Speaking of Catfishing........

[Buck Conner1]

I sure was glad to get out and when my 2nd level called with an offer I couldn't refuse I told him to bring the papers with him   He called around Feb 15 and I was gone Mar 15.

Our V. Pres. over Engineering held a meeting in Dec. 2001 to tell us they had an early out plan for anyone that would volunteer in our group. I was waving my hand and he would look passed me for anyone that would volunteer. Second time around I'm standing on the table waving and was told to sit down. I'm still waving and finally he looks at me and says "asshole I need you for the special projects".  I replied "No you want me to hang around to haul you butt hunting" everyone starts laughing. He gave in with the condition I would still haul him around hunting. 

I retired 3 weeks later, got to thinking about it and called Social Security as I would be 62 in Feb. 2002, the lady said apply now and your first check will start Jan 2002.  Great.  A week later Colorado Unemployment calls to inform me my retirement was not a volunteer retirement, it was a forced adjustment retirement. And after looking at my paperwork, getting a full year salary and electing to have it put into my 401K and not cashed in I was going to receive after taxes $500 a month for 18 months unemployment. 

Great all I had to do was apply at 5 places a week. That was easy McDonalds asked how did you make on your last job, I told them and they had no openings. I repeated this course of action at every low dollar place for my 18 months, then got an additional 6 months added on - same deal.  

This really upset my wife, she's still working. I would get up pack her lunch and tell her "have a nice day dear". She would cook all the way to her office. !@#$%^  I did have dinner ready when she got home, I'm not totally stupid....  :cyclops:   :cheers:

 

[strong eagle]

my sister worked for ma bell all her working career. got a good retirement from them. she has never been short for money. she and her husband has received a million dollars twice from relatives , once 20 years ago and recently just a few weeks ago. this last time may be way more than a million. we were raised dirt poor and i mean really dirt poor. im very happy for her. she and her husband dont live high. just paid every thing off and lives normal like every one else. with no money worries, that her difference. she is a good sister. my brother inlaw is tops also.

 

[Rick N Bama1]

my sister worked for ma bell all her working career. got a good retirement from them. she has never been short for money. she and her husband has received a million dollars twice from relatives , once 20 years ago and recently just a few weeks ago. this last time may be way more than a million. we were raised dirt poor and i mean really dirt poor. im very happy for her. she and her husband dont live high. just paid every thing off and lives normal like every one else. with no money worries, that her difference. she is a good sister. my brother inlaw is tops also.

I've told a lot of folks that I didn't realize that we were poor until I became an adult because everyone around us was in the same boat.  Not long ago I was reminded by a friend that we were not poor as we owned our farm, his family had share cropped and fellows sharecropping was a poor living!  I've never known what it was like to go to bed hungry nor to be cold in the winter.  We had plenty to eat and a warm house to live in so in those terms we had it all!  I'm proud as punch that my wife & kids have never known hunger nor have they ever had to worry about where they would be sleeping at night.

 

[strong eagle]

we always had a roof over our head. if you grew up in n.dak in those days you were used to very cold winters. the way i made a little money before i went to the navy at 17 years old was to walk for hours and shoot those big white rabbits that grow big and white up their in the winter. i got .75 cents each for each one. when i got to the navy we marched every weres all day long in boot camp. city guys had a hard time sometimes, not me, boot camp wasnt anything to me. also ran a 3 mile race against a nice boy from back east who had a good track record from the state of ohio. i won the race to my surprise. in our company we also had a n.dak cowboy from the badlands. he even smoked. we put him up against a marine they hand picked. he really beat that marine bad in a 3 mile run. we all laughed like nuts. the first thing our guy did when he won with the marine way behind him was sit down and have a smoke. that really brought down the house. next thing you know the marines wanted to fight. i also learned on thing after boot camp. never go on liberty with air born army. all they want to do is find marines and beat the crap out of them. we always had food when we grew up but i was really really poor. now my sister isnt. im very very happy for her.

 

[Firestick]

Small green frogs. Catch a ziplock bag full and freeze them. Let em partially thaw on the way out to fish. Put em on a treble hook and toss out in the water and let em drift weight free and natural. Catfish around here can't resist em. Night fishing is the best wehn they come closer to shore looking ofr easy food.

 

[Marty1]

Small green frogs. Catch a ziplock bag full and freeze them. Let em partially thaw on the way out to fish. Put em on a treble hook and toss out in the water and let em drift weight free and natural. Catfish around here can't resist em. Night fishing is the best wehn they come closer to shore looking ofr easy food.

Frogs for catfish...now that's different.  Being bottom feeders,  I'm assuming catfish won't chase-down a live frog on a hook  :scratch: :?:

 

[Renegadehunter]

Channel cats are pretty voracious and will go after live bait like a predator fish around here in the Snake River.  Anchoring up and jigging a fresh piece of cut bait can work pretty well, we just set it on the bottom and jig it up and down about a foot.  Has to be into the summer when the water is warmer. 
.
Chicken liver works okay, but the Northern Pike Minnows will heckle it like crazy and you have to re-bait all the time.  We tie hooks on with an egg loop style knot when using liver so that the loop helps hold it on.  I like this method a lot better than cheese cloth or something similar.  I mostly just fish on the bottom with cut bait, either trout, carp, or northern pike minnow...but the pike minnows will heckle all of these a lot too.
Good catfish holes are also usually good sturgeon holes, it gets pretty exciting real fast when you're using tackle for 1 to 8 lbs catfish and a 6' sturgeon vacuums up your bait.

 

[oneshot1]

I have found Catfish like Turkey Lungs.

oneshot

 

[Marty1]

Renegadehunter, do you need to fish for the channel cats only at night in the summer :?:

 

[Firestick]

You can catch cats anytime of day but the best is at night. They are STRONG hunters by scent.Like many fish, after the sun goes down and cools a bit they get more active feeding.

 

[Smokin' Joe]

I've been watching a few youtube videos on cat fish baits and I'm seeing a lot of folks using hot dogs, cherry Kool-Aid, garlic powder and garlic salt.  They cut the hot dog in half or sometimes smaller. thread the fishing line through the middle (length wise) which is tied to a treble hook.  They say it works for Channel and Blue cats not Flatheads since they prefer live bait.  I can't vouch for it since I haven't tried it.  I have always used cut bait.  I buy some sucker minnows from the bait shop and slice them up into 1" - 1 1/2" chunks.

 

[Renegadehunter]

Renegadehunter, do you need to fish for the channel cats only at night in the summer :?:

Like Firestick said, they will hit during the day but it's much better at night.  The only time I've done well during the day is about right now, when spring is here and the waters turn muddy and rise.  For whatever reason I've always done better in the spring time when the river is muddy, day or night.  Seems to be a better chance for bigger fish too.  I don't know if it's because they've been dormant and are really hungry, or if it is because all of the run-off puts a lot of food into the water for them.  It makes it a little more challenging to have to avoid all of the debris coming down the river and catching your line.  All spring muddy water fishing is from the bank due to all of the debris making it unsafe for a boat.

If we fish them during the day in the summer it is always by boat and we jump to different holes quite a bit.  We'll hit back eddies and fish them for about 45 minutes then move on...unless we're still picking fish out of the hole.  It seems like if we're going to catch any out of a hole during the day it doesn't take long, and we might pick up only 2 or 3 out of the hole and then it goes dead.
In the summer I have the most action as soon as the sun goes over the horizon...we start getting hits and I'd say the first hour from the sun going over the horizon is the hottest fishing.  We will keep getting hits here and there until about 11pm.  Then it seems to calm down until about 3am and then they start hitting decent again until daylight.  I rarely ever see the morning bite anymore lol.  We just fish the evening until about 11pm anymore, earlier if it is slow fishing.
I always fish the hole at the upper end of the current going through it so that the scent of the bait goes through the whole hole.  Most times this will be the upriver end, but in back eddies it is the down river end. (and always try to make sure your bait is the first one encountered when they follow the scent up through the current if fishing with buddies!)  :twisted:

 

[Marty1]

I know exactly what you are talking about Renegadehunter when it comes to fishing a big river...especially those that are high and/or muddy with the spring runoff.   Stubborn to get to the hotter spots, I've taken my boat out in high-waters more than once and ended-up saying:  :face:  " this was definitely NOT a good idea ".     :shock:

Springtime runoff or sudden, heavy rainfall episodes will put food in the river which is always good for the fish.

 

[Marty1]

The lower reaches Susquehanna River in PA is where I've had some really hairy boat expeditions.  Check out this video I came across.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SV3Rs_Bbu0Q