 SMALL WATERS-BIG FUN! |
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Jun 26, 2009 - 9:48 PM - by Luke Clayton
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"SMALL WATERS-BIG FUN!"
by Luke Clayton
Luke Clayton
Seven Points, Texas- As my friend Donny Rice and I launched the ten foot, two man Buster Boat into one of his favorite bass lakes on his property, the term ‘small waters’ took on a whole new meaning. Looking across what appeared to be several hundred acres, these waters didn’t look one bit ‘small’ to me. I’ve spend an entire morning fishing coves on larger reservoirs that weren’t half the size of the body of water I was looking at! “We’ve got close to 700 acres of water on the property, one of them encompassing about 400 acres is prime for catching channel and blue catfish. It’s connected to an oxbow of the Trinity River via a feeder creek. Through the years, when the river gets out of its banks, these lakes received a natural stocking of big blues and feisty channel catfish. We’ve caught 30 and 40 pound blues here and lots of channel catfish ranging from 1 to 6 pounds.” says Donnie as we ease the little Buster Boat into the water.
I’ve been fishing for catfish here since early spring and already knew about the excellent catfishing! I still have several freezer bags of tasty channel catfish fillets in the freezer that I caught here the past couple months. Back in April, while I was targeting pre-spawn channel catfish, I watched a couple of avid crappie fisherman pull some heavy stringers of papermouths from the same fertile waters.
But this morning, I was abandoning catfish and crappie. Donny had been telling me about the awesome largemouth bass fishing on several of the lakes. We had rods rigged with top water plugs and plastic worms as I cranked up the voltage on the Torqeedo electric outboard and headed the little Buster Boat toward a steep bank with plenty of brush that Donny was pointing toward. The... [Read More]
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CROSSBOWS OR COMPOUNDS- WHY NOT BOTH? |
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Jun 20, 2009 - 8:12 AM - by Luke Clayton
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"CROSSBOWS OR COMPOUNDS- WHY NOT BOTH?"
by Luke Clayton
Luke Clayton
With the signing of HB 968 by Gov. Perry, Texas passed a new law allowing crossbows to be used during archery season in 254 Texas counties. Grayson County is the exception, only conventional archery equipment (longbows, recurves and compounds) will be allowed here. Previously hunters could only hunt with longbows, recurves or compound bows during their special season, which opens before the general firearms whitetail season, crossbows were legal but only during the firearms season.
Photo By Luke Clayton
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Compound bow- Timmy Romine at full draw with compound bow.With conventional archery equipment, the act of drawing can spook game.
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I’m amazed at the controversy that’s occurred over the passing of this new law. Being a long time bowhunter and on the pro staff of the largest bow manufacturer in the county, I have a pretty good feel for the pulse of the bowhunter. Until this autumn, we had the woods all to ourselves for a month BEFORE we were joined by rifle hunters. This tradition in Texas is shared by hunters from all the other states with the exception of Pennsylvania and Michigan, where crossbows are legal during archery season.
Photo By ... [Read More]
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FISHING FOR (AND WITH) MR. WHISKERS |
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Jun 12, 2009 - 11:11 AM - by Luke Clayton
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"FISHING FOR (AND WITH) MR. WHISKERS"
by Luke Clayton
Luke Clayton
So, what’s with a title like the above for an outdoors column, you might ask? Well, you see, the topic of this article is fishing for catfish and the authoritative person is Thom Whitlock, who some call Mr. Whiskers! During a recent shallow water excursion for spawning channel catfish at Lake Tawakoni, Thom was quick to point out the HE was not Mr. Whiskers, it’s the name of his famous catfish punch bait! Regardless whether Thom accepts the handle of Mr. Whiskers or not, his name has become synonymous with catching catfish and, yes, the bait that thousands use to catch them!
Thom first began making his catfish bait almost a quarter-century ago out in West Texas and in the nineties, moved his operation to Granbury, where the bait has been manufactured ever since. “Our bait is all natural and all but two ingredients can be consumed by human. It’s these two ingredients that catfish can’t resist, once they get a smell of it in the water. The key to a good catfish punch bait is the ability to stay on the hook during a long cast and then give off plenty of scent once the bait hits the water.” said Thom as we motored across the lake, heading toward a windblown point with plenty of shoreline grass and green willows. After pulling up to some prime catfish spawning waters, Thom and Mike set two anchors and positioned their big pontoon boat a short cast from the edge of the willows.
Photo by Luke Clayton
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GHOST BLIND- Not all smoke and mirrors |
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Jun 04, 2009 - 3:08 PM - by Luke Clayton
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"GHOST BLIND- Not all smoke and mirrors"
by Luke Clayton
Luke Clayton
Commerce, Texas- Did you ever see a new product that seemed so simple and worked so well that you wondered, “now why didn’t I think of that?” For eons, I am sure, man has been experimenting with ways to get close to wildlife. I’m betting the camo patterns of early man consisted of exactly what was around the area they were trying to ambush game. When hunting in rocky country, they hid in the rocks, when in the woods, they surrounded themselves with vegetation. Armies learned that the Napoleonic methods of doing battle didn’t work so well in the woods. Soldiers in brightly colored uniform, moving in unison in line, made for an easy target. Camo became popular around the middle of the last century for military use. It’s now been perfected, at least for hunting applications.
Chet Burdette, the inventor of Ghost Blind, says he was shaving one day and while looking into the mirror, he had that “now, why didn’t I think of this 30 years ago” moment! “The idea of creating a lightweight hunting blind with a conventional camo pattern on the inside and mirrors on the outside that perfectly imaged the terrain in front of the blind came to mind. We spent a lot of time with prototypes and finally designed the finished product. The Ghost Blind sets up in less than a minute, blends perfectly into the landscape and weighs only 22 pounds. It comes with built-in backpack straps.” Says Burdette.
Photo by Luke Clayton
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WHEN CATS GO SHALLOW |
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May 30, 2009 - 9:37 AM - by Luke Clayton
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"WHEN CATS GO SHALLOW"
by Luke Clayton
Luke Clayton
When you stop and think about it, fish are pretty predictable, especially catfish and especially this time of the year. We are currently right in the middle of the channel catfish spawn. This is the perfect time for bank fisherman to walk the banks, dunking catfish baits into cover such as rock rip-rap, flooded weeds or tree roots or, as I’ve been doing lately: use a small boat to access the shallows and fish in comfort!
I’ve been fishing from a little 10 foot Buster Boat that has all the features of the bigger rigs without many of the hassles inherent to towing, launching and FUELING larger boats; I’ve found it ideal for fishing the shallows for spawning catfish. Rigged with my very powerful Torqeedo electric motor, the little boat maneuvers the shallows with ease and gets me into those ‘tight’ places spawning channels like to hang out. But, with a little planning, you can catch just as many catfish from the bank.
Photo by Luke Clayton
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Luke’s favorite rig for catching spawning channel catfish: spinning reel, slip bobber and punchbait on a #6 treble hook.
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Each year about this time, I devote as much time as possible to shallow water catfishing. The fish I target average between 1.5 and 5 pounds, occasionally I will hook a bigger fish but most are what I consider... [Read More]
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