Question:
my bro-in-laws farm tank again last weekend. Caught a mess of bream
and one nice Cat Bass Boat. I think I was fishing too fast, and I swapped
lures more often than normal, trying to find what they wanted. T-rigged a
small green w/gold flake tube, threw it into some shallow weeds, and
picked up a nice 15" catfish. This is the same place I caught a cat on a
crankbait. Maybe I just aint cut out to be a bass fisherman. Should I
buy a bunch of circle hooks and chicken gizzards and see if I can catch
a bass?
Answer:
-I was fishing for saugeye late one June evening with a leadhead jig and a
chartruese grub worm. I casted on to some rocks in about 1 - 2 feet of
water and got a major hit. When I got the fish to the boat, it was about a
5 lb. flathead catfish. I thought about taking it home, but decided that I
did not want to clean a catfish.
-The sun gets low on the horizon here about 8:30 p.m. this time of year, and
it starts to get dark about 9:00.
I put the boat in about 7:00 p.m. in a 30 acre city lake a few miles from
home. I too was bass fishing, using my favorite artificial lure for small
lake and pond fishing... a 7.5 inch red culprit plastic worm.
I had fished for over an hour, but I wasn't having much luck, mainly getting
eaten up by blue gill and sunfish hitting and carring my worm around without
eating it. As I worked my way around the lake and as dusk approached, I
threw the ole standby up into the submerged limbs from a blown over willow
tree hanging in the water about 10 to 15 feet from the bank. I timed my
retreive so that I was reeling the worm back at the same moment it hit the
water, so as to avoid a snag. Almost instantly upon impact I had a good
bite and set the hook solidly. I could tell on the hookset that I had a
"goodun".
The fish immediately started stripping line from my baitcaster heading
directly into the submerged tree. In my small jon boat with my tiller style
trolling motor, I had a hard time keeping the fish out of the willow tree
and manuevering my boat. Luckily I was able to get the fish turned and use
my trolling motor to get the boat away from the bank to deeper water and
away from the tree. This fish was burning drag headed back to cover. I had
to apply extra pressure to the reel spool with my thumb to keep him from
getting his way. Boy o boy was he a fighter!
After several minutes I was able to get the fish up to the top of the water.
Instead of a large bass, which I was hoping because I knew would have been a
trophy, it was a large channel catfish. Mr. Wiskers put up a great fight
and had my adrenaline pumping (had to cause I was slightly out of breath).
He certainly made my fishing trip one to remember
