Mississippi River-World Class Catfishing "part 3."

[turtle1173]

I would have liked to have seen a 52 lber yesterday. Great fish!!

Demetrius and I had an interesting day on the water yesterday. It was one of those days where things kind of started off where you wondered if it was going to be "one of those days!!"

After anchoring on a revetment bank and fishing for 20 minutes, I noticed all of a sudden that we were drifting (and fast too!). I jumped up to the front to do something with the anchor. Well ... there was no anchor, the line was broken! Now I know some of my anchor rope didn't look that great but I didn't expect a broken rope! So we are hurrying to get our lines in and I'm also trying to start the motor. One of my poles was hung up and as I'm pulling on it, it snaps in half :crying: I couldn't believe it! So we are down to about 60 feet of rope and some of it is a little questionable also but I sure wasn't going in! I tie up my "new" anchor that I built a month or so ago. We fish a couple spots and as Demetrius is pulling up from this spot, the line breaks again.

I can't remember if it was before or after the 2nd anchor mishap but Demetrius got a great hit, picked up the rod, set the hook and started reeling. All of a sudden, his reel falls off! So his pole is bent over and I'm trying to help him get the reel back onto the seat. Ends up his NEW Surge rod had a busted reel seat! To make matters worse, the fish got off and he was hung up.

Aside from that it was windy (very) and cold but we persevered. We fished the rest of the day with a 25lb river anchor and about 40 feet of rope. It was the 1/4" variety too :eek: and not the easiest to pull in. I just knew we would lose the river anchor in the rocks but we managed to get by the rest of the day. We just had to find some spots a little shallower in which to anchor, LOL.

On the good side though, I caught 15, 27, & 31 lbers. Demetrius had to settle for a <cough> <cough> 5 lb Channel at the end of the day, LOL.

I had to remind him at the end of the day that it wasn't that long ago when he caught 178 lbs of fish (including a 47 lb Blue & a 52 lb Flatty) with me fishing next to him catching absolutely nothing!! LOL

Anyway, we had a good day on the river. The north wind kept us from going up to the dikes but we got a little better feel for our revetment bank. By the way, 12 ounce sinkers were necessary for most of the spots we fished. We also got to scout out a few more flathead spots. I think we found a couple of good ones and I'm sure there's a flatty about 123 1/2 lbs in there somewhere, LOL!

[slimcat]

Shane, I still want one of those 140-150lbers that are swimming around. Hopefully I can get some 2lb carp;) or 1" rice slicks.LOL

[rwilley3]

Shane
Congrats. Sounds like you and Dimetrius stuck it out and ended up with a good day. It seems like you really end up appreciating it more when you stick it and finally catch some fish after mishaps like that.

[Catfish_Commando]

Mississippi River-World Class Catfishing "part 3"

[crane]

Saturday was too windy so we didn't give it a try, but yesterday was a different story. My son and I got out yesterday afternoon and enjoyed some of that beautiful weather, the only problem was the fish wouldn't cooperate. We fished 8 spots and only had maybe three bites, not pulldowns, but bites to show for our effort. I guess that goes to show us that what's good for us isn't necessarily good for the fish. Oh well, it was a nice day to be out anyways, 70 degrees and sunny with a 5 mph, you just couldn't ask for any better.

Congrats on a tough but rewarding day Shane. Way to hang in there. It's just a matter of time before you hook into a really good one.:rock-big:

[gofish]

On the good side though, I caught 15, 27, & 31 lbers. Demetrius had to settle for a <cough> <cough> 5 lb Channel at the end of the day, LOL.




Don't sweat it too bad, he did that to me too....:p

[Rob Heflin]

You said it. The weather has been lovely the last 2 days over here in God's Country, aka the Mississippi alluvial valley!

[ArkansasCat]

Is anyone fishin the Mississippi river this weekend? I finally got the boat fixed and am thinking about driving over. I have several ramps in mind from Caruthersville to Helena. Just dont know where we are going to put in at and was wondering where you fellers would be fishin.

[TeamCatHazzard]

Shane that is one heck of a story! Sounds like it was "One of those days" LOL! Glad to see yall made it back ok though and were able to save the day!

[rwilley3]

ArkansasCat
I am planning on Shelby Forest fishng north or Richardson's Landing fishing ?. If wind blows like today gonna be lookin for some east west waters I imagine. Good luck to you and others out there probing for Ole Big Boy.

[Catter]

Hi guys, we went out for 4 1/2 hrs or so today. Here in Osceola the water is 8-10 feet above my favorite dikes and the wind was blowing so bad it would make anchoring the toon where we wanted it too much like work. We did wet out lines at a few other spots a little out of the wind but the only luck we had was in the chute upstream from the ramp. Caught a 10 and several 3-4 pounders. All in all was a good 1st run of the year for the toon. Can't wait till we get done with the "cat dominator", it'll be alot less work involved. lol


Yall take care,

Joe

[85Dave]

We went out Friday for about 5 hours, putting in at Mud Island. My uncle from Minnesota came with us. He mainly fishes walleye, perch, and northern pikes, so catfishing was a new experience for him.

All the dikes are underwater. We fished several spots with frozen skips with no luck. We were anchoring off the top of the dikes which were about 5'-6' under.

We stopped by the run out from Island 40, and the carp were jumping everywhere. We took some pictures and a short video. My uncle had never seen anything like that. One of the smaller ones ended up in the boat, and ended up as bait on our hooks.

We stopped at one last place across from Mud Island with the freshly caught bait, and started getting some hits. We ended up with a 12, 6, and 4. My uncle got the 12 and 4, and Dad got the 6. Wish he could have got a real hog, but 12 is bigger than anything he usually gets up nawth. Dad told me I'm not allowed to reel in anymore fish until he gets an 80.:crying: ;)

We haven't had much luck lately with the frozen skips. But the fresh stuff is hard to get. Maybe it will pick up soon.

Roger, I'm sure the nets are still out around Shelby Forest. I don't know about Richardson landing. I saw the commercial guys working their nets around Memphis. They weren't having any luck either.

[rwilley3]

I wouldn't wish today on anybody as far as fishing went. I got to smell that big ole skunk.

[crane]

Hey Roger, we smelled the same skunk I think. Talk about knocking the wind out of your sails, that makes 2 weeks in a row, I think we'll be fishing for bluegill's by next weekend.:sad: We can usually catch a few of them with regularity.

[rwilley3]

Heck Crane
I should have stayed home and fished. This is the third day in a row that we have ate bream fillets. The kids have caught about 30 or so each dayout of the pond. I even took me about 5 about hand size and tried them live at the river today. We had one(what seemed to be decent fish) break everything off just a few seconds after hook up. Don't know if we had knick in line what. Rest of the day just some taps and not a whole lot of them.

[Catter]

Took the little jon out today and hit the chute, did'nt want to fight the wind again today. We got 5 eaters, biggest was maybe 2 1/2 lb. Was a great day weather wise, and we seen 2 looked to be doe's, come down the bank and swim across. Also got a pic of the roostertail from my little 15hp on the jon, coupla coolers and gear and 2 good sized fellas in the boat to boot.

We were able to motor across the rock dam so if yall wanna try it you can motor all the way to the upper dam above Luxora, have'nt been there lately so I aint sure if you can cross there as well. If ya can you can come in from the north or south. Lotta shad where they load the barges just up from the mouth as well.

Take care,

Joe

[ArkansasCat]

Well, we got out on the big river Saturday and had a very slow day also. Caught 1 fish and had maybe 10 bites all day and they where just nibbles. I kept thinking one of those rods where going to be doubled over at anytime but it didn't happen. We put in at Osceola and saw Guthook and Crane there. Good to see you boys again. This was our first trip out this year and it was just great having some hooks in the water.

Catter, sounds like you caught more than anyone Saturday. Next time we come over to Osceola we might holler at ya. Had never been there before and still don't know alot about the area.

[Catter]

Just hollar anytime. If everything goes good i'll be fishin a coupla times during the week and every weekend before long. I'll show ya where we usually get shad and a few decent holes when we meet up one day.

Joe

edit: yall don't be suprised if ya find a BOC flyer on yer trailer when ya get back to the ramp here. lol

[Catter]

Anyone going to MudIsland this weekend? If i'm off i'll be going to watch the weigh-in. Good luck to the bro's that will be fishing.

Joe

[85Dave]

We'll probably go for the weigh-in. It's gonna be busy on the river. I bet they get 50-75 boats.

[ArkansasCat]

Who's putting the tournament on at Mud Island? Didn't know anything about it.

I plan to fish the Caruthersville tournament coming up 5-6-06. Any of yall going to be there?

[Catter]

Bass Pro is putting it on at Memphis. I might be able to make it up across the state line to that one as well. As it stands now we'll be working saturday, but I may get lucky and get off.

Joe

[three_rivers]

Brad if we don't get the chance to fish it i'm hoping to catch the chance at catching the weigh in. Fishing it sure sounds a whole lot better though....

Any of you guys been catching any of those big flatties lately?? Seems like from the board the bite is picking up and i'm sure it won't be long until one of us lands a monster....

To all the guys lucky enough to get the chance to fish this weekend stay safe and Good Luck!!!!!

[85Dave]

Bass Pro is one of the sponsors. It is being put on by Ken Freeman Outdoor Promotions. Here is a link to the tournament information. http://www.kenfreemanoutdoorpromotions.com/tournaments/memphis/index-memphis.php

[ArkansasCat]

Thanks for the information on the tournament guys. We might come over for the weigh-in.

Danny, have you been catching any bait around our area yet? I tried Jacksonport last Friday but never got a bite. Also tried Batesville 2 weeks ago and nothing. Caught several shad in the throw net to fish with last Saturday.

[three_rivers]

Up at batesville a few weeks back we ended up catching a couple and lost one at the slab. They seem to be there, its just finding the right bait to get them to bite. Jacksonport we pretty much had the same results. We have definitely found the largemouth and white bass, thats not saying much for skips though.:oops:

Last year it was mid april when we found them in the river, and usually the first of may at batesville. Thats when we started catching them in good numbers. With these warmer temps they should be coming around here real shortly. Then we can worry more about that big bite.:ah:

[85Dave]

Just heard that Bill Dance and James Patterson won the Memphis tournament with about 109 lbs. Matt Bingham and his Dad came in 5th with a little over 90 lbs. Congratulations Matt!!! Now lets hear some fish stories.

[Catter]

Congrats on the 5th place guys, good showing on yall's part too Roger and James. And congrats to second place Daryl, very nice catch. I got some pics so as soon as I get them ready i'll post them.

There were some nice cats caught thats for sure.

Joe

[Catter]

Here's a few pics i got on my phone. The ones from the camera will have to wait to be developed.

http://www.catfish1.com/gallery/files/287-largecatintank1.JPG

http://www.catfish1.com/gallery/files/287-FatherandSon.JPG

http://www.catfish1.com/gallery/files/287-TaemwhiskersBOCsticker.JPG

Hope I got the descriptions right guys, if not just sue me and i'll change them. lol

Joe

[rwilley3]

Well that was my first taste of tournament fishing and it was pretty fun if I do say so. Congrats there Daryl and Danny and Matt and Dad. I was getting a little discouraged about 9:00 when we still had a whiff of that dreaded old skunk scent up our noses but it finally came around thanks to my guide Bobby. I might have to do it again sometime but am looking forward to a few weeks of "peaceful" fishing now.
Roger

[turtle1173]

Alright, someone chime in here with some more details! Who made 2nd through 4th? What did the big fish weigh? How many boats were in it?

Congrats Bigriver! 5th place is great!! Roger, how did you make out? Whitehead and Trout fished the tourney up in the New Madrid area. Tough day for sure up here and must have been all the way down there also, considering the winning weight. A ton of debris made it very difficult to fish any "normal spots." At about 1:30pm, they released the only fish they had caught all day (looked to weigh 5-10 lbs).

Demetrius and I didn't fish the tourney but fished all day none-the-less. We ended up with 78 lbs of fish. I caught Blues at 8, 13, 20, & 30. He caught a 5 lb Channel. Very tough day. Couldn't fish the dikes or revetments & couldn't hardly fish the main cuts because of all the timber.

[rwilley3]

Shane I will let the 2nd place team fill you in theirself(some of our very own here on BOC). We struggled and only caught 4 fish for about 49#. I think we may have been the only boat that launched in the Memphis area and went north because other than right at Memphis that morning we never saw anyone. Maybe they all knew something we didn't. I can't remember the 3rd and 4th place order but I remember it was Ricketts and Ricketts(spelling?) and Coughlin/Haynie(once again spelling?). I guess trying to look at stuff in a positive side we were only "that 1 bite away" from being in contention:) . Still had fun doing something different but almost felt like work in a way because you were under that pressure to make right decision about moving/staying or where to go next. Even with that after I learn a little more I might give it another try.

[Catter]

I'm glad you chimed in Roger, there was too much eyecandy for me to get all the details. lol

This was the first weighin for me, my son and brother-in-law. We had a great time but I sure wish there would have been more people there. Everyone I talked to around here had no idea that there were even catfish tournaments much less one at Mud Island this weekend. I think next time i'm gonna do a little local advertising. ;)

Maybe next year we'll get in a few tourneys ourself, we still have to finish our boat and figure out a way to keep the monsters alive and well for weighin.


Joe

[bigriver]

Thanks guys! Congrats to Daryl and Danny, and everybody else too.

It really wasn't a tough fishing day at all. Actually it was about as nice as it could be. Catching proved a bit tougher. The debris wasn't too terribly bad down here Shane. There seemed to be a bit on the AR side, and some pretty big stuff too, so the bad stuff might be just starting.

Dad and I had little hope of placing when we went to the weigh-in. Teams were only allowed two fish over 34 inches. The other three had to be less than 34 inches. Dad and I caught three fish over 34 inches. Unfortunately, I think they measured 34-1/8, 34-1/4 and 34-3/8 inches :confused: . They weighed 26, 24 and 22.5. After thoroughly discussing the possibilities of breaking out the scissors and trimming its tail an eighth of an inch, we finally threw the 22.5 back. We never could hook up with a really good one, which we thought it would take to place in the tourney. Our other three weighed 40 pounds.

We really expected someone to weigh in a sixty or better, and we figured the winners would have two heavy-weights. Not to take anything away from Patterson and Dance, but we never thought 38 pounds(?) would be the biggest fish caught, but I don't think they thought they had a chance either.

It was good seeing some of the folks I hadn't seen in a while. ArkansasCat and Charles, wish I'd had more time to chat. Catter, sorry I missed seeing you.

[Catter]

Don't worry bout missing me Matt, I woulda stopped and said hi but you were pretty tied up in conversation when I seen ya. Glad to see the BOC was well represented there for sure.

Joe

[guthook]

well boys i wish i could say i had as good of luck as my brother and danny, but dad and myself struggled all day. i wish i could blame it on the trash in the river but there were other good spots that we couldn't pick up any fish. we managed two fish over 34" and a little channel cat.

in other words we had about as good of chance of winning as a white boy in a dance contest:haha:

also congrats to matt and his dad for a great finish, my money was on you guys going into the tourney.

roger it was nice to meet you and hope to see you again, arkansas cat nice to see you again, and charles next time you better enter because we know you can catch some big fish. catter i didn't recognize you but i'm sure we'll see you sometime this year.

i just spoke on the phone to my sister in law and found out that the brother wore my lucky shirt that day. yeah....yeah thats why i didn't do well. but thats ok i'm gonna borrow shane's lucky blue 50lb shirt for the next time. because everytime you see shane in that shirt he has a biggun in his arms.

if i could just combine that with matt's sunglasses then i'm talking about world records going down:confused_02:

[three_rivers]

Thanks guys, Congrats to everyone that got to fish yesterday. My money was riding on matt or patterson. I was certain they were gonna run away with it. The beautiful weather and a cool breeze made for some nice fishin.

We had hooked into our first fish by 630 and by 9 or 10 we had four with two over 34". We had one drag busting run and had him on for a moment just to have the rod go limp. By 9 or 10 we had 4 fish and we struggled to find the 5th. We had plenty of turd tapers working over our gutpockets and missed a few good bites. After going downriver and fishing a spot we went back up and fished a spot we'd talked about early that morning.

About 2 oclock we finally found our 5th fish, a good 10 pounder. Before we knew it, it was 215 and there was one last spot we wanted to give a go. It didn't take long until one of the front rods went down to bring in a 16 pounder. There was one little guy in the livewell that might of went 5 pounds if we were lucky that got a free ride.

Roger, arkcat, and charles it was good meeting up and chatting if only for a minute. Hopefully we'll see each other on the river quite a bit through out the year. Catter, sorry i missed meeting you. Hopefully next time we have a chance to meet up and chat.

Yo daryl, what happens on the river stays on the river!:wink:

[turtle1173]

Great to hear that you all did so good. How many boats were in the tourney? What kind of spots were you all fishing? Come on, you can tell us now, the tourney's over!! LOL :)

So Danny, I've been meaning to talk to you about a loan... LOL

Guthook, I should have brought my blue shirt down to Memphis and had Bill Dance autograph it!

How many of you are fishing Caruthersville?

[85Dave]

Dad and I went out Sunday, and didn't see another boat all day. We put in at McKellar, and fished south. All we got were a few taps. I guess the tournament guys caught all the fish. Maybe we should of fished the Mud Island Harbor.

Dad was at the weigh-in. He guessed that about 30 boats weighed-in some fish. Anyone know how many boats entered? How hard was it to find a spot to fish?

[Arkie55]

Congrats to Danny and Darrell, Matt and Dad. You guys had very good days, No, make that great days. Think about it guys, two teams out of the top five came from our group, (BOC).:p Now, someone tell me we don't have the best Catfishermen in the world right here at this site. Add the Mississippi boys and the Mo. clan and I don't think you can find anyone anywhere with as much knowledge and know how as we have right here. GOSH!!!! Does that mean I need to stop by Danny's house next time I go by and ask for an autograph?:)

[rwilley3]

Yea Arkie I kind of wish now I had got all 4 of their autographs while I had them all in one place. :)

[Catter]

Hey guys, how about the next time there are gonna be several of us at the same place we post here to meet up in a specific place. It's pretty hard to recognize someone just from their avatar so we could do this to make it easier.


Joe

[crane]

Danny summed it up pretty good on the happenings saturday. With the way it started, I thought we were going to really turn in a huge total, but the bite just wouldn't co-operate to finish up the day. We were just lucky that the fish we caught added up to our total weight, but as far as total weight for the day we got our butt kicked. We only got to cull one 5 pound fish for the day, Dance and Patterson caught over 200 pounds of fish, and as Matt said they had to cull a few real good fish. So in all fairness I will say congrats to matt and his dad. They had, by far, a better day than us. It was the 34 inch rule that worked to our advantage and gave us the 2nd place finish.

Danny, thank's for the ride. Even though the boat was a little cramped, it didn't have any negative effects on the catching. It just goes to show you that the size of the boat dosen't have anything to do with the size of the fish you catch.

As far as what happens on the river,.......... in the heat of the battle it could happen to anyone.:lol:

[rwilley3]

Come on guys you shouldn't drop those little hints and leave us all hanging about what goes on while you are on the river. Sounds like there is something funny we all would love to laugh at or something.

[Little Mac]

I agree with Roger, Spit it out boys....... Congrats to all of you that fished the tourny. Im sorry I havent post much, I have been moving. I will try to keep up now LOL. Couple arkies comin in second, I say Well Done. later Mac

[bigriver]

Guys, you know I'd spill the beans on ole Danny if I knew what went on. Maybe Daryl will log on anonymously and fill us in. I know that dad and I had a few mis-cues. Hopefully he won't tell on me!

Shane, wish we had found a real pattern. If we had, maybe we'd be a bit richer. We fished all sorts of places. Tried straight currents, cross currents, dikes (above and below), shallow and deep. We never really found a pattern. We caught fish here and there, but nowhere in particular.

I think there were 38 or so boats in the tournament. Due to the setup of the tournament..... that entrants could fish wherever they wanted and weigh in at Memphis.... I heard that quite a few folks didn't even come to Memphis to weigh in. They just forfitted and went on home. Not sure how many actually weighed in.

[gofish]

I got out Monday with my two daughters. I had visions of catching a couple of cats until I saw the smoke coming from the power plant. We checked it out and sure enough, the skippies were there. The three of us stayed there for about 1.5 hours taking turns catchin 'em. We left around 6 and fished one ledge for about 20 minutes. I had marked some fish in about 40 feet of water but didn't get any hits. The girls didn't enjoy the catfishing nearly as much as the skippies and that was less than a half hour :rolleyes: Oh well, maybe next time I'll have a little more time to try for a cat and show 'em how it's done ;)

We ended up with about 45 skips and lots of pictures. The water temp was in the low 70s on the river and upper 70s in the lake. There was some debris in the water but not too bad. I may have to make an afternoon run tomorrow or Friday since the forecast calls for rain this weekend. I'll let y'all know...

[turtle1173]

Joe, glad to hear you found a skippy hotspot! I'm going to be heading to Barkley next week before the Tourney to get some, unless I can find some around here somewhere.

Matt, you fishing Caruthersville? Daryl, you all fishing it too? Anyone Else?

[Catter]

Anyone know if the skippies are hot at Pickwick or Batesville? I need to make a run soon.

Thanks

Joe

[Arkie55]

I can't say for sure but I am hearing the skippies are starting up pretty good at Batesville. I'll do some more checking and let you know.

[ArkansasCat]

Shane, I will be fishing the Caruthersville tournament. Looking forward to meeting you.

Joe, I am going to try the skippys at Batesville today. I'll give yall a report tonight. :thumbsup:

[Catter]

Thanks for the reports guys, which ever place is closest is the one we'll be headed to. I just started 3rd shift so sleep will be non-existant for me saturday.

Joe

[ArkansasCat]

Well, I didn't have much time to skippy fish today after I finally got all my other stuff done. I did want to give you boys a report so I made it down there for about 30 minutes. The river was muddy and up from the recent rain and all the junk in the water kept me cleaning my jigs off. I did manage to catch 3. I think when the water clears up some we can start catching good down there.

Joe, I haven't ever been to Pickwick but from what I hear it's alot better than Batesville is on a good day.

[rebhog]

I stopped last week and fished for skipjacks at Batesville. I was going bass fishing on the Arkansas river, with catfishing as the backup plan. I caught four in about thirty minutes. All were about 10 inches long.

[rwilley3]

Catter
Probably too late but skippies were running pretty good at Pickwick this morning. We caught a bucket full in less than 15 minutes. We took them and catfished all day. In fact I just got home and through cleaning fish(11:30 now). We ended up with 20 fish that weighed 120# so some good eaters anyway. We went back to dam right before dark and caught about 15 but it took a while it wasn't like it was this morning by any means. Good luck to you if you go. I want to go tomorrow on the big river but this weather isn't looking good especially the wind. I have fresh bait so if it is half decent I will be going anyway.
Roger

[Catter]

Good luck if ya go Roger. Since the weather aint looking too good we're gonna schedule another day for Pickwick. I'd like to go there when it aint rainin at least one time. lol

Thanks for the report,

Joe

[rwilley3]

Weather kept me from going Sat of course. I would have liked to seen what the river looked like(not from a boat though) Saturday afternoon with the winds we had. Did anyone get out today? Matt how was the bass fishing(hah).

[85Dave]

We put in at Richardson Landing Sunday. We got a late start because of the rain. We finally found some shad. Caught about 2 dozen with with 4-5 throws of the net.

We scouted around for a couple of hours. The second spot we fished got us a 6 and a 4. Caught one on frozen skipjack, and the other on live shad. The wind came up in the afternoon, and we headed back. The ride was a little bumpy since we were heading south towards the ramp.

[Catfishhunter]

Matt, you gonna be at Cauthersville? Al and I will be there fri...

[turtle1173]

Looks like I'm going to be missing out on Caruthersville this weekend. Lost my anchor (again) this past week, don't have a partner, & haven't got a live well fixed up yet. I guess I'll hold off until New Madrid on the 20th.

I was hoping to break the "curse" of fishing with my Dad this past week. Every time he comes down (my parents live up in Des Moines) we either catch 1 small cat or none. I can't figure out what the problem is. It's still a mystery, as we fished all day Thursday and had 2 whopping 5 lb Drum to show for it!! :sad2:

What can I say, "Uh, Dad, you want to see my photo album? I really DO catch these fish I've been telling you about." LOL

[crane]

Jason and I made it out yesterday and gave them a try (still hadn't decided whether that was a good thing or not :crazy: ). When we first got there the wind was bearable, but by the time we got the boat in the water things began to change. The wind started really whipping it up and changing directions, so there wasn't really any calm water anywhere. We more or less idled around until we found water suitable to fish in. We tried quiet a few spots with no success but finally talked 2 into biting. Not to good for a day of fishing but the one interesting thing was that one of the fish was a 14 pound albino blue. That's a first for me.

Now the ride back to the ramp was very interesting to say the least. 3 foot white-capping waves made for a rough and wet ride. It was definately not a good day to be out in a boat smaller than a barge. I was wishing that our boat was a little bigger on a few occasions, but we made it back safe and sound so I guess all's good. I just hope the weather is a little more friendlier next weekend.

Has anyone heard about a man drowning around Memphis this weekend? I heard a story about it but didn't know if it was on the mississippi river or somewhere else.

[85Dave]

The news said a man was swimming in a creek with friends in Millington and drowned.

[dudlbugr]

Joe and I fished yesterday on some new water. He caught 1 8, and I caught 1 6. I did get a good pull down in, what has come to be known as, the $100 hole. (Story has something to do with a good biting fish removing a rod and reel from someone's boat).

Meeting my cousin and a friend of his there tomorrow, so I borrowed 1 of Joe's rod and reels.... for the extra person. :embarassed:

[dudlbugr]

We fished the $100 hole this morning, and caught a 4 pound fish. Cousin had a drag singer, but missed him.

Had a few bites scattered around, but never felt another fish. Must be time to start flat-head fishing!

[rwilley3]

Good luck to you BOC boys tomorrow in the poker game (I mean fishing tournament):big_smile: at Caruthersville. See if we can have some of you boys make a repeat showing. Lets us know tomorrow how you did.

[turtle1173]

I'll let those who were there say something about the tournament. I just want to say "Congratulations" to Matt & his dad and to Daryl & Jason, as well. Having said that, you all can fill in the details :big_smile:

As for myself, I didn't get out on the water till about 11am yesterday. For one thing, I thought I would give the few guys that were fishing the tourney up here a little bit of space. Anyway, I got an 8 and a 24. Both caught on the upstream side of the same dike. Also missed another good hit and caught a 5 lb drum (all on this same dike). I decided to try something different for yesterday. I switched all my rods to circle hooks, just for "experimental purposes." I might try it one more time but I didn't see anything that makes me want to change my "Kahle ways." It certainly added more stress to my fishing, LOL.

[rwilley3]

I took my boys both out hoping to have a good day because they have gotten kind if bored lately doing so much fishing and not so much catching. As with your dad Shane I seem to do worse when they go but we finally after about all day caught one 21# fish. They liked that okay enough but wish we could have caught a few more. Come on you old "poker" player and Jason and Daryl lets hear the good news

[crane]

I tried to post a story earlier, but my security settings wouldn't let me so I'm sending this one as a test.

Short version: Matt and Dad kicked everyones butt. Jason and I weighed in 4 fish for 103lbs. Great weather, met some other BOC members, and had a great time.

Shane, you are going to have to show me how to anchor on the front side of those dikes.

[bigriver]

Okay Daryl, since you're going with the short version, I'll stick with the same.

Dad and I had a good day...... luckily it was on a tournament day. We started off slow and didn't catch our first fish till about 9am. But we doubled on that one and boated a thirty and a ten. Things stayed hit and miss after that. We'd catch one and then go for an hour without a bite. But we ran in to real problems when the livewells got full. Headed back early at about 1pm thinking we had 140 or so. The scales gave us the benifit of the doubt and read 197. We were suprised to say the least. We only caught eight fish, but luckily most were pretty good ones.

Congrats to Daryl and Jason for keeping up the Masingale tradition of making great catches. Four fish at over 100 ain't too shabby! Cograts to ArkansasCat too who weighed in some nice fish. It was a nice day for fishing and even better for catching. Looking forward to New Madrid.... but worried about Shane and his fifties!

BTW, with my spirits high I hit the river today with three day old, fresh skippies. Only boated two twelves and a nine pounder. Guess I used up all my luck yesterday. River looked great and water temps were around 65.

[rwilley3]

Matt you still "da man". Congrats as well to Daryl and Jason as well as ArkansasCat. Sure if I ask each of you were using weenies, crickets or something similar in 10-18 feet of dead water.:big_smile:

[solomon]

Congratulations to you guys who fished the tournament. When you guys gonna put together a "How to catch a bunch a big ol fish for dummies" book:confused2:

[three_rivers]

Congrats Matt, dad, Daryl and Jason! Sounds like you guys had a blast! Great day in anyones book! 197 pounds thas working a hurtin on the competition isn't it? Matt it was sure nuff due! All for a day of fishin......Awesome!

We got out on the river last friday for a bit. Ended up with three, 8, 13, 22. Water temps were 67 and the water had alot of leaves and trash. The bite was kind of finicky. They'd tap and hit light. What i'm almost certain what hurt us was fishing with two day old bait that the ice melted and sat in water. By the time i remembered changing out the ice it had already melted. The head had lost most of its blood and they looked a little white. We were sho wanting to get out there thursday but had to ride out all the bad weather.

We did have a little run in with a barge the other day. We had seen it coming and thought he was gonna moor off above us up river. While we were anchored i heard water splashing beside us to notice a barge coming right down the side of the boat! He throwed it in reverse and the barges came right over on us. Luckily we throwed the bouy and got the rods up in time only to get bumped. I'll keep a better look to whats upriver from us from now on!

Soons the weather cooperates and the rivers looking decent we'll be back over there to give it another try! Theres a 50 out there with my name on it! Patience i keep telling myself......

[turtle1173]

Great stories guys!! I remember last year at New Madrid, before the weigh-in I asked Matt how much they had caught. He said around 70 lbs or so. It ended up being "or so" because they had a weight in the mid- 90's. Matt's one of those few fishermen who "under" estimates his catches, LOL.

Matt, you don't have to worry about me at New Madrid. You know I catch all my good fish the day before the tournament :big_smile:

[rwilley3]

Wow Danny that sounds like a really close call. Glad nothing serious happened. I have let a couple get a little too close and end up racing to pull up rods and then fighting his wake a little closer than I really cared to be but nothing like that. I bet you were about freaked out huh?

[ArkansasCat]

Congrats to Matt and his dad!!! 7 fish at 197lbs now that's some gooduns. Also congrats to Jason and Daryl!!! You fellers had a good day also. It doesn't hurt so bad to get beat by some really great guys.
We had a good day on the river but just couldn't catch those real bigguns. We ended up with 7 fish weighing 81lbs.

[three_rivers]

Close enough i'd say lets don't and say we did. Fates something i'd rather leave alone out there on the river. So much for trying a new spot................:roll_eyes:

It was a super nice day to be on the river. The north wind had a bit of a chill that went away for a beautiful afternoon. Spent some well deserved time on the sandbar. Sister was surely ready to get out and do some running, we did had three deer come out less than forty yards from us. Pretty cool! Can't wait to do it again................

[85Dave]

Congrats on the great stringers!!! We only caught 1 Sunday. Didn't lose a sinker all day, but almost lost the anchor.

Did y'all hear about the charity auction a few days ago in Memphis? It was for the liver foundation, I think. My sister volunteered to help out. One of the auction items was a Mississippi River catfishing trip with Bill Dance. Winning bid was $5000.:ooooh:

[guthook]

OK boys i'm thinking about retiring from tournament fishing and becoming my brothers manager. My girlfriend pointed it out to me that daryl has had three different partners in the past three tournaments and finished first, second, and third. Hmmmm:roll_eyes:

so i'm changing my name to "don catfish king" and will be contracting my brother to the highest bidder for any of the upcoming tournaments.:lol:

all joking aside our day of fishing was very tough. we couldn't catch a fish in any of our primary/ prefished spots and had to change to what "looked good". that resulted in four nice fish but we couldn't pick up another fish for the rest of the day.

matt i think we both have the same self confidence problem, i argued with daryl that we had barely 90 pounds, and he contended we were over 100 pounds. thank god he was right!!

guys let me tell you something i've learned about matt. he has alot of good days that he doesn't brag or boast about, because that's not his style. but he cannot cover up saturday. a good ol country tail whoopin is a understatment!! congrats on a well fished tournament

arkansas cat,, you boys were only one fish away from finishing in the money. i think its that one fish that keeps all of us fishing every chance we can. congrats on a good day.

danny,,, was it the barge or the tug that bounced off of you? and did it run over you bouy?

[Arkie55]

Once again the BOC boys end up at the top!!!!!:smile2: Congratulations to Matt and Dad and the Paragould brothers. Awsom fishing!!!!! The way you Paragould boys changed tactics to put fish in the boat is testament to your fishing knowledge. I'll have to say it again, you guys fishing the Big Muddy are a step ahead of the rest of us. I guess I'm gonna have to break out and make a trip or a hundred over to the Osceola area and learn how to fish that thing.

[dudlbugr]

No surprise on the 5 grand for the guided fishing trip. I normally get 3 grand myself! Anyone want to go fishing?:cool2:

I fished over the weekend up at Huxtable Pumping Station on the St. Francis. I think our group did manage to catch 1 yellow cat. I caught 1 garina Friday, and about a 5 lb channel on Saturday..... time to move!:roll_eyes:

Thanks for showing us around up there, Terry. Maybe next time you can meet us at Tunica!

[Arkie55]

I sure didn't show you much Reb!!!!!!:embarassed: I'll be looking forward to a Tunica trip. Did you boys get soaked Saturday night?

[three_rivers]

Luckily it was only the barge. The tug was 4 or 5 barges back. We decided to fish that spot last and burn off the rest of the sunshine the day had to offer before heading in. Before it was over our bouy went under the barge for a few minutes before he backed up off of it. I guess it just looked like it needed broke in right! After that, it was about time to call it a day. It would of been nice if they'd let us known by honking a horn or anything.

We barely had time to get 3 rods and unstrap the bouy off the trolling base. Ended up breaking the fourth rod off as it was still out just hung up. Them dang turd tapers was giving my katalfa worms a workin over, which was were my attention was drawn. Occupying the same space as a barge is something i'm gonna try not to do again.

Yo Daryl, that bouy idea is great! It sits right on top of the trolling motor base just about perfect..........Thanks!

Anyone keeping an eye on Shane? Hes gonna be tough to beat draggin up all the fifties! Shane, whats the goin rate on showin a fella how to drag up a fifty?:dribble:

Now if friday will hurry up and get here!!!:still_dreaming:

[turtle1173]

Danny, I'm glad you got out of there in time. That could have been real bad, real fast. I'm not sure you realize this but playing chicken with a barge is a no win situation :big_smile:

This may come as a shock but catching 50 lbers isn't really an exact science, LOL. Even I might be able to book a few $5K trips if I had a "50 lber Guarantee." I've caught 2 this year and I had 4 last year. Considering the number of "outings" I've had, that is hardly consistent.

How about a few stats: Last year 3 of the 4 came on the upstream side of dikes. The other 1 was in straight line current. Incidently, that was the one caught the day before the tourney last year. This year, no 50's have come from the dikes. Both times I was anchored in back current. Last year, I didn't catch any 50 lbers after the New Madrid Tourney. They were all caught between March - May (Although I got a 47 at the end of June). This year, I'm determined to change that!

If you can figure out a pattern from that info, please fill me in, LOL. I think the only pattern is: Get out as much as you can & you might catch one! :roll_eyes:

I purchased me a livewell (stock tank) yesterday. It is a 75 Gallon Freeland. I got a great deal on it. They wanted $65 for it but it had a crack on one side about 5 inches long up at the top. I wasn't going to pay that for it. They ended up giving me 50% off, so I took it. I've got JB weld setting up on it as we speak. I've got to finish the lid and the plumbing, then I'll see how many 50's I can stuff in it, LOL!

[jhulsey]

Roger, are you that desperate for bait that you are resorting to fingers? :crazy: Somebody is going to have to take the knife away huh. Well I hope you're feeling better, and keep an eye on that thing. I wont tell you what the wife said on here. Might scare you into going back up there.:sad2:

[rwilley3]

Jody
You didn't have to try and gently let it out on here that just because I missed work today reason being I about poked a hole through my hand(luckily the bone stopped it but not before it cut a small artery) messing with a fishing pole. Contrary to what you or the other guys at work may think I was not trying to cut my fingers off for bait yet but I did manage to get me some good blood. Now if I can recruit me a driver for Sat as well as someone to cut bait, pull anchors, reel fish etc I can still go and watch. It sucks to be lame in one hand as well as have that bad throbbing. Maybe some river water is just what the doctor ordered.

[MOblues]

Congrats on those who did well in the tournament. Unfortunately, I won't be in the New Madrid tourney like last year, mostly because I don't have a partner. But I will be there to cheer on Shane, for sure. Shane, who's gonna be your partner again? Jerry? Me? haha, LOL Hopefully, us locals can whip Bill D in the tourn. I thought it was great last year, when all these pros came down, and a local team won it.

I went out last Sunday and had a decent day. Got a 17, 16, 8, 6, & 5. (Would post pics, but don't think I'm allowed to yet). The weather was near perfect, except the morning was a bit chilly. The wife covered up and hunkered down to sleep in the boat while I fished. I was starting to worry about the snoring scaring the fish away, lol, but that changed when I pulled in the 17lber. Then the 16 about 2 mins after that. Neither one of them fought a bit. Couldn't believe it, sorta dissapointing, haha. Water temp is slighly rising, and there was no debris in the water. Great day for fishing. Hope this weekend is as nice.

[turtle1173]

Randy, sounds like a great day of fishing to me! I appreciate you being on "my side." I'm going to need all the help I can get, LOL. Matt certainly doesn't need any help :wink: . Jerry fishes with Billy Tanner for a partner. However, I think this is the last year for that, as Billy's son is close to 16 and will be his "official" partner next year. I fish with Tony Miller. He is the Deputy Sheriff for New Madrid County and goes to church where I preach.

Jerry hasn't had the best luck with tourney's this year so far. I was cheering him on for the last two he was in but now I just hope his luck holds out for the next one, LOL.

I hadn't heard anything about Bill Dance being at this tourney? I wonder if he's fishing with Patterson again.

[MOblues]

Oh ok, I know Tony. Good guy. I see him up at Kinsey's quite a bit. He likes those Kinsey burgers as much as me, haha.

As for Bill Dance, not sure if he's going to be in the tourney or not. I just heard that "he is going to be here" from the lady at the bait shop.

[dudlbugr]

Hey guys,


Me, Joe, and Droptines fished out of Vicksburg today, and did fair. Joe caught a few fish, but I'll let him tell y'all about them. I managed to catch a 14, 18, 19.5, and a 23. Droptines has some pics, and he better be sending them soon! :0a35:
Marked all of these fish in an outside bend, in 35 to 70 ft of water, on a back current. We didn't mark many fish on the cuts, and couldn't find any deep water near enough to the dikes to excite me. :0a15:

What did y'all do upriver?

[three_rivers]

Congrats Reb. Way to go! Its days like that, that makes us keep coming back.

We made it out friday for a bit. Water temps were 66 degrees and the river was a cocoa brown. After getting out on the water i started to second guess fishing. The wind was making it hard to anchor and whitecaps were spraying us one right after the other. Even the tugs had smaller tugs to help them navigate the river. After some creative anchoring we finally got anchored up. One of the rods bent over and the fight was on. When it made it to the boat it was a channel cat????:confuse:

We caught channels at several of the places we anchored. That is the first channels caught on the river where we usually find a blue every once in a while. By the time the day ended we spent quite a bit of time fishing steep mud banks looking for a fat flattie which to no avail wasn't hungy for some 6 month old skipjack.

Hopefully there will be a day next week where the wind will lay and the sun will peak out of the clouds so we can give it another try. They have to be hungry sometime right????

Did any of you other guys get out or going this weekend?

[three_rivers]

For some reason i had to post the same message twice.

THIS SPACE FOR RENT!

[turtle1173]

Danny, you are not the only one who has some "issues" with Channel Cats. Matt mentioned that he had caught some a while back in some unlikely areas. Today, 2 of the 3 cats I caught were Channels. There is something weird going on. The channels I caught today were 5 & 7 lbs. They were caught in "12 ounce" current :ooooh:

The only other cat I caught today was a 13 lb Blue. I caught him in a perfect looking Channel cat area, LOL. Nice mud bank with a few downed trees. Nice slow current.

If only I would of had my bobber and crickets, I would of caught me a 50 lber! :big_smile:

Reb, that's some fine catches. I hope you didn't let Joe catch too many fish. Next thing you know he'll start expecting to catch 'em, LOL.

[bigriver]

Yo Reb! You guys did way better than us. Lookin forward to some pics. We fished a half day with three blues, twelve being the biggest. Oh.... and a gaspergoo! First drum of the year, and first time Roger fished with us this year.......... coincidence???? That Roger can sure make some good deer jerky though, so he's welcome in the boat anytime. :big_smile:

Water temps here were around 65 degrees and not much debris, although I heard there might be some coming from upstream. I think I'm gonna give it another shot this morning for a while. Maybe the big boys are getting hungry.

[rwilley3]

Thanks again Matt for letting a man with a bummed up hand who couldn't do anything other than watch(and eat those good sandwiches your dad made) hop a ride. I don't see how with you doing all the work including the "spot picking" I can feel right about taking all the credit for the gaspergoo. Look on the bright side also for a few minutes as he swam toward the main channel gumming that big ole piece of bait we had high hopes that he was "the monster" we were looking for. I bet you and dad do well today when you go to your good spots.:big_smile: Thanks again for the ride and answering those stupid questions I asked.

[crane]

Well guys.......I guess you can't hit a homerun every time, but in our case we didn't even get a hit. We fished new madrid yesterday and only got one good bite for a whole days fishing. Talk about a buzz kill. We tried all the tricks, but still couldn't find anything. The river was real muddy and was as trashy as I have ever seen it. We had to throw the bouy 3 times just to get out of the way of the logs and trees floating down river. The bad thing was that the wind waves made seeing the logs extremely hard, lots of times we couldn't see them until they were less than 100 yards away.

The only good thing was that we were able to catch a few fresh skipjack. I just wish the fish were biting so we could have put them to good use.

[turtle1173]

Oh, did I forget to mention that I also caught 4 drum yesterday?? :ooooh: Two 5's, a 7, & a 10. Hopefully I got all that out of the way, so I can have a clear run at the cats next Saturday.

Daryl, I saw a truck when I was pulling out with AR plates (GMC Canyon??). I was wondering if that was you all. I have the Chevrolet equivalent (Colorado). I guess you all went downstream, cause I didn't see another boat all day. Boy, I imagine you all had some waves with that SW wind, LOL. It came up some major winds around noon or so. Sorry you didn't fare too well but it was a tough day out there. Some of the places I wanted to fish were impossible due to the debris.

I don't know about you all but those kinds of days, I just shake my head and wonder if I have any clue about what I'm doing or not.

[MOblues]

I hear you guys. I went out Saturday too in NM (I think I saw 2 silver pickups there, maybe it was you 2 guys?). I was in a black Jeep. Anyway, yeah not the greatest of days. 2 blues, 5 & 8. The wind was killer.....couldn't anchor down, yada yada, I know I don't even have to tell you guys. haha. Had 2 good ones break my line though (35lb test), so I'm not even going to speculate about how big they were. We'll just pretend it was debris in the water so I won't lose any sleep tonight, lol.

[gofish]

Well, at least Reb took it easy on me. I did manage to catch a few fish on Saturday but nothing compared to the day Reb and Howard had. I caught a 3,4,& 5. I got a couple of other taps but nothing solid. I had the same problem with wind but very little debris in the water. From what I remember, water temp was about 69. I'll be glad when the weather gets hot and the water levels drop. I seem to catch more fish in the dog days of summer.

Ready to go back after 'em....:cool2:

[droptines]

hey gofish it was nice to meet you guys and even though it was not my best day i thourghly enjoyed it.always do.i figured it is he that should post the pics so he should have them.hope he posts soon cause im thinking of doctoring those and i caught 4 beauties.:cool2: :cool2: :cool2:

[dudlbugr]

Thanks, Droptines.

Man, that CatMaxx Rod is nice! You'll see the pic! The line broke a few seconds after this shot was taken. The fish felt like he was about 96 to 97 pounds...... :big_smile:

He felt bigger than the 23, but not THAT bigger! I think I just had a bad spot in my line. Had caught 2 fish previously without changing my line. Shoot, I even caught the 23 and the 18 on the SAME BAIT, a head!