5-30-2006 (Little) Cats on the Coon

[MrWiskers]

Went out today from Racoon Mtn with my co-worker in his new-to-him bass boat (which ran great unlike my POS in the garage). The weather was nice. The clouds rolled in and the wind was dead. We caught 6 cats total with the largest being around 7-8 lbs. We caught most of our fish on a 50-55 ft ledge. We had a lot of fish bite our shad in two but would not take the bait. The current was very slow which did not help our chances much as I think the fish have more time to investigate the bait before they attack. The larger fish we were catching 1-2 weeks ago are gone. I assume they may be spawing as the water temperature has risen from 70 to 77 in the last 1.5 weeks. Or they may have went up river to where rsimms is fishing.

Oh well, maybe next time.

 

[rsimms]

MrWiskers... remember that sometimes we set our sights too high. There are many, many folks out there in the world who would be doing backflips if they ever caught six catfish that weighed up to 8 lbs. It is all relative and we are very lucky to live in a place where we can consider such a day "weak." I think you had a GREAT day and I bet lots of folks who read this (but don't post) agree.

 

[messier49]

sounds like a pretty good day of fishing to me

 

[MrWiskers]

Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining. I would rather fish all day and not catch anything than mow the lawn. We do get spoiled when you have days where you catch 100+ lbs in 3 hrs. The fustrating part is that you will catch 4-5 fish in about 45 minutes and then fish the next 2 hours and only catch 1 or 2. It is like they say if you caught fish everyday then it would not be fun.

 

[drumking]

MrWiskers - 5/31/2006 6:56 AM

Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining. I would rather fish all day and not catch anything than mow the lawn. We do get spoiled when you have days where you catch 100+ lbs in 3 hrs. The fustrating part is that you will catch 4-5 fish in about 45 minutes and then fish the next 2 hours and only catch 1 or 2. It is like they say if you caught fish everyday then it would not be fun.

Here's some food for thought. If you get out there at the tail end of a major feeding movement you might get 4 or 5 quick bites and then things go silent. It seems as if the catfish just disappear. It takes about 4 to 6 hours before the next solunar movement begins and you begin to get them to bite again. Another scenario is that when you begin to fish, you can't get anything to bite. You fish for 2 or 3 hours and suddenly, the catfish go nuts and you catch a boatload in short order. You have gotten in on the beginning of a major movement.

One other thing that I have noticed about catfishing. If you are fishing near a full or new moon phase, the fish will aggressive bite your bait and you hook up on nearly every bite. If you are fishing near a half moon phase, whether the moon is waxing or waning, you may get a lot of bites, but you will only hook up on a very small percentage of bites. A lot of fish will "twist" off during the fight. I think that is because they are barely hooked in the lips and the weight of the fish tears the hook out. At least that has been my experience. It would be interesting to here what Rsimms has to say about that as he catfishes a whole lot more than I do. We could also talk about the timing of the feeding periods in correlation to the moon phases, but that might be too controversial and long winded for this thread.

 

[Fat Albert]

I sounds as if drumking has turned into a professor of fishing tactics and I remember him when he was only a perch jerker and a pretty good softball player. but he is correct when he refers to the moon phases....emoScratch emoGeezer

 

[rsimms]

drumking - 5/31/2006 7:54 AM
If you are fishing near a full or new moon phase, the fish will aggressive bite your bait and you hook up on nearly every bite. If you are fishing near a half moon phase, whether the moon is waxing or waning, you may get a lot of bites, but you will only hook up on a very small percentage of bites.

I am not much of a believer in Solunar Tables and major or minor fishing times. I just feel like there are far too many other environmental variables ... water flow, water levels, water clarity, water temperature, availability of natural food sources, light levels (clouds or no clouds)... and a dozen others I can't think of right now. With all the other variables that come into play, I just can't put much stock in solunar tables or almanacs. I will admit that there are times when I might pay attention to full moons, especially when smallmouth fishing. However we're coming out of a no moon period right now and I know the big catfish have turned on in a big way in the last few days. As for hook up percentages, I think it has more to do with the size of bait versus size of fish. When I'm after big fish and drifting a shad head that far bigger than my fist, with entrails trailing out... I know there are lots of times when a catfish comes and chews on it and it's just plain too big for him to get it in his mouth. I think the same holds true even as you size down. It's true that there are times when the fish seem much more aggressive than others... but sorry Drumking, I don't think it has anything to to do with the phase of the moon.

But remember this.... in any kind of fishing you MUST have confidence in your bait and technique. If a Full Moon gives you confidence, you WILL catch more fish because you'll fish more diligently and effectively. So in that respect, yes, fish the Full Moon hard!

 

[MrWiskers]

I think current has a lot to do with how hard fish hit the bait. When the current is rolling I don't think the fish have time to look at the bait, they just attach it. With slow current the bait is more stationary and the fish can be more selective. Water clarity may also do the same thing. Again we had numerous fish "rub" the bait and then come back and hit it. It almost seemed like they wanted to "taste" it before they ate it. The current has been very slow the past week at Racoon so I think this could be why our numbers and size of fish is down.

I do agree with the feeding frenzy theory (at least sort of). I think at times the fish just move out instead of quit biting. Remember catfish move, alot. When we fish we never fish a spot longer than 30 minutes unless we are catching fish as in our experience they are either there or not. We always try different depths and structure to try to find where the fish are holding and what depth. Again, moving the boat 10-20 feet the wrong direction can be the difference in a great day or no fish at all. Always try difference depths in your favorite holes. We have also found that when they quit biting, moving the boat out or in a little will turn them back on. Again the fish are moving. A month or so ago I found fish holding on a drop that went from 20-40 feet. If I held my boat at the magical 35 foot depth I caught fish like crazy. If I wan in 20 or 40 I would not get a hit. The next trip the fish were holding on the bottom of the drop in 40 foot and Alvin caught a lot more than me as he was in the back of the boat fishing deeper.

Another thing that happens is the fish suspend. We always fish a rod or two in rod holders and we place the bait about 20 feet under the boat no matter how deep we are fishing. At times we will catch more fish on the rod holders than off the bottom. Our largest fish last year was 35 lbs and came off a rod holder rod at 20 foot in 35 feet of water.

Another thing that we have had happen this year is bait size made all the difference. Earlier this spring we could not get a hit on a whole shad but we could catch 10-15 lb fish on small 1 inch pieces. Go figure.

 

[coondog]

i agree with rsimms if your cathin' fish its a good day

 

[DHaun]

I'm going to be trying myself sometime this weekend. Great Report and Info - Thanks!