06-11-2009, 09:00 AM
We got on the water about 10am or so this morning and headed down river to fish for spots. Flow was pretty decent at about 20,000 cfs and later 25,000 cfs. Water temp was 76 in most places. The color of the river is mostly back to normal, very clear now compared to a couple weeks ago. We decided to use shiners to fish deeper water. Oddly, there wasn&#39;t a lot of fish interested, other than the cats, which seemed to be everywhere. I caught 4 cats in a row which tells me there wasn&#39;t a lot of hungry spots there or the cats would have never had time to hit. We caught 21 spots all day, and none of them were that big. We also managed to catch 11 cats, one of which was a blue of 21lbs that took me forever to get in on 4lb test and a crappie rod and reel! <br /><br />Half way through the trip, Mike had a nice channel cat on the back deck trying to unhook him. The cat lashed it&#39;s head around and buried the fin about 2 or 3 inches into his foot. I have NEVER seen anyone bleed as much from a fin, and needless to say he was in a lot of pain. The back of the boat looks like someone butchered a pig on the deck carpet. I made him put his foot over the deck and let the cool water run over it. He got a few black spots in front of his eyes, but recovered fairly quickly, with a new respect for catfish. I offered to head home but he wanted to keep fishing. We went down to the bend to try the riprap and caught a few there, but they were all really deep and slow biting. Went to crank the big engine to head home when we saw the clouds and heard thunder. &quot;click, click, click&quot;! No power! After messing with the cables we finally transfered the trolling battery to the cranking battery and she started right up. WHEW! Didn&#39;t want to be stranded down there, adrift, with all the rich folks riding by in their yachts! Nice day to be on the water, but I think I&#39;ll try the lake on my next trip, or at least until Riverbend winds down.