Conference wahoo::fishing-v2

    What river were you fishing?
    
    That's quite a mix of fish/ "Flathead" catfish in the same water as
    smallmouth bass? Wow.
    
    John H-C

    
    Hmmm-
         Your mother in-law must be better looking
         than mine ;-)
    
    chet

    
     ha ha ha ha 
    
              i'm telling!!!
                                        k'

    I was fishing in the Miami river in Southwest Ohio.  It runs into the
    Ohio river.  I was fishing behind the 1st dam from the ohio.  The fish
    swim up from there when there are heavy rains.  I have caught walleye,
    sauger, smallmouth, largemouth, bluegill, white perch, cats, crappie,
    carp, suckers and whitebass.  The dam is about 300 yards from where I am
    sitting.  The only bad thing is that there are advisories on eating the
    fish, but what the heck, catch and release is a good thing anyway. 
    Most of the sauger, etc, are fairly small, but are a lot of fun.  I 
    took my flyrod down last week and caught 3 sauger and 8 smallmouth on
    a woolybugger, none were over 15 inches though.
    
    Wess

        Since I was born and raised in Minnesota about 3 miles from the
    Mississippi River, this fish is in NO WAY a really BIG one...Nice, but
    not anything special. I have seen Mudcats taken from the Mississippi
    that went WELL over 100 pounds. I recall one being carried by a man
    5'6" tall...he hd the head resting on his left shoulder and the cat's
    tail was dragging the ground..this one went around 120 pounds. 
    
        However, a cat this big is pretty worthless as far as trying to eat
    it goes. Mudcats in general aren't much for eating...they tend to be
    rather 'gamey' tasting and usually are loaded with a rather vile fat.
    
        Flatheads will get up to about 80+ pounds, and Blues and Channel
    Cats (latter being the BEST eating in most folk's opinion) will top out
    usually under 50 pounds...althouth I've HEARD of some Channel cats that
    went ove that. Then there are what the people in New England call
    "hornpouts" and the rest of the civilized world knows as "bullheads",
    which will get up to 5+ pounds in rare cases...the typical "bullie"
    being under a pound....bullheads are FINE eating though...roled in
    flower, salt, pepper and deepfried or panfried in butter....
    
       In NO WAY is this reply meant to denigrate the catch describe in
    .0!!! That's a damned nice fish in ANYONES bag!! Congrats!!
    
      John McD

    Well, I went back down on lunch and tried for him again.  I didn't
    catch anything on the "catfish" rod, but caught the heck out of white
    bass on minnows.  I took a plain jighead (1/32oz) and tipped it with
    a minnow, down about 3 feet under a bobber.  I picked up 4 channels of
    about 1-2 1/2lbs.  Better than sitting around waiting for the lunch
    hour to expire!
    
    wess

Too bad Coonass is not here to tell it better but here goes.

One of the ways to "fish" for large cats in the south is to "grub" for them.

  You walk along the edge of the river and look for caves that 
have been created in the banks by the current.  You then place your body to block
the cave and stick your arms in and grub for the big cats.  When you have them 
by the Gills you then wrestle them up on the bank and process them for dinner.

Before anyone tries this in the south, I would like to point out that alligators
also can be found in those caves so you run the risk of grubbing one of them.
The belief is that the alligators will not bite while they are under the water.

The rivers that I have seen have muddy red water so this is all by feel and 
no visual aid.

I have not ever done this and don't plan to do so but I have seen it done.

    re .7
    
    In Fisherman did an article on this.  I believe they called it
    "noodleing"  These guys in the article were pulling up some big cats.
    
    
    Rick
    

    
       not only do you have to watch out for gators but I would guess that
    just about every state has snapping turtles. so I would be more worried
    about a turtle than a gator.
     or even worse yet a mas. rattler or a copperhead or cotton mouth!
    
    
      I think I will stick to the ole fishing pole hook line and sinker
    routine.
    
    
                                                     Lee
    

    I was down behind a dam on the Ohio river one day that they had
    recently shut off.  The water went down pretty fast and trapped the
    fish in small pools (10-30ft across).  There was a guy "noodeling"
    in the pools.  He had a piece of 100pound line about 6 ft long with a
    huge stainless steel hook tied to the end.  He would feel the fish and
    if it was a cat he would hook them and drag them out.  He had 5
    spoonbill cats 20-35lbs and a mess of channels too.  It was funny
    watching him hook those big paddleheads and drag them out. 
    
    Wess

      A method we used to use in Minnesota on the Mississippi--which MAY
    not be legal in some states--was called "juggin'"  You'd take an empty
    1-gallon plastic bleach bottle or something similar---tie a 10 or 15
    foot piece of heavy line to it, a hook baited with your favorite NASTY
    smellin' catfish bait (chicken guts, half-rotted liver, etc.) and dump
    the jugs over the side of the boat in the current.. Channel Cats love
    to swim suspended in the current... You'd set the jug up with enough
    weight so that it'd stay upright...until you got a bite.. When you sae
    a jug get upended, you'd grab it or 'gaff' the handle and pull in the
    catfish that was on the end of the line...
    
      Soem states that I know of allow this kind of fishing, but they do
    limit the number of jugs that you have out, and some require a 'safety
    line' on the jugs attached to the boat so they can't catch a big cat
    and disappear forever..
    
      JM

    I was with a friend of mine several years back at Barren River Res.
    in KY and we did something like the "jug techinque".  He used the 2
    liter bottles and tied the trotline leader to it and baited it with a
    cut shad.  We threw about 30 of those things out, sat back and waited.
    We would fish for bass and keep an eye on the jugs.  We never caught
    and great big fish doing it, but we caught several nice 3-4lb channel
    cats.  It was interesting because you never knew just how big the fish
    was going to be.  We had some of the smallest fish pull the jugs the
    farthest.
    
    Wess
    

      Re .12
       
       Actually the 3-4 pounders are probably the best to eat anyhow..
    Cats, being scavengers, have a tendency to get fatty or muddy tasting
    when you get the real big ones. Nice thing about catfish is the fact
    that they only have the back and ribs fer bones..
    
       Hmm...mebbe I'm gonna have to get my gear ready and hit a couple of
    bullhead ponds that I know of...haven't had a good mess of fresh
    bullies or catfish in quite a while...
    
      JM

    I'll bring the hushpuppies!!
    
    Wess

       Yeah....and a case or 2 of "Coors"!! Catfish, hushpuppies 'n
    "Silver-bullets"....cna't get much better'n that!!
    
      John Mc

    I would have to agree with that 100%.
    
    Wess

    
    	I watched a fishing show yesterday morning and this show was
    about catfish on the Connecticut river.  The ramp is located in
    Agawam, Ma.  They are having a tournament this coming weekend 25th-
    the 26th of July.  It is a catfish tournament and this is a charity
    tournament to help MDA.  Last year the winning catfish was over 10
    pounds.  They give you an extra pound if the catfish swims away on
    its own.  IF anyone wants a phone number for more info I will send
    it to them.
    	
    	Rodney

    Can anybody out there tell me anything about White Catfish? I've just
    found out that somebody dumped a bunch in the Concord River and that
    they're a fairly common catch.
    
    John H-C

    From an old book called "The American Food And Game Fishes" :
    
    White Cat; Potomac Cat
    Ameiurus catus
                           
    Delaware River to Texas
    The adult fishes are remarkable for their wide head and large mouth.
    Anal rays 19 to 22....Color pale olivaceous or bluish, silvery below...
    length 2 feet or less.
    
    
    Hope this helps.