WV Catfish 2021

[WV Sawmiller]

Danny,

  I took up my lines today and all he had to do was follow along and he could have had plenty of dead bream as I took them off the lines. Many were still alive and just swam off but I threw lots on the bank for the mink and coons and herons.


 Here he is.

And here is Sampson growling at him. Probably the bravest thing he has done all week.

  The trotline was bust without a single fish on it. Oh well, you have to experiment to find out. We had 3 catfish on the lines. Two were in a cove about 35-40 feet apart. One was a nice flathead beside a big old walnut log in the water. I told my partner yesterday to give me a big bait as I was sure there was a big one under it. I am sure he, a flathead, weighed over 20 lbs and the next one, a blue, was over 15. Together the three weighed about 40-45 lbs which meant 25-26 lbs of boneless fillets. That is typically about what I plan on when feeding 90 people at a normal fish fry with all the fixings.


  My partner got all the fish and there should be plenty to keep him stocked up for several months. Overall a pretty poor catch - 70-80 lbs for 3 nights fishing but we had a good time and I enjoyed the company and the time on the lake.