EricM, fast-water Chick, blue and a few, 5-19-09

[FishNews]

I knew the fishing would be tough today, but I was getting the shakes again and just had to get out there. I stopped at a bait shop yesterday in anticipation, and got the last 16 large shiners he had. This morning I threw some frozen fish in the boat - just in case. First thing when I launched at Skull Island I spent 30 minutes throwing the cast net looking for baitfish. No shad whatsoever, but I did find half a dozen BIG golden shiners, so into the bait tank they went.<br />I stopped and tried a couple of places for bass, channel cats, and white bass, but between the horrible overnight temps the last couple of evenings, the really high - and sustained - water flow, and the lack of baitfish in the area, it was a really tough time and I only found 2 largemouth for my efforts. Enough of THAT foolishness.<br />Blue cats were, of course, on my list of save-the-day species, and they did, but not without a great deal of effort. With both a high wind and a high current both coming from the same direction, the boat control was too much work to be enjoyable - although I was determined to have a good time whether I liked it or not. Eventually I found a small area where a couple of mentally-challenged catfish were hanging out together and I put a 20, an 18, and 4 10-ish pounders into the boat. I also ran upstream and tried another spot I like and found the big fish of the day, a 27 pounder, but it was alone or else had smarter friends.<br />For those of you having trouble finding shad right now, don't feel bad. You're not alone. I couldn't find any and drc and friends came by and he worked his butt off trying to find shad at the discharge - with NO luck at all.<br />Still, all in all another good day, especially since I never did see anyone else put a fish into a boat today. And it was still pretty cool out - I never did take my jacket off today.<br />Here's the 27 lber: