, 5, 10, 11, & 15 lbers.  Here’s a couple more pics:

Possible bait for 60 lb Blue catfish

This one preferred a skipjack chunk.

Overall it was a great day.  It was a little windy with a pretty good chop on the water.  The wind was coming out of the NW.

Shane

My brother-in-law and I headed out on the Mississippi river on the morning of July 4th. It was going to be real hot and we were having a big cookout in the afternoon, so we decided to fish till around 11am.  He had never been fishing out on the big river before, so I was hoping to show him some good fishing.  Unfortunately this is a bad time of year to really get on some good fish.

We found the shad and had plenty of good sized bait for the morning.  We didn’t do very well with catching decent fish though.  I let him catch all the fish but it ended up only being 2.  Both of them were in the 5lb range and they were both scraped & somewhat bloody.  Apparently the spawn has been a little rough on them.  We had a couple other good hits but they never fully committed.

It was a pretty day out and we had a nice breeze, so we didn’t bake.  I’m overly ready to start catching some nice cats.  These 5 lbers are killing me.  Thanks James Paul for the fun day on the river!

Shane

My brother-in-law strains himself to hold up the "lunker" of the day!

Tony and I headed out again yesterday afternoon (July 2nd).  It was a beautiful evening.  The side channel where I normally catch my shad was really warm.  Water temp was 88 degrees.  After a few casts, I figured I needed to find some cooler water.   The tributary nearby was 6 degrees cooler.  That’s where we found them.  We caught about 18 shad which proved to be plenty for the evening.

Just like my last trip, I missed the big fish.  He bobbed the pole a couple times and started down with it.  I grabbed it too soon.  I apparently need to work on my patience   The next fish I was VERY patient with.  He wasn’t able, however, to do much with it.  He was a beautfiul flathead but only weighed around 2 lbs.

We were fishing down a revetment bank and our next spot resulted in a 4lb channel cat.  Tony was unable to get any good bites on his side of the boat.  I ended the evening on a sour note by catching a Drum

Hopefully my patience will pay off on the next trip.  I’ll be glad when the spawn is over and we can get back to some better fish.  Right now I’ll blame the spawn for my lack of fish, LOL.

Happy Fishing!

Shane

I got a phone call around 2pm from Tony Miller wanting to see if I could meet in the evening for a few hours of fishing.  We met at the ramp at 4:30pm.  The first order of business was to see about netting some shad.  Since the water was up and there was a little current coming through my shad hole, I decided to bring my light spinning gear armed with a Sabiki rig just in case I saw a skipjack or two. 

We headed up to the shad hole and there was a ton of trash coming downstream.  At the head of this side channel is a dike that comes all the way across.  Water comes over the top when the river is up and that’s what makes current flow through our shad spot.  As we approached the dike, there was an unusual sound at the back of the boat.  I thought perhaps we had hit a piece of lumber but as we turned around we noticed a 10-12lb Asian Carp flopping around on the bottom of the boat   We both had a good laugh and realized that our “bait situation” had drastically improved.  I casted a few times in the turbulent water coming over the dike but the water was soooo muddy I didn’t figure I’d waste much time trying to find skips.  Over around the edge where the current was spinning, I cast my net a few times trying to find some shad.  I ended up with a small channel cat and a 5 lb drum.  Both were of no value to our bait expedition.

We decided to head to the tributary right below the chute to see if we could catch a few shad there.  As we approached, I saw just a glorious sight!!  There was a very distinct mud line where the side channel met with the tributary.  The side channel water had a visibility of about 1/2 inch but the tributary was much clearer.  Right on that line there was splashes all over the place.  I sure was glad a brought my sabiki rig.  Over the next several minutes I caught a dozen skipjack on my rig.  We were set with bait and didn’t even need the Asian carp.  Ahhh, nothing beats fresh skipjack.

I wish the fishing would have been better but it IS the end of June and the spawn is likely in full swing.  Did I mention the trash in the river was bad??  It was terrible:  30 foot trees, masses of branches, all apparently eyeing the boat.

Finally, on one of our revetment setups, I got the HIT I was looking for.  He slowly brought the pole down, then he slammed it down the rest of the way and the drag was ripping off the reel.  I jumped up (literally), grabbed the pole, and the fight was on!  I tighted the drag down some and he turned.  Now he was headed for the boat.  I played a little catch-up, then I felt him shake his head   That was it and he was gone.  After a few tears were shed and the weight estimate was determined (I think we decided he was 70 lbs or so ), we then moved.

I finished the evening out with a whopping 3 lb Blue and that was pretty much it.  A beautiful evening, hot and humid.  We went in with our heads held high, knowing that we didn’t get skunked.  The 75lber was safe (Did I say 70 a moment ago?  I meant 75!) and maybe would weigh a little more next week.

Shane Williams

Today was HOT!!! No, not the fishing but the temperature.  The temps climbed in the mid 90’s but I was thankful for the breeze that kept us “fairly” cool every once in a while.

Tony Miller joined me today on the fishing outing.  I believe he said it had been 3 years since he had been fishing.  Ouch, and I thought my fishing time had been slow lately.

We spent a considerable amount of time this morning trying to locate some shad.  Our usual shad spot had current flowing through, so after some mindless net throwing and 3 spoonbill to show for it, we headed elsewhere.  Bait was hard to find today but we managed to get a few really nice shad, some smaller ones and even a nice mooneye.  Take a look at this shad!

The only spot that actually produced a fish was the first spot.  Tony managed to catch a 4-5lb Blue, as we were dodging trees and limbs in 12 ounce current.  We had numerous close calls with HUGE trees passing by, occassionally hitting the boat and/or line.  Our anchor lost it’s hold on more than one occassion and we basically worked hard for that one fish.

We had a great time though and that’s really what counts.  It was a beautiful day on the river, although it would have been more comfortable if the boat had air conditioning!

Shane