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Been wanting to get out all week and so I hit the water at 5:30 this morning with 3 crawlers and day old carp chunks. The cats voted for crawlers. Had 3 on them before a nibble on the carp. One problem though, two were bullheads and one verily broke 4 inches. But the channel was 23" and all spawned out so it was a svelt kitty. When they realized I was out of worm they finally decided to take the cut bait with three pop and drops in a row, then I dialed my hooking technique in and ended up with two more 23" cats and an 18" to finish up at 7:00 so I could get home to work before it gets too hot. Later J
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Nice report, I am like you, get out early, and get home in time fore breakfast.
I bank tangled this morning as well. 6-8 am- netted 2 mud cats, and 2 channels, one going 20, and the other 26. Channels caught within feet of the jetty. Mud cats caught further out, same set up on all catches.
Several Pop and drops. My theory is that the pop and drops are smaller fish such as WB or crappie, taking a bite out of the bait, sometimes swimming with it. Multiple times one day I had my bobber swimming away, set the hood with a tight line only to end up with nothing.
Any one else have theories on the pop and drop.
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Great job, Jeff!
I think those pop and drops are mainly mud cats. Annoying.
It's gets so hot now, early morning is the only time to go IMO.
I may go out there tomorrow morning.
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When you say "hit the water" are we talking Willard? No worries if you don't want to give up a secret kitty hole...
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[quote ratnest] Several Pop and drops. My theory is that the pop and drops are smaller fish such as WB or crappie, taking a bite out of the bait, sometimes swimming with it. Multiple times one day I had my bobber swimming away, set the hood with a tight line only to end up with nothing.
Any one else have theories on the pop and drop.[/quote]
[#0000FF]Since you mentioned white bass, I am assuming you were fishing in Utah Lake. And it is common for white bass to be pesky like that. Even very small whities will pick up a pretty good size chunk of carp meat or white bass and carry it around a bit. I have had them holding on to white bass their own size or larger when I reel in slowly to try to see what is tweaking my bait. And I have caught more than a few white bass on some pretty large baits.
But bullheads (mud cats) are often the guilty parties in pop and drop too. They don't just "gulp and go" like channels usually do. So if I suspect I am playing games with a mudder I just try to guess when it might have the hook inside its mouth and then POP it good. They have hard jaws and unless they have the hook inside and you have a sharp hook...and whack them good...you will miss a lot of them.
If you are using small to medium sized whole minnows you might get a crappie on occasion. But that is rare. They usually stay up in the water column and don't forage on the bottom as much.
On the other hand, both bluegills and perch will play "keep away" with you at times. But their bites are more "rattle rattle" than solid whacks.
Always interesting to try to guess what tricky denizens are down there pecking at your offerings. And sometimes it can even be crawdads.
Can't even guess how many times I have been fooled...setting the hook hard on a "mudder" and having it turn into a big channel. Or vice versa...hooking a bullhead or white bass I was sure was a channel cat. Just about the time I think I got the game figured out they change the players or the rules again.
[/#0000FF]
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Boy that's the truth. It's always fun figuring out what you've got hooked...half the time you think you've guessed it, they show you up.
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Hey Jeff, I hit Cutler VERY early on Friday morning ( 1 am until 8 am), and I did really well between my son and I. We caught about 30 channel cats and kept 13 eaters for our family get together this weekend.
I couldn't buy a big cat despite doing everything I know and pulling out all the stops. Still, it was a blast! It was my first night fishing trip of the season (two months late than normal) and with this heat, it will only be night fishing for me until probably September or later.
Have you been seeing much in the 26+ class? Most of the ones we kept were between 18-22" and only scored a couple of 24".
Probably gonna try it again next Friday night and take a couple of my firefighters out to keep me company.
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Hey Mike I'm not getting out very often lately and it seems like I'm not finding any over 26". I got a 26" about two trips ago and 24" the last time and triplet 23" this morning but nothing with size. That rain storm messed up my good fishing season so I didn't get the big ones I wanted too. I'm starting to get nervous I needed a couple better fish on the score board before it got hot. I think the posse' and BLK are sitting pretty good at this point. But I'll keep trying Ya never know. Good luck. J
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That 26" is a good fish you can't complain too much about it. Glad you got a good trip. Later J
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Good luck Derek, hope you get a couple big guns. I'm pretty sure the pop and drops I'm getting are channels because the bullheads don't bother my cut bait and they hit way harder than the mudders but they may be smaller channels and not getting the whole bait in their mouth. Good luck. J
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I fish Cutler and the Bear River in Cache Valley. It's my hometown pond so I can run out for short trips and it has some nice fish from time to time. Later J
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I hit the green today and pulled a nice 10 incher[  ] Smallest one of the year for me.
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Beats the skunk and Yotes 8.5"er. 😇
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I haven't figured out these Utah cats yet, but I was down in Southern California over the holiday weekend and pulled in this 28" 9lb hog on my 6lb bass rod! If you ever wanna share any Utah tips, feel free! lol
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Check out the catfish contest posts on the contest board, there are a lot of tips on cats on there... I've been sort of amazed how much folks do share about the cats on there considering they are all in competition and all... Main tips right now would be time of day to catch the cats... They disappear during the mid day for me, so I have to fish early and late around sun up and sun down works best for me this time of year... Preferred baits keep changing on me, but they tend to like cut bait (carp), night crawlers and minnows.... I like to fish transition zones where the cats move from resting areas into their feeding prowls in the shallows.. That's most likely why the times I mention work there. I suspect if you fish the prowling grounds the fishing would be good all night, but I don't really know a good area that has lots of fish traffic through the night so I like the concentrated areas for the short time... Well that's about all I know outside of naming spots and I don't really want to have to try finding a new one so I probably will neglect to mention a location... Good luck... J
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glad tunreall someone's catching catfish this year cuz its been so freaking slow for me It's unreal none of my hole's have produced catfish over 19 inches I managed one at 25 inches but that's very much it
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It has been hard to find much for size this year. There was one week when a few bigger cats were coming into the area I like to fish and since then most have been smaller. Makes me wonder if the draining the reservoir is hurting the channel cats. Hope you can start finding them. Good luck. J
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Hey HD, where in SoCal were you fishin ? I grew up in So. Cal, L.A county and as far north as Sacramento. We used to catch cats that big and bigger up where some of the rice paddy sloughs feed from parts of the Sacto River, and up around Marysville / Yuba City area.
Years ago......and I mean 40 + years ago we could even find cats that size in the Rio Hondo River south of the Irwindale raceway. But last time I was in that area (5 years ago) that river was dried up, and I bet it's even worse now with the drought they are having.
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"OCD = Obsessive Catfish Disorder "
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