Catfish-Chickamauga-7/03

[drumking]

I had a call from a friend late yesterday evening and he wanted to try catfishing for a couple of hours with his son, so we put in around 7:00 and fished til 9:00 and typical of a half-moon phase, we had around 20 bites. Landed only 3 and they were barely hooked. The largest was a 6.5 blue. The son caught the largest blue and had so much fun. I can't wait to take him again.

Rsimms, how in the world do you hook up when the fish are nitpicking like they were last night? I have experienced this for years. On full moon or new moon phases, I have to hold on to my rod really tight or they will jerk them out of the boat. No problem hooking up during these times. I know that you don't put any stock in the moon phase theory, but I have found that to be my experience.emoScratch emoGeezer

 

[MrWiskers]

What bait were you using? We went last night and caught 1 fish around 5-6 lbs and had a few little fish just peck at the bait. I would assume the bites you were getting were little fish trying to steal your bait. Last night was probably the worst day of catfishing I have had this year.

 

[messier49]

yeah, i am anxious to hear what richard says. maybe there are different strategies or something, i planned to take the wife catfishing this coming saturday and i'm hoping to catch some nice cats, would hate to think that all the good cat fishing occur only around the new and full moon phases.

 

[rsimms]

drumking - 7/4/2006 10:04 AM
Rsimms, how in the world do you hook up when the fish are nitpicking like they were last night? I have experienced this for years. On full moon or new moon phases, I have to hold on to my rod really tight or they will jerk them out of the boat. No problem hooking up during these times. I know that you don't put any stock in the moon phase theory, but I have found that to be my experience.emoScratch emoGeezer

My typical response when fish get finicky is to "size down." Smaller baits and smaller hooks... in cases where I'm getting lots of little "peckers," I usually assume there are lost of small channel cats. As you know channels have a much smaller mouth than a blue, and the real little guys will simply gnaw on a bait like a dog gnawing a bone. Depending on my bait (shad or bluegill), I'll usually just keep fishing, ignore the little channels and wait for a better-sized fish to show up. But if I want to mess with them, I'll switch to smaller hooks and chicken livers. I don't know of many times when cats would be "finicky" with fresh chicken liver. But you will generally catch smaller fish with them.
Sorry I'm slow.... I've been in the great Southwest with the family. I fed a substantial amount of greenery to Vegas video poker machines whilst consuming free adult beverages. Then we explored the Grand Canyon. Look for forthcoming photos in another thread.