Catfishing - Minner and BPrice 6/13/06 - Wheeler

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Bprice

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Nov 21, 2005
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Big Cove, AL
Minner (Allen) and I haven't gotten to fish together in quite sometime, between my traveling, and him being a good married man, its been tough for us to hit the lake together. Well we decided to sneak out of work early today and see how them big Blues in Wheeler were doing.

Allen is a great catfish scout, and had several holes already picked out on the "river stretch" of Wheeler. We came in quitely to the first hole and got out the skipjack and started making steaks... Allen started out with the head of a 2 lber, and I had about a .25 lb steak w/ guts. We found some nice rocky 45 foot water at the first stop and began our first drift... the current was very strong, but Allen's autopilot Kenner kept us in perfect position. After one drift we looped around the hole and came back for a second drift... almost immediately a freight train nailed my skipjack, after about a 1 minute fight with the fish we got it at the boat, and Allen slid the net under it... 25 lb Blue Cat. My biggest blue cat ever... i was stoked. It was a beautiful fish that we let burp a few times and then it swam back for someone else to fight.

We slide down to our second hole, Plymouth Rock, and it is littered with huge boulders on the bottom around 45-55 ft deep, and almost immediately Allen gets nailed... we think this is a serious blue, and then to our surprise he had pulled up a nice 21 lb Yella Cat, we were really shocked because neither of us had caught a yella on cutbait. It was Allen's rod/reel record Yella Cat.

With day light running out and Allen's wife gettin madder as every minute past, we headed to the bluffs for one last shot. Again, Allen whipped me, and nailed a beautiful 17 lb Blue Cat... and we finished our 200 yard drift and went back for more.

We were sittin' on the back of the boat just BSin' about things and Allen's rod takes a huge dip. I decided to get my video camera out for this one, and it turned out to be a big one. Allen wrestled the fish for about 2 minutes, and it was coming out of 60 foot water, i noticed as did he that his drag was not sounding good and seemed to be not coming off smooth. Finally the fish came to the surface and began thrashing... it finally settled and we got a good look at it. Allen claims 50 lbs, but i have never seen a cat that size... i dip the net and Allen begins to bring the fish closer to the boat, and BAM! 50 lb test Spiderwire snaps about 1 foot above the knot, the fish wallows for a minute about 5 feet from the boat and then decends with the 8/0 Gamy Circle hook still in its face. I can send you video of this feasco with some good shots of the fish... man were we crushed.

It was a great night, 3 cats - 62 lbs, all fish released safely... we really believe in CPR, Catch, Photo, Release, those big cats... What a blast... we are really hoping RSimms can fine tune our techniques on our upcoming trip with him, looking forward to it sir.

The basics:
Depth - 40 -60ft
Bait - cut skipjack steaks
Hooks - 8/0 Gamy Circles
Lead - 4 oz Bank weights
LOTS OF CURRENT
Overcast Skies
Water Temp around 81.
 

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How can you get any satisfaction out of picking up a bass rod after reeling in that kind of weight? I'm dying to try it...waiting on Polo to get some free time. However, I'm almost afraid it will spoil any future bass action for me! Do you have a way to post a link to the video?
 
Jason, thats what Minner told me on our way home... "You sure you want to keep fishing them bass tournaments, before long, you'll be selling your bass stuff on EBAY."

I tell you man, its a rush... but I still love my bass, and they will always (for now) be number one in my heart.

I'll do my best to try to get a link to the video... should have it by the end of the night.
 
Great Report and congrats on the catch! They were not as active on this end of the river tonight...we caught a few channels and some smaller cats but it's almost like the spawn had suddenly started for the bigger cats or they were just shut down by something. How big is the video? If it's compressed to a smaller size and you can email it to me (say less than 10MB) I will try to put it up on the server and create a link to it. Lets see that monster cat! emoThumbsup
 
Doesn't sound (or look) like you need much "fine-tuning" to me. emoThumbsup Neat video, except I really wanted to the look on Minner's face as that fish swam off. emoBigsmile
 
I always bass fished up until about 2 years ago. The only catfishing I ever did was in a pond or occasionally we'd take a jar of frozen Catawba worms to the river and mop up on the 2-3 lbers. We ran the occasional trot line with brim and crawfish but never targeted big cats with the rod and reel. After I moved up north (North Al that is) it only took reading one good fishing report and a pic to set the fire off in me to start big cat fishing. I still need a lot of help learning the right the ways and habits of big cats, as my knowledge is very limited. This was a good day, not my best, but definitely a good day. I just have to become more consistent. Enjoyed the fellowship Bprice............
Later
 
Wow! Thanks was a nice video and some nice fish man! You guys really cleaned up! I'd never give up bass but you can't beat the power on those big ole cats. I did a post the other day about catching them on crank baits in a certain location on Chickamauga in about 5 to 7 feet of water. We were getting bone jarring hits from fish but not hooking up and when we did hook up most of them were cats and most were hooked in the top of the head or side of the jaw. I decided to go back and put a shiner on a bobber because of the water depth and just let it drift about 4.5 feet down. There were 3 of us fishing and it looked like something off the 3 stooges! As fast as we could toss a bobber out a big cat had it and was off. We missed a BUNCH because of excitement and total wonder. In a span of 30 minutes we managed 2 that were over 20lbs and 5 more that were no less than 8 to 10. It was amazing! They were biting almost like bream on a bream bed. The minute it went totally dark the bite turned off, which amazed me as I would have thought it would have really gotten even more intense then. We went back the next day with more shinners and never even had one strike in an hour and a half of fishing. Could it be we had found a spawning area (I would think spawn would be over by now) or was it just baitfish that had moved into the area and the cats had followed?
 
Great report Bprice & minner! Those big cats sure are a blast! I really like that pic of the flathead, you don't see to many of those getting caught on cut bait.
 
Great report guys. I love bass fishing too, but I also love every other kind of fishing. It is really great to change up and throw a Crappie, Catfish, Sauger, etc. trip in between those Bass fishing trips. Heck, I'll go after Carp if I think I can catch some big ones.
 
Fishin Fool - 6/14/2006 9:01 AM
Could it be we had found a spawning area (I would think spawn would be over by now) or was it just baitfish that had moved into the area and the cats had followed?
Click to expand...
My guess would be the latter.... some subtle change in current or other conditions moved the bait elsewhere. And yes, several of us hardcore cat guys have discussed how the big cat bite often quits at dark-thirty. My theory is they move out of holes, or resting areas, and start roaming shallows to feed. I hear from others that the bite sometimes resumes later in the night... but by then I'm usually in bed.
 
Thanks for the info Richard. I haven't ever done a great deal of catfishing and I thought that dark was when you were supposed to really start getting the bites! Thanks for letting me know that you guys experience the same thing. Thanks also for the idea about the current changing. Never thought of that although depending on what TVA is doing it could have a good deal of impact. I'll just have to scout around in a little bigger area.



rsimms - 6/14/2006 9:32 AM

Fishin Fool - 6/14/2006 9:01 AM
Could it be we had found a spawning area (I would think spawn would be over by now) or was it just baitfish that had moved into the area and the cats had followed?
Click to expand...
My guess would be the latter.... some subtle change in current or other conditions moved the bait elsewhere. And yes, several of us hardcore cat guys have discussed how the big cat bite often quits at dark-thirty. My theory is they move out of holes, or resting areas, and start roaming shallows to feed. I hear from others that the bite sometimes resumes later in the night... but by then I'm usually in bed.
Click to expand...
 
nice fish guys!! me and brandon's luck with the whiskerfish hasn't been all that good lately, glad they turned on for you yesterday.. all i wanna know is when is my turn to ride in the bay boat???
 

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