Mississippi River-World Class Catfishing "part 4"

[three_rivers]

Two sixty pounders huh????????? Man, thats so wrong it aien't even right! Doood, wheres the love??? Holding out on a bro when the info is detrimental to his fishing! Thats the way its gunna be eh? .....................:sad2: :angry: :big_smile: :big_smile:

Shane, we'll be up your way in our camo'd kayak in the morning looking for some of those monster missouri crickets! If your out and about and hear a dog barking stop by and pay us a visit. Hopefully all will stay hi and dry this go around.:embarassed:

Good luck to all you guys in the tourney!

[MOblues]

Hey Shane! Long time no see! We've got to go out together sometime this year. Hadn't posted here in a while, been busy with lots of things.

Matt...looks like you're still killin' em! Way to go. And it's great to hear that Stephen came over for some Big River fishin'! Must have been alot of fun for him.

Just now getting the ole 16 footer in shape again, but I'm about ready to go shopping for something bigger & faster. Headin' up to King Marine in Cape this weekend, so hopefully I'll have a good one soon. Would love to have a bigger center console, I just don't know about a fiberglass boat on the River. Anybody know if they make an aluminum center console?

Anyhoo, I'll be checking back in from time to time, and hopefully have some pics to post! Good to see everybody's back in action! Be safe and good luck out there!

[rwilley3]

Dave
I didn't think about it till after my earlier post but maybe he tied that one out last week then added a few 12 oz weights today to get it up a few more pounds. Hah. Just kidding Bobby. For now at least "you da man". Got to get myself into gear I guess and catch up since apparently you haven't been guiding me to where you knew these old big boys live all winter long.

[bigriver]

BK, sorry to hear about your wife's health issues. The doctors have that chemo business pretty well dialed in these days. They know just what and how much to perscribe to take care of the problem cells. We'll keep her in our thoughts and hope she gets better soon.

Yo Danny! You forgot to mention the "falling outta the boat" part of your story. Sounds scary... just think if you were alone... that could be bad. I didn't know who the "Brad" was that you went fishing with until he posted your missing details. Now I know you didn't go showing Brad ALL of our honey holes did you???? You did use the blindfold on him didn't you?

And ArkansasCat, what is this business about "After catching some(bait)" business. That's all you can say at a time when fresh bait is at a premium around here? Could you divulge the type bait you may have caught, and maybe where it might have been caught (don't say "in the corner of their mouth"). Come on man..... inquiring minds need to know.

If we don't get rained out I am taking a coworker out of McKellar this afternoon. The radar doesn't look very promising, but I'm looking at my boat out in the parking lot and I'm keeping my hopes high.

[85Dave]

I saw this a couple of weeks ago on a website about Pickwick fishing conditions. Any comments? Is this where our skips went?

"Balls of shad have began to show up on the surface throughout the lake. The majority of balls contain this years hatch, about 1 in. In size. The feeding frenzy that takes place will be mostly skip jacks, however some bass will be below the shad in some cases and can be caught on cranks, rattle traps and carolina rigged plastics."

[three_rivers]

Matt, you can believe me when i tell ya it skeered the BEJESUS out of me! Facing away from a tug, the wake hit the boat as i was pulling in anchor rope. The anchor i already retrieved since the boat washed up on the dike. The wake hit, stepping back to compensate only to find the dipnet under the foot that stepped back. I still had the anchor in hand hanging from side of the boat. Thankfully i wasn't hurt, but it sure left a lasting impression on me since i seen the river from a whole new perspective.....INVERTED!:embarassed:

We fished everywhere and nowhere in particular. :0a19: It seemed that anywhere we dropped anchor something would bite. I guess you could say it was just fishin, after that layover that seemed like forever just being out there was everything that i'd hoped for and more....

BK, keep doing what your doing. There are some of the best docs in the world over that way and i'm sure they'll do everything they can. We'll be keeping you guys in our thoughts............

Guys good luck out there this weekend. Swing for the fences..............we wanna see them!

[three_rivers]

Brad.....i forgot to THANK YOU!! Somehow i was hoping to forget what happened, i can see thats not gunna happen. I'll take it anyway i can get it.....It was fun!

[Little Mac]

Danny, you need to be careful now. Keep pullin that crap and Jo wont let you go anymore :beat_brick: Im glad yer alright. Hate to have to miss ya.

Jim (BK) I am sorry to hear of this news, I know you were worried about it at Mariasac gathering... She is in pretty good hands by the amount of technology there is nowdays. Just be there for her..

Is it time for the bigguns yet Matt?


Mac

[ArkansasCat]

Now Matt, I just figured the type of bait we used went without saying. Don't everyone use crickets? If ya get out on the end of them dykes, turn them rocks over they are really thick. And it's the black kind too, not them ol' store bought brown ones.:lol:

Hey Danny, can I take this blindfold off yet???

[rwilley3]

Now that I have detailed instructions on fishing the cross currents(thanks Guthook) and now how to get those crickets to fish with I ought to be ready to pull in some real whoppers. Maybe with all this information being released in such a public forum I am starting to worry about the catfish population in Big Muddy taking a nosedive from overcatching. Lol

[three_rivers]

Oh you haven't took it off yet? Man my bad.




Pssssssssst, fellas i hit him with the neuralyzer (flashy-little-memory-messier-upper-thing....men in black). :cool2:

[Catfish_Commando]

Mississippi River-World Class Catfishing "part 4"

[coach]

finally got a day off to go fishing .............. 4 fish , 3, 7 ,8, and 12......... fish didn't seem to bite till around 11 or so...........i carried a fellow on his first trip on the misipy ...... as luck would have it, i caught all 4 fish ..... i did let him reel a couple in tho !!!!!!!:wink:

[rwilley3]

We fished today and managed 3 fish with an 8# flattie and two blues 10# or a little better each. One of them looked like he had been hit by a prop I guess that was why he was stupid enough to bite our hook. It was a pretty nice day until about noon and then it got a little warm out there but wind kept it manageable.

[crane]

Made it out today to New Madrid today with my oldest son and gave em a try. The skipjack was on fire today, we fished all day with fresh and still took home about 30 for future trips.:smile2: The catfish wasn't so great, we fished hard from 8 til 3 and could only manage 3. Jordan started out the day with a 24, then a 4, and I finished with a 14 pounder. The 24 was the only bite we had while anchored. The rest were caught either walking or drifting. The number of catfish caught might have been my fault, I was drifting in some off the wall places, like the middle of the river and even some 120 foot water. Missed a few and caught the 14 pounder there, so now I have some new waters to learn how to fish.:roll_eyes:

I heard that matt was up to his old tricks, you know, crickets and cross current.:roll_eyes: Sounded like he had a decent day.

Looks like some better fish are starting to be caught. It's just a matter of time before one of us hook into that biggun we're looking for.

[three_rivers]

Way to go Jordan!!! Give ol pops a pat on the back for being the net man, thas a good fish! Three fish like that is a good day, well for me anyways.

Daryl, when fishing up there is the river any different than mempho (ie any locks, dams etc)? If you don't mind me asking whas a mo license run? For some reason it just dawned on me that i'd need a out of state license....


Guys i guess matt got ate by a big ol bluecat! Yo Matt, hook any whoppers out of mckellar? I know if theres anyone that can find (good fish) you'd be da man!

Rog,,,,, you still pickin on cripples!!! If i am remembering correctly last winter you nailed a purty blue with a big ol gash along its tail.. Shoot you caught a good flattie, thas sumthing thats been two years in the making for me, i just keep telling myself every trip.....today will be the day....

[guthook]

me and the brother made out on the river today. with some of daryl's "fresh" bait from the day before. when i opened the cooler and they had a brown tint and were a little soft i knew we might have problems.

hey dave was that you we met behind a dike? we were in desperate need of bait. we thought that might of been you and your dad. who ever that was sure had a nice umbrella that would of come in handy today!!!!:crazy:

we scratched out a few fish with 18, 16, a few 12's with several 10-3 pounders. those little dudes sure were fat. they seemed to bite better/harder later in the day.

[bigriver]

Brad, that insight on the crikets came a little late for us on Friday. I took a coworker out for his first time on the Big River. We cast and cast for skippies on the dike across from McKellar and only came up with one. Little did we know that the bait of choice (crickets) were under the rocks within arms length away.

We only had an hour or so left to fish, so we didn't need much more than that one skipjack, but I brought a couple others frozen just in case. We caught an eighteen and a sixteen, then on our last hole my partner caught a whopper. I'd cast out one good bait then had a miss-fire on the second cast. As I was untangle the mess he hollered that we had a bite. He grabbed it about the time the front eye of the rod went underwater. We dropped anchor and floated on down. i figured it would be a good twenty-plus, but got a good suprise when it surfaced. It weighed 48 pounds. I'll try to post a pic.

Dad and I fished up north on Saturday. We had a tough time finding bait, and most of what we caught were small skipjack. When we finally started fishing we faired pretty well. Our first fish was our biggest and weighed 38 pounds. We caught quite a few more in the teens through the day. And boy was it hot... or was it the humidity... whichever.. it was HOT! We mostly tried to stay in the breeze and fished straight currents.... and of course Roger's favorite... cross-currents.

Today was another battle with bait. I tried every dike between Mempho and Missipy. With four small ones I finally found one dike that produced some decent skippies... about a dozen total. But by then I was getting hot and tired. I tried a few setups and caught a couple in the low teens but no more whoppers.

All-in-all it was a good weekend. Spent more time bait fishing than catfishing... but that's the way it goes sometimes. It's all still pretty fun and it sure beats working.

[rwilley3]

Danny
I am like you if I caught a 24# and then one in teens that about makes it great for me based on my typical day anyway. Heck you have had some pretty good days yourself though. As far as cripples I will take them anyway I can get them these days. Until about 11:00 Sat thought I was about to get my 4th skunking in a row even with some fresh bait this time. I think I may have a catfish repellant smell to my hands or something. It seems like the harder I try the worse I fare. My wife says I just want it too bad which may have some truth in it but I ain't about to tell her that. I just knew with the newfound knowledge about where to get those crickets and some good cross currents to fish them in I would catch a whale but it just didn't happen. Matt I knew you were still da man. Shane did you get out Sat? You usually have some pretty good fodder for reading so if you did lets hear it as well. Jason looks like you and Daryl had a pretty darn good day today as well.

[turtle1173]

Sounds like everyone has been catching some good fish. Congrats everyone!!

Daryl, you all must of been fishing downstream behind that island in the secondary channel. Definitely some deep water there and also a good skippy area.

Matt, I don't know if I even remember what a 48 lber looks like, LOL. Sounds like a great couple of outings!

Danny, a one day out of state MO fishing license runs $5.50. Why don't you plan on coming up sometime soon and we'll go out? I might even let you catch a fish, LOL (Where's Joe at? He can vouch for that, LOL).

I fished with the visiting preacher on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon. I told you about Tuesday's success but Wednesday was a different story. It was blowing 20-30 MPH and we couldn't hardly buy a bite. Had one decent take down that I missed :crazy: but that was it for our 3 hour trip.

I had too much to do Saturday, so I didn't make it out.

[85Dave]

Jason, we fished out of Richardson the last 2 weekends. We've got a big, blue umbrella that really helps. We only had one 9" fresh skip that day, and some year-old frozen bait. Someone in an aluminum boat passed by and asked what we were using and I said "Skipjack". They said "You're lucky". Was that you? That old bait doesn't work anymore, so we are gettting rid of it. We threw a few dozen in the water yesterday. Still got another bag to get rid of.

We caugt 3 skips yesterday on sibiki rigs, 2 little ones and one that must of been close to 2 lbs. We tried some dikes but no bites. We tried some cuts next, and caught a 19, 13, 3, and a 2. About 2:30 it was getting kinda warmish out, so we called it a day. This fish were stacked up on the cut seams. We could see them on the depth finder.

I had another one on when I was fishing Rogers cross-current style, but the weight on the spare line got caught and pulled the hook out. It was almost in, but I never saw. It pulled like a 4-5 pounder, but since I didn't see it I'm gonna guess it was closer to 50 lbs. I can do that, right?

Only 2 lines were twisted up, so I'm not sure if I was fishing cross-current style correctly. Aren't you supposed to have 3 or more twisted? Maybe that was the problem.

[rwilley3]

David
It sounds like you had a pretty good day anyway. That cross current fishing is Matt and the Masingale brother's method not mine. I certainly don't want to take credit away from them for it. Hey Matt I really like that term "miss-fire". I think I may try that next time I rare back and sling one of those 12 ounce weights and it stops in mid air and about jerks the pole out of my hand(actually did once). Heck that even has a nice ring to it I may even try to adapt it to some other goof up sometime just for kicks.

[turtle1173]

David,

According to my "rule book", that is a perfectly legal move. If you have a fish on but do not actually see the fish, then you can call it whatever you want :tounge_out: I think it's also in the "appendix" where if you tell the story 5 times before posting about it, you can tack on another 5 lbs to your post!!

[85Dave]

Well then, it had to be at least 60 lbs.

Roger, sorry for the mis-identification. Thought it was your idea to cross up all the lines and blame it on a new "technique". From now on I'll call it the "Cross Current" method.

I had a "cross fire" when Dad got the 19 lb blue. I was messing around with the "Cross Fire" (The Bass guys call it a "Professional Overrun") when the #1 rod almost touched the water. Dad got it and pulled in a beautifil blue.

So, how did y'all do last weekend?

[turtle1173]

I'm going to be rather busy the next few days, so I did what any "normal" person would do ... I went fishing today!

Got out to the "skip dike" at around 7:30 this morning. It took a while but I caught 10 by 8:30.

I found a sunken barge a couple weeks back and decided to check that out first. It was hard to figure out it's position in the water so i was just guessing on setting up on it. Missed one real hard bite but then turned around a few minutes later and caught a 13 lber. I probably should have probed it a little more but I decided to go elsewhere. When I picked up anchor, I drove around it again and figured out that it was facing a different direction than I had originally thought. So next time I think I'll be able to set up on it better :roll_eyes: Hopefully it will be a good spot to catch some Flatty's!!

Went to a dike that I've been wanting to fish for a while. Had a real good "flathead hit" and got him to the boat but just before I could see him he got off :sad2: Just about hit myself with the sinker when we came "un-stuck." I would guess he was in the 15-20 lb range but since I quoted the "rule book" to David a couple posts back, I'm now thinking it was probably a 60 lb Flatty! :big_smile:

Baited back up and was checking another rod. It was hung up so I was trying to "unhang" it. Looked back over my shoulder and the rod I just baited was headed for the water. Ended up being another 13 lb Blue.

I fished a couple more dikes and ran into Jerry Whitehead (not literally :ooooh: ). He was fishing with the former bait shop owner and they had just caught 2 fish at the same time. The 1st one was a 24 lber and the second one went 45 :ooooh: . Of course I was kicking myself for not having started on that particular dike, LOL.

They had already fished a couple more dikes that I was thinking of fishing, so I decided to head to the revetment bank. The first noteworthy thing was that I managed to snag the anchor that I lost when fishing with Demetrius early in the year. It was my homemade rebar anchor. You just about couldn't see the anchor because it was covered with mussels and somekind of little worm looking things (how's that for a description!). Anyway, I figure after it's left in the sun for a while, it will be useable again.

It was really starting to get hot around noon and the fish were just not biting. The umbrella worked good until about 1 and then it was just getting more miserable, so I decided on one last spot. It's the spot where I caught the 36 lber last week.

To make a long story slightly shorter, after 25 minutes I was geting ready to leave when I got a decent "tap-tap" on my skip head. I waited a couple minutes and nothing. I picked my rod up and bounced my sinker on the bottom. 10 seconds later, he slammed it. He took some good line and fought like a big fish. I really thought I had a hawg because he was fighting real good. However, the scale doesn't lie (only fishermen with no scales). He weighed in at 36 lbs. It was definitely a different fish from last week, as this one was really beat up.

Incidently, I've caught several fish doing the above technique after getting a decent hit and then "nothing" after a few minutes. I'm sure some of you do this also. I believe a cat will sit and watch a bait sometimes, perhaps waiting for it to do something a little different. By lifting my pole up and bouncing my sinker on the bottom I can make sure that I'm not hung up and also give a little different movement to the bait. It could be coincidence. Perhaps he would hit the bait anyway after more time. However, I think it makes a difference SOMETIMES and I sure don't think it hurts, as a little extra movement isn't likely to spook them.

Well, I feel like I just typed a novel and there wasn't even a 50 lber caught :roll_eyes:

[guthook]

hey shane sounds like a great day, good job!!!

i agree with the lost fish rule. one time i hung a world record catfish that almost instantly broke my leader. daryl contends that i hung the bottom. but he will never change my mind.

what kind of bait did the skipjack like?

[crane]

Sounded like you had a pretty good day for as hot as it was. Right now I'd take a 36 pounder. I think jason and i used up all our good luck at the last tourney because I haven't caught anything over 18 pounds since, but that won't keep me from trying.:big_smile:

As for that moving the bait thing, last week we were anchored up for about 20 minutes without a bite and I started walking the bait back and caught one and lost one within about 5 minutes. All you other guys try it and let me and shane know if it works for you.

[rwilley3]

Shane
Great day in my book as well. I can only hope one in mid 30's decides to bite my line on Sat. I really don't want to implement that new rule on lost fish though if I don't have to. Don't get me wrong I am 100% in favor of catch and release I just want to take a peek at them 1st. Crane at the TN River(Pickwick) I usually do very well walking baits back both anchored and with motor running up at the dam but here I haven't had as much luck doing it but on second thought I don't have that much luck drifting, anchor fishing, etc. so we better not go by that. I am planning on going on one of those daylight to dark excursions this Sat since my family is going to Paris to see the in-laws(I know you all can't believe I ain't going) who are retiring there in September from Florida. I had a guy going with me but when I told him this would truly be an all day affair he decided he better not go. Good luck to all this weekend.

[bigriver]

Shane, sounds like you had a good day, baring the heat of coarse. Nice pic too. I love to see them ripped with muscle like that.

I never have tried, or at least noticed that moving the bait has helped. But it makes sense. Say the bait falls into a crevice or something and that big ole cat can't do nothing but sit there and wish he could eat it. Then it moves and BAM! I'll tell you what, I'll start giving it a try and report back...... as long as there's not a tourney within the next few weeks.

By the way, Shane are you planning to fish the Cape tournament? Dad and I are considering fishing it but haven't decided for sure. It shouldn't be too hard finding fish because the river will be all but dryed up by then. So if you find some water, you'll probably find some fish.

[rwilley3]

I had my 14 hour love affair yest but wasn't very sucessful. I went from about 6 till after 10 driving 20 miles casting at every dike I came to and caught zero skippies. I finally settled for a few shad and carp. The two fish I caught were both caught on frozen bait.The second place I anchored a caught a 12# football in some really heavy current which was fun. Moved a few more times then caught a 23#. It was at the end of a dike with a buoy right off the end. While I had him on a barge came hugging the buoys which made some gianormous waves which were lapping over the transom. I had just been getting my umbrella out when the fish bit and had throw it down to get the fish. While I was battling the rocking boat and the fish the umbrella decided to blow out of the boat so I had to reach out and get it as it floated by as well . I bet those guys on the barge were heehawing. Finally about 4:30 I caught 4 small skippies which were good for two bites but no fish. I ended up the last couple of hours of the day trying some drifting but still nothing. When you break it all down I guess I caught one skippie for about every 1:15 min I spent out there trying for them and 1 catfish for every 3.5 hours I tried for then. I must be nuts to keep on doing this.

[coach]

come on buster ................... tell us the story !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:wink:

[three_rivers]

Rog,,,,,,thas called productive insanity! We's all crazy. LOL A twenty three pounder would of gotten me jumping pretty quick. Did you show those guys in the tug the tennessee bird? :wink:

Sounds like busters got something interesting going on... Come on, quit holding out on us!!!!

[turtle1173]

Matt, no I'm not planning on fishing the Cape Tourney. It looks like they are having trouble with the ramp conditions due to the low water. It's going down into negative numbers here in New Madrid this week.

Roger, hang in there! Don't try and use logic when it comes to catfishing, LOL! My wife was trying to do that with me the other day when I mentioned getting another boat. Of course she wanted to break it down with how much it would cost per trip :roll_eyes: Now what kind of nonsense is that!:crazy:

Maybe Demetrius will get on here and tell us about the triple digit fish he lost on the Ohio on Saturday. Sounds like it was a good one!

[crane]

Demetrius, We do want to hear the story, but only on one condition, it can't have the phrase ".....so I tightened down my drag." If it dose have that phrase, we can assure you that you will be hunted down and beaten with a 7 foot medium heavy action rod, because those triple digit fish only come around once in a lifetime it seems.:big_smile:

[slimcat]

I tell you guys what, that was one big honory monster cat. That cat took the pole into the water, pulled the rod rack sideways against the motor and was steadily taking drag, some say monster blue, but I no better. BIg big Yellowcat, If I was a betting man. The skipjack head probaly weighed around a pound, I saved the biggest head for last. When I finally wrestled the pole out of the holder, the fish just pulled it down into the water more. Finally the junk Berkley vanish 80lb leader broke about 1" below the swivel. Probaly had a nick but still, one heck of an experience. Next time, me and the ole fish are gonna play a while.LOL

[rwilley3]

Slimcat nice story. Danny I have 4 kids so I have under gone 16+ years of anger management(19 if I want to count my other half) so I managed not to salute the Captain. I had my hands full anyway even if I had wanted. Where is Buster with that other story we have been waiting on. Crane you and Bro got any tales from Sunday. Come clean with us you ain't got to tell no locations but some stories would be good reading material. All these times leading up to these tournaments leaves us non-poker players with a lack of information as all you boys get those poker faces on. Shane I ain't giving up yet heck I wasn't but one bite away from one just like Slimcats.

[turtle1173]

Demetrius, I hope you learned your lesson. You need to stop using that bluegill tackle for catfish, LOL. For now on, nothing less than 200 lb test all the way around. Oh, I believe it's also time to invest in a fighting chair!! LOL. In the future when you tell the story, there should be something in there about him pulling you half way in the water or you going in after him. :big_smile:

That's right Roger, every trip we go out, we are only 1 bite away from the BIG ONE. That's one of the things that keep you going back. Knowing that HE is swimming in the general area.

Danny is coming up here to fish on Friday. I'm hoping to put him on a few fish. The water is low and it's hot out but hopefully the fish we be cooperative.

I've been meaning to ask everyone what their jig preference is for skipjack. I usually tie on 3 or 4 jigs about 8-12" apart. I usually alternate between white and chartreuse. There might be a slightly better hookup with white but probably not much. I have certainly had better success with the curly tail jigs instead of the Marabou fuzzy jigs that Wal-mart sells. Suggestions??

[slimcat]

Shane, one word says it all for skips. SABIKI, SABIKI,SABIKI, remember SABIKI. It seems to be the only thing they will hit where I catch them.
I may have to get a fighting chair for this weekends tourney at Cape, I just hope you have not sore lipped all of those 50lbers down there.LOL

[85Dave]

We use chartruese Sabiki rigs like Slimcat mentioned. The last big skip we caught was full of insects. Chartruese insects. I rarely catch a skip on the jig, just on the flies.

[gofish]

I haven't been on the river in two weeks. I'm looking to get out there this weekend. The river is very low. Hopefully that means the fish are very concentrated. All I have to do is locate 'em.

Shane, I usually have the best luck with silver jigs, white being a close second. I buy Slater's jigs, as I usually don't have much luck with those from Wal Mart. I'll be making a trip up your way in the next couple of months. Maybe you'll get the chance to redeem yourself. :lol: I'll be in touch and let you know when I'm heading that way. I'll probably be making two trips actually, in the next 4-5 months. Maybe we can hook up.

Y'all be careful out there.

Anybody heard anything about October 27?

[ArkansasCat]

Good luck to all the guys headed to Cape this weekend for the big tourny. The river is low so everyone be careful and run inside them bouys. Yall give us a report when ya get back and don't make us wait too long. We want to hear all about it Saturday night. lol:big_smile:

[gofish]

I got up this morning at 6 to head to the river and noticed these small clear crystal-looking things falling from the sky. It was so amazing that I think even God wanted a picture. There were flashes and what sounded like a drum-roll. Yes, it was/is raining. For the first time in about 10 weeks. It was a bitter sweet feeling getting back in bed. Hopefully I'll make it out tomorrow.

[coach]

hey joe......... i emptied right at 4 inches outa both my gauges at 9 30 this morning................. sure was nice to see a big rain , FINALLY!!:lol:

[rwilley3]

Coach
That is about what we had Thursday night. I had almost forgot what it was like but I was almost looking forward to quitting cutting my yard. Oh well I will have to be back at it now. We fished today and had a good day for us numbers wise anyway. We caught 12 fish only problem was only 3 above ten with 2 biggest mid teens as biggest. Still refreshing after some of my last few trips. Waiting on you tourney boys to give us the low down. I hear some did okay anyway. Anybody else get out and try it today?

[three_rivers]

Com'on fellas, how'd the tourney go?

Shane, all i can say is what a day! I wouldn't of changed a thing (well maybe one or two). :wink: Its hard to complain tho. Was a few fish caught, don't remember the specifics i'm hoping shane will chime in with the details. Shane was definitely da man that day putting me on a few fish and for being the net man and i have to say Thank you.... We'll be up that way in no time and look forward to seeing you again.

Daryl, Jason, how'd you guys do that day? Did you guys catch anymore missouri five pounders? (big grin)

Good luck to all you guys this weekend, while i'm WORKING!

[rwilley3]

Danny
Can't remember any of the details? You didn't try to launch yourself out of the boat again or something and hit you head. Come on now Shane we need those details. It looks like the tourney boys must still be playing poker or some of them may still be counting their money from what I hear.

[bigriver]

Hey Danny! What's this I hear of you having a swimming party up in New Madrid on Friday..... and you didn't even bother to invite the rest of us? As much as you seem to like the water, I'm surprised you haven't taken up hand grappling! :lol: But glad to hear that ya'll caught some fish. Joe, maybe it will be your turn next.

Missed seeing some of you fellers at the Cape G tournament on Saturday. But it was good to see the Masingales, Shane and Demetrius again.

Dad and I fished down river from Cape G far enough that there was no way that we could boat back to the weighin for the hourly periods. We planned that we would try to catch several in the twenties and thirties and then trailor back to the weigh-in. Hehehe... that was some wishful thinking. We started off on a bad foot with a ten pound drum:confused2: Luckily shortly after that we caught a twenty pound blue, so we thought it was going to be pretty good day. Then we went on a serious dry spell, that included another drum. We hit many areas that we thought would be good, but only came up with a few in the 10 pound range. At 1pm we anchored is some deep water and my dad grabbed a rod in the midst of a beloved "slow pull-down". After staying deep dad finally got it up and we were suprised to see a big ole flathead. We decided to try to make it back for the 2-3pm weigh-in. We had to bend a few traffic laws, but were able to make it to the scales with a cool 45 seconds. Dad's flathead weighed 39.9 pounds and placed first for that hour. It also ended up fourth overall. So it ended up being a pretty good day, even though we struggled most of the day.

I think some of the other guys that fished had a bit of luck too, but I'll let them share the details. The overall big fish was a 55 or 56 pound blue.

[slimcat]

Matt, COngrats to you and your dad on the nice flathead. Its always nice to see a big yellowcat weighed in at a tourney. It was nice to see all of you guys again. It was a tough day down around Shanes area fishing me and my partner were using the same strategy as you Matt but it failed due to NO good fish caught by us. I think somebody may have sore lipped all of the big cats down there. LOL Just kidding Shane.:wink:

[turtle1173]

Hey guys,

Boy, it has been busy around here the last few day. Danny came up on Friday for a little fishing and some swimming lessons, LOL. We met up at 6am and started looking for some skips. They were hard to come by, as my favorite skip dikes have reduced current by them, due to the water being so low. We found out that the best way to catch them was to beach the boat on the sand behind the dike, climb out on the tip of the dike and catch them right against the end of the dike. We spent a lot of time fishing for skips and I think we probably ended up catching 25 in 4 hours.

OK, here's the story. :ooooh: Danny talked me into beaching the boat behind this one dike. I've never done this before, so it was new to me. I beached it and Danny climbed out and headed to the tip. I grabbed my bait rod and a bucket and followed. As I climbed to the top of the dike and started to head for the tip, I glanced over my shoulder. My precious boat was a good 20-25 yards away from the dike and quickly heading towards the faster current. Before I could pick my heart up out of my stomach, Danny was taking his belt off and throwing his wallet in the sand. He informed me that he was going to get the boat. Off he went into the water, as I was telling him not to do it and that someone would pick us up within the next week or so. I believe it was a combination of the dog paddle and breast stroke but ol' Danny made it to the boat (BTW, we both had our life jackets on). My boat has pretty high sides on it, so Danny was hanging on the side with his arms extended all the way up holding on trying to figure out how to get in. He got around to the back and used the cavitation plate on the motor as a sort of step to get on the transom. Finally in he went and came back over to the dike. :roll_eyes: We both had a good laugh as he beached the boat and threw the anchor out on the sand :lol: Little did we know that we were being watched by the Masingale's. We found out later that they saw some splashing and thought we were catching the next world record. Only then did they realize that the boat was "un-manned." :wink: Danny told me that he wasn't about to have our day of fishing ruined... and so it wasn't.

After we got some skips, we headed up to our first very secret spot: The sunken barge. We knew it was sure to hold some big flats. We got anchored up and Danny pulled out his all purpose rods with 16 ounce cannonball sinkers. He informed me that he just used 1 pound weights for all his fishing. Who was I to argue, after the man just saved my boat from certain doom and destruction from barge traffic? :roll_eyes: Armed with an Abu 7000, he flung the first pole about 2 miles behind the boat. I'm not sure how much time passed by (probably 10 minutes). That first rod started tapping and down she went. Danny grabbed the rod and rared back. The fish surged hard and we were sure it was a good one. The fight was going strong and I don't think I told Danny but I really thought by the way the fight was going that this was a 50 lb class fish. We were both surprised when the fish surfaced and we found out that Danny's 10/0 King kahle was hooked behind the fish's dorsal fin :ooooh: The fish was still no baby, as he weighed in at 32 lbs. Quite a good way to start off our catfishing! Daryl and Jason pulled up a little later and we chatted about the Cape Tourney & Mississippi white water swim lessons. I caught a 15 lb Blue as we were sitting there chatting.

The day wore on and the fish bit fairly good. We ended up catching 6 fish for a total of 104 lbs (10, 3 - 15 lbers, 17 & the 32). Nothing real big but it kept us busy and we had a good time.

Danny, thanks for coming out and fishing with me. Maybe Joe will finally be able to understand that it was actually his fault for the lack of success on our outings, LOL. :lol: Danny is a good guy and an enjoyable fishing partner. He truly loves just being out there and really wouldn't have been upset had we not done any good. But hey, a 32 lber is enough to make anyone's day!!

On to the Tourney!!

It wasn't until last Wednesday that me and a guy from Church decided to fish the Cape Tourney. He's got a 20 ft Blazer Commercial fishing boat, so it's quite roomy. We decided to fish here in New Madrid until 11am or so and head up to Cape. Then we would put in up there, weigh in whatever fish we had and try to do some fishing up there as time permitted.

We lingered around here longer than we should have and didn't actually leave New Madrid until almost 1pm. We caught 6 fish but most were small. 3 were between 1 and 3 lbs. Then we had a 7 lber and one around 12 lbs or so. Our biggest one was caught at 9:30am. Demetrius and his partner were fishing a very good spot where Demetrius had caught that big ole Flatty last year. We anchored up above them a little ways on the revetment bank. The current was ripping, so we fished a little closer to shore in around 20-25 feet of water. It worked out pretty well because that outside pole tapped a time or two and then started heading for the water. John (my partner) grabbed it and the fight was on. The official weight up in Cape was 26.35 lbs.

We tried our best to make it to the weigh-in before 2pm. We wanted to be in the 1pm - 2pm section because we figured bigger fish would be weighed in as it got closer to the end of the tourney. We didn't cut it quite as close as Matt did with the 2pm hour but we only had 5 minutes to spare. We ended up getting 2nd place for that hour which meant our day of fishing was paid for!! That was all I was hoping for anyway!! Incidentally, we got beat out of 1st place for the hour by .20 pounds. The top fish of the hour weighed 26.55 lbs :angry: That's not much weight to separate $100.

Anyway, it was a fun and busy day. It sure was good to see Matt, his Dad, Daryl, Jason, Demetrius, and many others there. I just wish we could of talked more instead of having to listen to 1000 decibel country music on the water-front :ooooh:

The big fish for the day was 55.10 lbs and caught by Harold Dodd's partner (I can't think of his name off hand). I really figured it would take a 65lb+ fish to win the day but it seemed like about everyone was having trouble finding any bigger fish.

[slimcat]

Shane, it SOUNDS like you had fun, especially getting to enjoy good ole country music all day and then the great bands we had at the weigh in.LOL. What could be better right.

[arky]

going to have to come watch some you pros weigh in some time so i can see what a big cat looks like lol:big_smile:

[guthook]

well boys here's the story,

last weekend me and the brother decided to do a little prefishing for the up coming tourney. drove up to cape and started fishing early sat morning. the first fish of the day was a 57 pound blue that daryl rasseled to the boat. at that point we thought hmmm...... not a bad place to fish. we picked up several fish that day but with the next largest being about 14 pounds. but the last fish of the day ended up being a 50 pound blue. daryl has the pics to prove and will hopefully be posting but he cannot reduce the pixels with out zooming in on the picture. if anyone else has suggestions please post or pm.

so then on friday we head up to new madrid to do some bait fishing. we were having a little problem picking up some skips to only find out that someone was sore lippin them just ahead of us.

as we pulled up behind a dike i looked up river to see a boat out away from a dike with some big splashing next to it. i told daryl ohh man they got a biggun. about that time i see someone climb into the boat and they drove back to the dike. a few minutes later we proceeded up river to give shane and danny a hard time because the same situation has happened to myself. the only difference is the water was shallow enough to wade back to the boat.

i've got to give danny props, he had his life jacket on when he swam for the boat. that's defiantly the smart thing to do.

the tournament went just as i thought, because we burned up all of our luck the weekend before. we did manage to play the cards that were delt and pick up a couple of second, a third and a fourth place hourly fish. the biggest was a 22 pounder. one hour we were in the money with about five min to go and here comes shane and partner down the ramp. i new this was bad because shane is very capable of some bigguns. that fish wasn't a 50 pounder but it landed them in the money. matt and his dad came in later in the day with a nice flathead. but the local boys come out on top with some nice fish to win the overall prize.

the weigh in site was a barge parked on the river front that worked out real nice. you could pull up in your boat and see what the weights were for the hour. then you could weigh your fish and motor away at the end of the hour. not to mention that the hourly results were being broadcasted on the radio with hourly results.

the best part was even though it wasn't a team event it allowed dary, dad, and myself to fish in the same boat.

but one thing thas was different is listening to patsy cline while we were fishing. i like country music but 8 hours of old school country was a little much. but we did enjoy the johnny cash

[ArkansasCat]

That would make twice in the last month that Danny has been spotted hanging off the side of a boat floating down the Mississippi River. LOL:big_smile:

[solomon]

That's pretty funny. Danny, glad you made it alright. I've never heard anything good about swimming in the big river.

[TNVOLCAT]

The big fish for the day was 55.10 lbs and caught by Harold Dodd's partner (I can't think of his name off hand). I really figured it would take a 65lb+ fish to win the day but it seemed like about everyone was having trouble finding any bigger fish.

Thanks for the info on the tourny guys. Big Cat Quest doesn't have the results on their website yet, so I thought some of you guys might have fished it and would have some info.

BTW, I believe Harold's partner is Cary Winchester. They've been fishing together the last couple years anyway. I guess it could have been someone else though.

[slimcat]

I think Shane will agree, the live band was really killer(on the eardrums!!!:roll_eyes: )

[turtle1173]

As much as my wife would like me to be, I am no fan of Country music. Listening to it ALL DAY was tough enough. However, having to be subjected to live country at the waterfront at THAT level while waiting for the final results was .... well, really really bad :sad2:

[three_rivers]

Shane, the pleasure was all mine. The river up that way is beautiful and being within a stones throw of three different states made it pretty neat! Something that was weird about that 32 pd blue was he didn't have an eye on one side (was completely smooth) and the other eye was all messed up. Catchings a catchin to me, he made it to the net and shane brought dat bad boy in! Thought for sure when we landed him we's sho nuff gunna catch a 50 that day! It didn't come but it was sure nice to sit and talk fish with someone that has alot more time on the river than myself.

As for the little bit of exercise, i should of made sure the anchor hit the sand, said something at least! So word of advice to anyone fishing the river, make sure you put your anchor out if you get out the boat! Looking back on it, i felt like it was my fault and really wanted us to have a smooth enjoyable day on the water and that big barge coming looked like it would of put a small dent in the boat! It just seemed like the right thing to do at the time!!! After hitting the water i quickly learned why they make adjustable straps on those jackets. It went right up around my neck. If i remember correctly swimming out to the boat i even mentioned to shane " Catch us some bait i'll be right back!" We both had a good laugh and had an awesome day!

To all the guys that fished that tourney, Way to go!!! Matt, a thirty nine flattie would of made my day any time! Congradulations to all!!!!

Jason if one of you guys will email me that pic or pics i'll see what i can do with it and shoot it back to ya. Pm sent.

[turtle1173]

Danny, it certainly wasn't your fault that I didn't throw the anchor out. It actually crossed my mind but I felt that I had pulled up on the sand far enough. Woops!! :ooooh:

Here's a couple of pics of Danny's 32 lber!

[three_rivers]

Shane, thanks for those pics! You know what was going through my mind there...... "All this flopping around hes taking the hide off my fingers!":big_smile: Boy i do look wet there dont i!:embarassed:

[bigriver]

Guthook and I fished yesterday out of Osceola. We ran upriver and fished mostly revetment and riprap banks. Anchored in one deeper section and caught our biggest of the day, a 32 pounder, as well as a 22 and 17 pounder. We did a little drifting too, and caught a few, but nothing over six or eight pounds. Most of the fish we caught were in deeper water, say 40 to 60 feet deep.

We had one unfortunate incident happen that I tried to forget. We were anchored on a spot and saw the only other boat we had seen all day heading downriver right toward us. We figured it was the game warden or someone we knew. It turned out that it was a commercial fisherman. He manuvered his boat right along side ours and asked if we'd done any good, to which we said "no" and returned the question. He said he had and asked if we wanted a big flathead because he was going to have to let it go. I looked in the bottom of his boat and he had a flathead that probably was a minimum of sixty pounds. It was hard to tell because the flat was laid upside down and bent in a pretty awkward position. He said he had caught it in a net. However, the worst thing that happened is that we said we didn't want the flathead. What we should have done is taken the flathead and done our best to revive and release it (although I think the flathead was already beyond that point). He motored off and we never saw him release the fish.

That is the second time I have had a commercial fisherman show me a big catfish, well over 34", laying in the boat of the boat, that he "was going to have to release". Somehow I don't think that is what TWRA intended when they enacted the 34" Rule. What good does it do to release a fish that has layed in the bottom of the boat for thirty minutes or more? Doesn't make much sense to me.

[slimcat]

Man, that is a mess Bigriver, its a shame those so called commercial fisherman have no more respect for the big cats than that. They always say they care about the fish more than we do but stuff like that just goes to prove what they are after$$$$$$$$$$$$. I have had the same thing to happen to me and a friend from cape back in April up around Shanes area. The commercial guy had SEVERAL big blues around 40lbs or so. Asked us if we wanted them and we said No. Our fault for not releasing them but like you said they were already almost gone.

[bigriver]

Dad and I had a pretty good day today. We fished north of Memphis and tried to find deep water. After fishing with Jason yesterday, we thought that most of our fish were coming from deeper water with a bit of current. Most of what we fished today was 12 to 16 oz current, and 40 to 60 feet deep. We had a pretty productful day and caught several in the twenties, a few in the teens, and a few others smaller. At about 1:30pm we anchored in moderate current right on or in the main channel. We caught two, a twenty something and another about nine pounds, but they were spaced a good fifteen minutes apart. Then we had a good bite that started stripping drag immediately. We dropped anchor and proceeded to fight the fish for a good ten minutes. It was probably the toughest fight that I have ever had on the river. We just knew that we had broken into the forty or fifty pound range. When I got the fish to the surface we were unpleasantly surprised to find a 19 pound blue hooked right through the dorsal fin. I tell you it was the best fight I have ever had!
So we decided to stay put and sit some more. Ten minutes or so later we got another good bite. It again started stripping drag right off the bat. Dad started reeling in the other rods and I stripped drag up to the front of the boat and dropped anchor. As we drifted back I noticed our anchor float... floating by. Somehow the float came loose of the anchor. I told dad this would be our last fish for the day...... be-in-as we didn't have no more anchors.:big_smile: After a bit more fighting we finally got him to the surface and dad scooped with the net. I'd figured he was a good thirty or forty pounder, but when dad had trouble getting his tail in the net I started thinking twice about my guesstimate. We kept him in the net and in the water while we removed the hook. Then we quickly pulled him in the boat and weighed him in the net. The scale read 70 pounds! As quickly as we could we ran the boat over to a sandbar and had him back in the water within a minute or so. We got a few photos and measured him. He was 53.5 inches long and had a 33 inch girth. And he was in great shape.
It was a great end to a great day on the river. I'll try to attach a pic, though I didn't have much luck last time I tried.:big_smile: :big_smile: :big_smile: Oh yeh, I'm all smiles now. A day like today makes you quickly forget all those days of no-so-decent catches on the big river. But that's what keeps us coming back.

[turtle1173]

I hope you all got to go out today and enjoy this miserably hot & humid weather :big_smile:

I got to the ramp this morning at 7am. There were already 10 boats that were out, as this is the Saturday for the monthly jugging tourney :roll_eyes: First order of business was to catch skipjack. I spent 1 1/2 hours in pursuit and came up with a total of 6. Fortunately they were pretty decent size. I couldn't keep the white bass off my jigs. I cast out my sabiki rig and caught 5 bass at one time!!

I didn't start fishing for cats until 9:30. I set up on the backside of a dike that has some trees behind it, hoping for Mr. Flatty to make an appearance. I had a good hit initially on a head that was a nice slow take down. I was waiting for him to take it down a little farther when the pole came back up :angry: He never came back. 10 minutes later I had a nice take down on a skip chunk. Low and behold it was a 7 lb Flatty. I was so excited to land my biggest flat of the year (Hurray!!). I never take pictures of 7 lbers but I made an exception in his case!

10 minutes after that on the same skip chunk cast in the same spot, I caught an 8 lb Blue.

I anchored up above this same dike and had another Flat hit that failed to finish the take down. He started down with it and I did that "rod hover" thing where you're waiting for him to get it down far enough before you nab him. Well again, it came back up :angry:

It was around 11am by this time and starting to get warm. I decided to anchor up above a different dike. I put a skip head on the back two poles and chunks on the side two. I was thinking of moving after 30 minutes, when I got a tap on the back right rod. He then proceeded to take the rod tip way down and took off. I did the usual "fight him with one arm while getting the net out with the other" routine and finally got the net under him. As soon as I got the net under him, I heard a creaking noise. I looked over at the other back rod and the tip was in the water and he was taking off :ooooh: I got the 1st fish in the boat quickly and grabbed the 2nd rod. He was headed for parts unknown and I figured this was a little better fish. This time I was fighting the fish with one arm while trying to get the other fish out of the net. I finally dragged him out of the net and got it free. Then I was able to net the 2nd fish. WOW, I was exhausted :tounge_out:

The 1st fish weighed in at 30 lbs. The 2nd one came in at 38 lbs.

I decided to change spots, when my excitement was completely interrupted by me running over my anchor rope and killing the motor. I wasn't in any danger of the water coming over the transom but what a mess trying to get that rope untangled from the prop. After getting the rope out finally, I was completely exhausted and decided to call it a day.

Anyway, it was a good day overall, especially for only catfishing for a couple hours.

Well Matt, I just read your post. Awesome!! I'm glad you caught one that bested my two, LOL. That's a great fish!! Congratulations!!

[slimcat]

Congrats Shane on another good day and Matt congrats on the HAWG!!! WOW, what a fish. Shane make sure and guard that flathead hole, I can see into the future now, BOTH of us with 40 or 50lb flatheads.:smile2:

[Catfishhunter]

WTG, Big Ribber and Shane!!!! I'm jealous that ya'll have current. It might as well be KY. lake here on the Ohio. I reckond I'm going to have to sucumb to drift fishing like you know who.SSHHHH!!!! He kind of gets a little red when you talk about drifting. LOL...

[coach]

heck of a day shane and matt !!!!!!!!!!!! good fish matt ..........:smile2:

[solomon]

Beautiful fish Matt, and it sounds like you had a great day too Shane! Congratulations yall.

[gofish]

Awesome fish fellas! I think I'll just have to go after 'em in the AM.

[three_rivers]

There he is! Hows it going Joe? Good to see ya back on the board!

Matt, that is a beautiful blue. He looks great and really healthy! Way to go, as much time as you spend on the river its well deserved! Hate to hear about that flattie. Its amazing how much of that goes on and theres no telling how many times its missed. As hard as it was to get the regulations enacted, what good is it if its not enforced. An anonamous call with boat reg. numbers might do some good, if nothing else but to let them know whats going on.

Shane, those last two post remind me of back when we were on the old board. Way to go on the flattie. I'm jealous! :big_smile: Sounds like you had a great day also with a couple good fish. Good to hear you fared well against putting that rope in the prop. Some of the ark. fellas can tell ya it can be a dangerous situation.

Friday we went up on the white river to get sister and jo out to enjoy a little skipjackin. They sure nuff still there and took a likin to our minnows. After repacking the bearings on the trailer this week we're going to spin the bottle and see where it lands us on the river. All this catchins tough when a fellas workin.............

[Little Mac]

70 aint bad Matt, Congrats.... Looks as though both you fellas had a good day. Sure wish I could get out there....... :dribble: LOL Rope? Prop? rrrrrrr. KNIFE..... bad memories.
Mac

[ArkansasCat]

DAWGONE, Matt, WOW!!!!
Now that is one Hawg of a fish. I sure would have liked to have been there to watch how he pulled that pole down and you fighting him. I reckon I'll be needing to get with you on which dike your getting your crickets from. You see here's my problem, the crickets I have been using catch ALOT smaller catfish. :big_smile:

Shane, You had a Great day also. I don't know how you do it but I have never seen one guy do so much by himself. (Catching and netting and getting pictures etc....) I need to come up there sometime and watch how you do it. I bet it gets pretty funny at times when you have everything going on at once scrambling around in the boat. Now that's MULTI-TASKING :lol:

[arky]

Now thats some great fishing reports! Matt congratulations that was one great looking fish.Don't know what kind of camera you used but sure took a fine picture. You guys have me pumped again think i ll go see if i can catch a skipjack or 2 and see if i can get my line stretched .

[crane]

Congratulation to all the catchers this weekend. Shane and his 30's and Matt and his 70 sure got me wanting to give it a try, so I gave dad a call and we headed out this morning to give it a try.

Skipjack was easy to catch,a little on the smaller side, but decent and fresh. First spot straight line current 30 feet deep.........no bites. Second, third, and fourth spot couldn't get anchored, all sand no rocks. Fifth spot, anchor held and caught a 21 pounder.

We got tired of pulling the anchor up so we drifted a sand bar for a while and caught 6 in about 30 minutes with the biggest being about 12 pounds. Water depth was 40 to 60 feet.

We couldn't find any big bites so we moved down river to some deeper and stronger current and dad hung the bottom of the river.........or so he thought. Come to find out the bottom of the river started pulling back. After about 2 minutes of reeling in line and then watching it go back out again the fish decided to call it quits and just let go.:cry: The drag was set right, dad held good tension, and the hook was good and sharp, I guess he just didn't get a good hook set. We sure would have liked to have seen that one.

On the second drifting pass dad hooked into another good one that he thought was going to weigh about 15 pounds but really ended up being more like 30. He said if that one was 30 the one he lost should have been somthing like 50. I told him it was lost fish like that one that keeps us coming back again and again.

We ended up the day with a few more in the 8 to 12 pound range and called it a day around 2:00. We didn't have a day to compare to Shane's or Matt's but all in all it was a good one.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. The odd occurence today was that I had a skipjack steak hooked through the back of the steak. After getting a few small bites I reeled in the bait to find that the steak was now hooked through the belly portion of the steak. I'm telling you guys.....the dang fish are getting smarter and smarter. Or maybe he was being nice and returning what he didn't want. Either way, that's a first for me.

[rwilley3]

Congrats all you guys. Matt you are definitely da man with that hog. I was off all weekend over in ArkansasCat's turf at a big dirt track race. I am going to be biting at the bit all week to get back at it come Sat. I think I have a little problem in that both my boys want to go squirrel hunting that morning but I am still planning a good middle of the day/afternoon trip. Man I can't hardly wait to get out there in about 100 degree woods with my camoflauge clothes on and have that cloud of blood sucking mosquitos around me. I am sure since we are trying to hunt not wanting the wind to blow there will be a good breeze out that morning so anyone fishing out to be in good shape. Shane don't sore lip everything big up there the next few weeks.

[bigriver]

Great job Shane! Sounds like you had a couple pretty busy minutes. I've been there..... not quite catching two thirty plus pounders... but having a couple on at the same time. I guess its a lot like flying commercial jets. They say its hours of boredom.... punctuated with seconds of shear terror!

Roger, I'm sure you'll be style-ing in that camo come Saturday. And whatever you do..... don't give up on ole 19!

Crane...... where was that call I was suppose to get this morning???? So you and your pops wanted to have all that fun by yourselves? That's okay... sounds like ya'll had a great day and I needed a little rest. Not to mention the layer of skipjack blood and guts that needed to be scrubbed from the floor of the boat. Sounds like you're getting dialed in on this drifting stuff. Might have to trouble you with a lesson or two in the near future.

[85Dave]

Great fishing, guys! We've always had our best days in August.

Dad and I fishing yesterday north of Memphis. It was shore 'nuff hot out. Found some skipjac...errr, uh some crickets right away. Even caught a 2 lb channel on the Sibiki rig. We got set up in a previously productive spot and set out 3 poles. Within a few minutes, the middle pole started a slow pull down that didn't quit until the drag started slipping. My shoulder's been hurting lately, so I had told Dad he would have to do all the reeling in.

He jumped up and grabbed the rod, and the fish kept taking line out. I reeled up the #1 rod, and just then the #3 rod pulled down. Well, I had no choice but to grab it and start reeling. It looked like the two lines were going to cross, but they didn't. I finally got my fish to the boat, but couldn't net it because of my shoulder. So Dad grabbed the net with one hand and kept fighting the biggun with the other. We finally got it in the boat...24 lbs.

Dad was still fighting the other one. Actually he was just holding on. He couldn't gain on the fish, so I threw the anchor.

After a few more minutes, it finally surfaced. I got a net under it and we pulled it in the boat. Dad will check the scale today, but it was showing 53 lbs. It looks bigger, though. It was 47 inches.

We caught another in under 5 in that hole and then moved. We got one in the mid-teens at the next spot. No luck on the other holes, but we went back to the first hole and got one in the 20's. Not bad for 4 hours of fishing. We pulled over 100 lbs of fish out of that one hole.

Here's a picture of the biggun.

[bigriver]

Geeze! Sounds like a good weekend was had by all. We musta had the moon in our favor.
Congrats to you and your dad on a nice catch David! That big blue looks pretty comfortable sitting on your dads lap like that. :cool2: Nice photo.

[crane]

Good lookin fish ya caught there dave, sounds like you guys had one heck of a day. I couldn't help but notice that the background in your profile picture and the background in the 53 lb photo resembled..........Hmmmm, looks like someones got a honeyhole found.:tounge_out:

[turtle1173]

Great Job Dave. That is a beauty!! I'm starting to feel bad that I came in so early, LOL. That weight sounds right for a 47" fish. When I was catching all those 50's so long ago, they ranged from 46-48" (50-56 lbs). Looks like I'll have to be content for a while in catching a string of 30 lbers.

Daryl, sounds like you all had a great day too! That's when you KNOW you're a really good fisherman, when you can re-hook your bait while it's still in the water!! LOL

Yeah Brad, I do the multi-tasking. In fact, I even bait my own hooks! LOL.

Sounds like most of you are catching your fish deeper than I have. I've been fishing 12 ounce current but more in the 20-30 foot range. The deeper sections I've fished haven't been producing. I'll have to keep after them though.

[slimcat]

Geez Dave, that is a nice blue. Congrats. Nice pic!!!

[rwilley3]

Nice one there Dave. You guys are killing me.:big_smile:

[85Dave]

Just a quick update. Dad put 60 lbs of weights on the scale and it showed 53 lbs. So I'm calling it a 60 lb blue.

Crane - Yup, the honey hole is called the Mississippi River. Yesterday we were fishing several miles north of where I caught my profile fish. Same side of the river, though.

Can't wait 'til next weekend.

[coach]

way to go dave !!!!!!!!!!!! that's a goodun !!

[three_rivers]

Dave, i call that a HAWG! Sounds like alot of sore lippin going on! Man i hope you guys left us a few or 3. That spot looks sort of familiar, if your anchored in backcurrent that just might be mempho joes 50pd hole. Maybe ol joe will speak up to verify.....

Daryl, way to go! You guys sound like your getting dialed in on drifting. Catching as many as you guys are catching that has to be fun! You guys found a finicky cat that just wanted ya goodies, even rebaiting your hook for ya!

Lets see what the week has in store for us.....:ah:

[turtle1173]

Well I got a little head start on the fishing week. My 4 year old son starts pre-school tomorrow, so what better way to end his freedom than to go fishing??

I was excited to take him to my skip dike because the white bass have been in there thick. Well, the water has dropped even more and the little inlet that the were holding on was all sand today :crazy: Very frustrating! We ended up hitting 4 dikes and caught (finally) 3 skips. I caught a few white bass and numerous gar.

The wind was out of the north today and therefore fishing the backside of the dikes was out. Fished the upstream side of 2 dikes, including where I got the two 30+ fish on Saturday. That dike produced a ... 10 lber.

Decided to go to the revetments next. Turned out to be a good idea. Our first setup produced one that went 35 lbs. This was in around 35 foot of water. Next setup was deeper (45-50 feet). Got a decent hit, set the hook and let my son bring it in. I held the pole & he reeled. A frisky 5 lber in 12 ounce current.

We hit one more spot but didn't catch anything & that was the end of our bait.

It was a good day with my son and we had a great time!

[rwilley3]

Shane
Nothing better than watching a kid catching a fish especially your own.

[Catter]

Just an fyi guys, there looks to be a dredge running just south of the ramp in Osceola. Looks like their working on the main channel depth. I wonder if a feller could do any good on the downstream side of a dredge? Kinda like a big chum line. lol

Joe

[Catfishhunter]

Are any of you Mississippi river guys coming to Louisville this weekend?

[bigriver]

Yo CatfishHunter! Are you crazy! Just look at your profile pic. With you catching fish like that up there, what chance have we got???? What are some dumb ole MS Riber fisherman gonna do up there on the "little Ohio? You Da Man up there in them waters! Have a good one and hope to hear a good report from you come Sunday morning.

[Jug-or-not]

BigRiver, I that you in today's Commercial Appeal? Nice catch!

[Little Mac]

Good luck all you big riber fishermen this weekend, catch some gooduns take a picture so I can drool....... LMAO Seriously good luck fellas.. :dribble: Mac

[rwilley3]

My thirteen year old and me went today. I think we ended up with 8 fish four of which were in the low to mid teens. He also caught this 39# fish which made for a good tussle.

[three_rivers]

After yesterday i hope you guys did better than we did. We fished everywhere we normally would of fished and a couple new spots for a couple of fish that might total 3 pounds. It was tough out there.

Yesterday wasn't a total wash tho. The skipjack were plentiful. So plentiful behind the dike across from my favorite spot that shad and skipjack were hopping everywhere. We anchored off on it and after catching a few something else caught my eye. A really dark blue kept surfacing amongst all the skipjack. He would of went everybit of 40 pds. He wasn't the only one tho, there was another blue that was probably 20 pds and a decent flathead doing the same thing. They just kept on surfacing. After catching a couple skipjack we improvised a few floats out of our water bottles only to hook up with a gar. Has any of you ever seen anything like that?

[turtle1173]

Not much to report with yesterday's trip. Caught 6 cats but 5 of them weighed between 5-10 lbs. One cat went 20.

There was something wrong with the bite yesterday, although I'm not sure what to attribute it too. I had several pick-ups and the beginnings of good hits but then the fish would just drop it :crazy: These weren't small tappers or anything. They would hit it, start to take it down and then they were gone. I was using fresh skipjack that I caught yesterday morning. Anyway, it was odd to say the least. Matt, I'm sure at least one of those was a 71 lber, LOL.:wink:

I did see something very interesting yesterday. As I was pulling up to my "skip dike" there was a huge bald eagle just sitting on the sand bar in a couple inches of water just down stream from the dike. I motored in below the dike itself and the eagle just stood there watching me. The skips were hitting fairly decent and I caught about a dozen in an hour. I was glancing over at the Bald Eagle quite frequently just to see what it was doing. I happened to notice that out in the water, just out from the eagle, that there was all kinds of splashing. At first I thought it was just the gentle waves hitting up against the shore but it wasn't. There was some major splashing taking place and I needed to find out what it was!!

I figured it was real shallow over there, so I motored over there carefully. The eagle left and when I was about 35-40 feet from the bank, the finder read "2 ft." I wasn't going any closer than that and I dropped anchor. Upon closer inspection, it was a huge mass of gar feeding in just inches of water. I could see small shad jumping everywhere and gar rolling on the surface. I figured that surely there must be some skips around, so I started casting. I was using half of a Sabiki rig with a small spoon on the bottom for some extra weight. I had a few gar hits but nothing that felt like a skipjack. Finally I cast a little farther out from this school and retrieved it back. All of a sudden the surface of the water exploded around my jigs (Boom!). My little line took off and I didn't know what to think. Anyway I played him to the boat and it ended up being about a 6 lb channel cat :embarassed: Now that was exciting!! I tried casting some more but nothing was biting. I didn't float any crickets down the bank or anything but I imagine that there were a number of cats in there.

[turtle1173]

OK, are Danny, Roger, and I the only one's who fished this weekend?? Very Doubtful!!

Either, A) No one went out, B) No one caught any fish, or C) Some are not talking about it. I am personally thinking "C" myself.

Perhaps we are getting too close to the Memphis tournament date, for there to be much chit-chat.

Danny, I'm glad to hear that you didn't either fall in the water or voluntarily jump in for one reason or another, LOL. :crazy: I haven't seen anything like what you described but I would say that would of been a prime time for you to have another reason to jump in, LOL!! "Forget the boat, I'm going after the 40 lber!!"

BTW, Roger, very nice 39 lber that your son caught!! With 4 other fish in the teens, I would say you had one fine day :lol:

[rwilley3]

Yea Shane I think you are right. I am afraid we will have the "old poker" faces being shown for the next couple of weeks. It would be good to hear a few stories I must admit.

[bigriver]

Okay guys.... keep your panties on! You know we'd never try to hide anything from ya'll. We was just fishing cross-currents with crickets... that's all. And with the "computer luck" that those Masingale's seem to have, it's no wonder that they haven't posted.

Actually I fished with them fellers on Sunday and being as my tournament days for 06' are over, I'll spill the beans..... and take the consequences. We fished over Osceola way and did a little drifting, some anchoring, then retried each a number of times in search of a hog. No hogs for us though... I think that a twenty-three by Crane was the biggest. But we had a couple others in the twenties, as well as a few in the teens. Some were caught drifting, and some were caught anchoring. Daryl and his other brother Daryl actually caught a few drifting in ...... drum roll please....... one hundred and thirteen feet of water. Kinda deep huh????? We caught a few of the twenties in shallower water in the thirty foot range while anchoring. Skippies were our bait of choice, both small fresh ones and big frozen ones, but all seemed to produce equally.

Okay, so I spilled the beans and am ready for retaliation from the Masingales.

Congrats to Roger and son for landing the whopper of the weekend. That's a nice one for sure.

And Danny.... glad to hear you stayed dry.

[rwilley3]

Now Matt
You ain't gonna let those out of towners come down here without giving them a run for the money are ya? If you ain't da man for that tourney you will likely be one of da men I am sure. Are you inferring that Crane and Guthook could be just faking us out and blaming it later on computer problems so they don't have to play their hand?

[three_rivers]

Shane, that thought had crossed my mind. LOL When the biggest first surfaced it was at the back of the boat right by the motor and i was focusing on watchin the jigs for that shiny hit. I thought naw........ couldn't been what i thought it was.... Casted once or twice more and sho nuff it wasn't a mistake when another one came up. Kinda reminded me of that tweety bird line...I taught i saw a pudde tat....... I DID, I DID see a pudde tat!!! Dip net came out and so did the H20 bottles. Ya know.... actually i was hoping that i'd get a skip hit and one of them bad boys would grab it on my ultralight..... Man, what a fight that would of been!

Matt, you gotta tell Daryl, and his other brother daryl, that downloading all the missouri 5 pounders takes up way to much memory. Its either that or......well looking at frogs in hula skirts is hazardous to any pc. :big_smile: Anyways, glad to hear you guys had a productive day.

Rog, i think after catchin blindy at New madrid i might have caught the curse of the cripple last time out.. Way to go on the biggin. We're scoping for a cabin for a few days so we can spend a few or four days on the river. If you guys know of such a place, let a bro know! This next week i'm rounding a bucket full of frogs (hows that for bait) for three days on the river, alright maybe two if i'm lucky, the wife is going with so who knows. :confused2: