Catfishing in the bay of pigs aka (cathouse)

[idahoron]

After seeing smartweed (Phil) talk about cats I had to get over to try it out. I was not disappointed.
I headed out Thursday night and camped over since it is a 3 hour drive. At 7:00 am I decided to get ready and hit the water. Water temp was 60 at launch and only got to 62 for a high. I ran into a fisherman that told me the river was extremely low. That was not news. What was news was he said I would not be able to go very far before the water was too swift to go up. He was right, he also said do not go down stream you won't be able to come back with my boat. Now that was news I can use!!

Well I tried the hot rod pontoon in the fast water. He was right I could not make it. I got to a spot that was 1.7' deep and that was all the farther I could go. The water speed was right at 6 MPH. So I backed off and tried to go up through some islands. More shallow and fast water [bobmad]

I settled down and started to pick apart the habitat. I normally do drifts but that wasn't going to work. So I targeted cover with cut bait. That worked[bobhappy]. One thing I didn't do was pay attention to the sunlight behind be. I need to work on that.




I caught a lot of fish today. I started out well with a big one, but I didn't get a picture. It was 28" and heavy. A little bit later I got lucky and landed into this pig.



I can't remember a time that I got broke off so many times. I normally fish deeper water with little to no wood or rock to mess me up. I should have had 15 or 20 pound line on. They were snapping the 10 pound easy if they really tried.
I know I lost a couple fish that would have been personal best sized fish.

Speaking of Personal best I got a personal best Flathead today. We got a storm and I put on my rain gear. I tucked in under a tree and waited it out. I tossed out the line into a spot just off the edge of some willows.



BANG!!! I was dragging in a 27" flathead with the ultra light.



That one followed up with a lot more CC's.




I caught 35 fish in less than 7 hours today. I am stunned at that to be honest. I knew they should be hitting but wow! I ended up keeping 4 fish that were hooked too far down and were bleeding. The largest Channel was just over 30" and the Flathead was 27. What a day I am beat time for bed. Ron
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Great report. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]10# line will usually handle about any sized cat...in still water with no brush. But when you have to rassle them back upcurrent in snaggy water you gotta gear up heavier. Sounds like you already have that figured out.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]At least you got to test the limits of your motor. Better to run into the wall upstream than downstream. It's tough when you gotta walk on water and drag your boat behind you.[/#0000ff]
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[idahoron]

Ya that whole walking on water is getting hard for me to do. []
Ron
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[elkmagnet]

Wow 35 cats what a day.
Now if only I lived next to a good cat spot and was told where to find it[angelic]
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