Nuke Cats 9-9

[David]

Fished the Nuke waters Saturday and caught 21 cats, most looked like twins at about 4lbs, the largest was about 10lb.

Did get to meet Liveliner and shsimon. Was a great day to be on the water.

 

[David]

Forgot to mention two of the cats had only one eye. There was a slight indention where the eye should be but that was all.

One other cat had a -_- offset in the rear of it's body right before the tail.

Did not think to take a picture of these.

Did help one man net a cat that would go about 20-25lbs.

 

[TennesseeTalker]

Only one eye AND deformed rear end, all caught by the nuc plant???? Should we be worried!?!

TT

 

[David]

Sure makes me wonder about eating any from that area.
emoScratch

 

[rsimms]

David - 9/12/2006 1:07 PM

Forgot to mention two of the cats had only one eye. There was a slight indention where the eye should be but that was all.

One other cat had a -_- offset in the rear of it's body right before the tail.

Did not think to take a picture of these.

Did help one man net a cat that would go about 20-25lbs.

From my experience spinal deformities are not unusual in blue cats. Cause unknown, but it is clearly more common where there are high concentrations of fish, indicating it trasmitted fish-to-fish... perhaps a bacterial or viral infection. Some documentation indicating symptoms are similar to "whirling disease" although it is a different cause. The avid bass anglers also see such deformities frequently among smallmouth. And think back on the number of cats you've caught that took a hook to the eye, yet were released. Bottomline... I don't worry about the nuke plant. One of my friends is one of the guys who monitors the water coming out of there, and he is an avid fisherman.

 

[Fishing machine]

David, I to caught a fish at the nuke plant that had a crook in his body at his tail. Sounds like you all caught a mess of fish. Good job.

 

[Liveliner]

Shsimons caught a one eyed catfish on that same day at the nukie. Well let me correct that by saying Released with one eye. Big circle hook bullseye in the eye. We kept it for a while in my bait tank and saw that it was doing great so we released it. There will be one more in there to catch.

 

[shsimons]

David,

It was nice meeting you and talking to you. Liveliner and I both enjoyed our conversation with you. That is a really fun area to fish as far as numbers go. I know there are big fish there too, but there aren't tons of spots where you can catch that many numbers and have that many people catching them.

Shsimons

 

[David]

Shsimons,

It was great to meet ya'll as well. Have been reading the post and was nice to have a face to go with the name.

We had a great time Saturday catching the cats, the guy with me is a friend from Atlanta who I have gone deer hunting with at his lease in south Georgia so it was my turn to put him on some fish.

When we got there that morning about 10am there were 16 boats in that area, we saw a lot of fish being caught and a lot were put on stringers that we saw. Only saw one decent fish that was about 20-25lbs, the man was by himself and we went over and helped him net it.

We were using circle hooks also but all of ours were caught in the corner of the mouth. We were using frozen shad minnows for bait. A friend of mine catches them from the bank below the dam and freezes them. He also showed me the best way he has found of putting them on the hook by breaking off the head and inserting the hook in the body just in front of the tail and then reinserting the hook in the upper end again. They would stay on the hook very well and we were hooking up on most bites.

Hope to see you out again and be sure to come over and chat. I am in the starcraft pontoon with the 135 Merc on the back.

FYI for all boaters,
I normally always check my trailer tires before leaving home, but Saturday I did not because I had just trailered the boat the night before, and about two miles from home I heard a noise and stopped and found one of my tandem tires ruined. Hard leason to learn. My boat trailer also did not come with a spare, but I will have one before I go again.

 

[WLG]

I caught a flathead up there saturday that had one eye also. I figured he had been hooked before also. Brought him home and cleaned him and now he is in the freezer. I also caught a Blue up there 2 weeks ago with a bent spine. Released him as I wasnt keeping anything that day. Maybe its the same fishemoConfused I wasnt worried about it because Ive caught other catfish with bent spines out of a private pond before.. I dont think the nuke plant has anything to do with it.

 

[Guest]

Drunking aqnd I catch one of those deformed bluea nearly every time we fish and we don't fish the nuke hardly ever. I believe it is some form of genetic abnormality. We remove them from the gene pool and introduce them to the ministryemoLaugh

Cheez