WV Catfish 2023

[WV Sawmiller]

 

 
I don't know where the big ones were but there were plenty of 4-5 lb fish biting. I caught 12 flatheads and one channel cat. The biggest flathead was just under 13 lbs and another was just over 10. The channel weighed 5.5 lbs. I lost one 6-7 lb flathead at the boat because I go complacent and did not use the net. Most were securely hooked in the jaw or lip. I'd have easily landed him with the net. All told there is 75 lbs of fish on the picture.


 
I caught this 7.5 lb channel and 2-3 lb flathead last night and staked them out in the creek in my yard and cleaned them today. 85 lb total fish so far and I had a bucket with about 52-53 lbs of boneless fillets. 

Guess what we are having for lunch. :D

[caveman]

Um, chicken :D.

[customsawyer]

I'm thinking you'll go to McDs

[WV Sawmiller]

   I went back out and caught bait and baited my lines. I picked up 3 channels and one flathead. I staked the channel cats out in the creek like I did last night. The flathead was gut hooked, the first one this year, so I went ahead and cleaned and filleted it. I checked my time and it takes me about 9 minutes to clean and fillet a 4-6 lb catfish. I guess that is not fast enough to get one of those high paying jobs as a fish monger. The biggest channel cat was around 10 lbs I bet and there were easily 20 lbs total so that is 105 lbs of fish in 24 hours. A family friend came over and got about 30 lbs of fillets today.

   I lost a couple more lines today. I suspect they had a fish on and someone spotted the limb shaking and ran over and threw the line in their boat and jerked the quick release knot. Usually a fish thief will throw the fish in their boat an cut the line. They are not going to stay around long enough to unhook it.

    I will take my lines up in the morning and may go try to catch some eating size bluegills next week as my schedule allows.

[WV Sawmiller]

 

 
I ran my lines and took them up and caught this monster on my last hook. He was not even shaking the line, just resting on the bottom till I I pulled on it. For perspective that is a 5' long canoe paddle. ;) Well, maybe extended out it might be nearly 4'. The fish weighed 18 lbs.


 
The rest of my catch totaled 60 lbs. There were 11 -12 more fish here. (I can't swear to the count as I ran out of fingers and could not get my boot off for toe access. :) Anyway there was a total of 78 lbs of fish and 40 lbs of fillets.

  On one of my first hooks I had a 3-4 lb channel cat who was putting up a show and when I got to it I found an otter over by the bank watching it. I figure if I'd have been a few minutes later he'd have had catfish for breakfast. Further up the line I had caught about a 5 lb striped bass and it had died on the line and and was floating on the surface. A young bald eagle (this year's hatching) was in the tree above looking at it as if trying to decide if he could catch it. The fish looked fresh and I thought about keeping it bit decided it was not worth the risk and it is not as if I needed the meat so I unhooked and tossed it. I hope the eagle was still watching and came and collected it. I saw several young eagles the last 2 days including one over the road as I drove away from the lake. It appears to be several instead of just the same one on multiple occasions.

  I could not get a picture of the catfish from last night as my camera battery died and I found I had broken the spare in the case. The three channel cats weighed 18 lbs with the biggest a 10 lber. That makes my total 2night catch about 190 lbs.

  At least half of the fish today were not shaking the lines and none over 8 lbs were doing so. The bigger flathead cats often just rest on the bottom. The only indicator will be a line angled off in one direction or another but the live bream/bait often do that too. A 2 lb channel cat will be beating the water to a froth a shaking them so you can see it across the lake while a 20-30 lb fish will hardly be moving.

   I just need to go wash the fish slime off the bottom of my boat and haul the fish heads and guts up the hill to feed the crows, coyotes and buzzards.

   My daughter and her family went to the beach in NC last week and the last day of the trip they went out on a boat on a dolphin tour. (No dolphins were spotted BTW.) My daughter said our 4 y/o GD immediately started telling "Phil" her boatmate all about fishing with Grandpa and such and even told him about my dog Sampson barking at a coon in a tree on the bank. I had forgotten on our last trip there was a coon on the bank and it ran up up a walnut and Sampson barked at it. It is amazing what the kids will remember like that.

[WV Sawmiller]

   One thing I noticed on this last trip was the catfish had largely finished spawning and had very depleted egg/roe sacks. I don't think I caught but one fish with a bulging roe.

It was a nostalgic trip too. I kept remember fishing with my dad and my old mentor who was my grandfather's age and was the one who taught me so much about catfishing. I really think he is the one who got my dad started on it although their techniques were very different. Dad usually just used a hook tied to a nylon cord and tied his lines in a hard knot. At the end of the trip he'd cut the hooks off but did not try to save the lines. Mr. T re-used his lines and used a sinker on them (Sometimes Dad would add a sinker and some I am using were the last batch he made from old tire weights a local mechanic accumulated. I think Dad bought the mold and maybe melter and left with the man who later started making and selling them in his bait shop after he stopped doing tire/mechanic work.). Mr. T taught me how to tie the quick release knot which is essential to my way of fishing. He also used trotlines and limblines while Dad only used limblines. He did get Dad hooked on using soap for bait. Before that Dad used raw shrimp or cut up mullet. I remember my Grandfather used shrimp on a rod and reel and he got to boiling his. He said the fish bit cooked shrimp as well a raw ones. Grandpa would sit on the bank of the Suwannee River using cooked shrimp for bait. If the fish were not biting he'd munch on the shrimp and when he ran out of bait he'd go home. If the fish were biting he was too busy to eat.

I don't ever remember Dad catching a fish over about 10 lbs although he may have caught a 15 lb channel or blue on a trip when I was not along. He never caught flatheads as we did not use live bait. Mr. T I know caught one 15 lb because he was showing me exactly where he caught it. Anyway I was thinking how great it would be to have one or both of them up here when I catch a 20-30 lb fish. Neither of them filleted their fish either. They would really have enjoyed the last couple of trips and it sure makes me miss them both.

I remember Dad used to notch his bream and maybe his catfish when he cleaned them. When he'd finish scaling them he'd cut a notch and remove the anus area. When he'd rip the belly open and twist the head off the guts came off with it. Somewhere along the line I stopped doing that and just inserted my knife and ripped the belly open although my guts did not come out as completely as Dad's did. I remember one time Mr. T owed somebody a favor and promised him a fish meal so he asked me to catch him a dozen or so big bluegills so I went out in late summer or early Fall with my fly rod and a cork bug to our big gravel pit (an old borrow pit) and finally caught him enough as he had requested. I cleaned them but did not notch them. Boy did he chastise me most severe when he went to cook them and found they were intact. He notched each fish before he cooked them.

Maybe I should start a survey to see how many people notch their fish when cleaning and how many do not. :D

[caveman]

I used to notch panfish when cleaning them.  Since we fillet most everything now, I don't notch fish much anymore.  

When we used to use live shrimp (I am not able to fish much these days.  If I was, I'd still use shrimp) and we'd have some left over at the end of the trip, JMoore taught me to cut the shrimp at the segments and put them into film canisters full of salt.  We'd use them to tip jigs or to catch bait.  They would keep for a long time in a tackle box.  After salting them, they'd get tough and stay on the hook a lot better.  Most fish will still eat it well.

[SawyerTed]

Howard, those are some great memories.  Your dad and Mt. T taught you very well!   You've made some great catches in this thread.  Consistent too which shows you know what you are doing.  Of course, all that's stuff you already know.  

On the notching, I'm more likely to filet as well.  

I learned about salting shrimp from a friend's grandfather fishing on the Pungo River here in eastern NC.  

[WV Sawmiller]

Ted,

  I am reminded of other teaching discussions we have had here. The topics were not about fishing but other life skills but are the same principle. Those two taught me the basics and how to learn what to look for and where and how deep to fish and such. Fishing like I do has some consistent aspects but others change and you adapt. If you notice you are catching more fish on the surface then you raise your previously deep set hooks. If they are biting deeper you lower the others that were shallow. If you find big catfish are biting in fallen tree tops you look for more fallen trees and in some case you add more lines in existing trees that were producing. In a similar fashion lines that are not producing are taken down and relocated to more productive looking spots. Is the lake level falling or rising? That can affect how you fish and you need to watch and adapt every time.

   Dad would only tie a line to a limber green limb. He would not tie to a grapevine or lead limb. He said the fish would tear the hooks out of their mouth if they were tied to a solid base. Mr. T would come up to a 3" dead limb and shake it to see it was solid and he'd say "That should hold a 4 lb fish" and put a line on it. I can remember asking him "Yeah but what of a 5 lb fish gets on?" He'd say "He may get off but without a line there we won't get anything."

   Neither of them ever saw or used a circle hook which is all I uses now and usually hooks solid in the jaw and is harder to tear out so I will tie to a vine or dead top sometimes if that is all that is available in a prime looking fishing spot. I have even thought about tying piece of an old inner tube to solid points like that and tying my time to the rubber to allow some give. Old dead trees provide the "structure" bluegills and crappie are looking for and big catfish are looking for bluegills and crappie to eat so I tie a lot of lines to them. My mom came out to visit and saw me do that and criticized me for "Yankee Fishing" as Dad used to call it because the only people where he fished who tied lines to such spots were mis-placed yankees from the great glaciated North who had moved to Fla and saw him putting out bush hooks and catching lots of fish so they would copy what he was doing but they did not study the spots he put them and would tie to such spots that he knew better. (I always wondered how many big fish they may have actually caught in such spots that he never knew about.)

  Up here a big flathead will often get hooked and will not fight the hook as much as a small channel cat would do. He will pull the line tight and lay on the bottom so lines tied to vines and solid snags or big limbs will often work for him.

   I had thought about offering workshops to show people how to make and put out bush hooks along our local lake where I fish. I love teaching young people especially and can't think of a better job. Unfortunately it is like so many other opportunities in our current society and insurance, liability, permits and regulations make it too difficult, risky or cost prohibitive to do do. My free-lance photographer wife and I looked into her doing photo workshops where we'd take 2-3 people up on the lake and let them take pictures and she'd show them how to get good pictures and proper camera setting and such. I'd operate the boat and be a spotter for the group. We do that often with visiting friends and some local friends and we have a blast but to do so commercially was not feasible. Its a COE lake and technically you9 would have to get permits from them. I don't they mind and would likely ignore such infractions without a permit but when we asked, they would not say no, they just would never get around to saying yes. They likely had not had that question before and nobody in authority wanted to take a chance and set a precedence for the future. Kind of like the old mentality in the Mid-East "I'm probably right but I might be wrong so lets not do anything."

  Oh well that is life in the modern world.
.  

[SawyerTed]

Teaching set hook catfishing techniques by YouTube might be an alternative?  

No liability there I would think.

I've noted a big difference between WV and NC on regulations.   In NC live bait is not allowed on set hooks, jugs or trot lines. It is only allowed on rod and reel/poles.  We have to put ID info on the lines or jugs. 

It stinks someone would take your lines.  Down here on the coast, tampering with someone's fishing gear is worst than tampering with a man's wife/girlfriend either or both.  

[WV Sawmiller]

   Yeah but I am not a YouTuber and it would be very hard to cover the kind of information I would expect to pass along at such a workshop over a video. I'd have to point out the specific kinds of places to look for including the depth of the water, current, overhead and underwater and nearby features that would attract big catfish or push them away and such that would affect whether you put a line or multiple lines there and the depth to set the bait, how strong is the limb or such you are typing to, etc. That would be hard to make out on a video. I'd need to cover how to slide the hook through the eye socket just in front of the eyes but not so far back you injure/kill the bait.

 NC regs sound very much like the ones I grew up with in Fla. WV is much more liberal in many respects and even Fla has relaxed some of the ones that used to cause us problems. I think most states require an ID on lines. Jugs are not allowed in WV. The regulation for IDs is not hard to comply with from what I have found as flagging and a sharpie are easy to use and it even makes it easier to find your lines.

  Getting caught stealing fish or tampering with his catfish lines is much more risky than most people realize. It is not a gentlemanly sport practiced by ultra-liberal, hand wringing PETA members.

[SawyerTed]

Some guys jug fishing came by my boat and asked if I had seen their lines float by.  I told them I had and a couple had fish.  They asked why I didn't just get the fish, they didn't care.  I told them most people do care and wouldn't think highly of it.  

They asked if I wanted any fish because they had plenty.  I had more than I wanted to clean. 

[WV Sawmiller]

   I agree on the decision to let the jugs go by was the right one. It is different if they offer you a fish than you taking their fish without asking or permission. Many times I have given fish to people on the bank or at the landing at the end of my trip. On several occasions I have seen 5-6 boats come in with a few fish but not enough for a mess or to justify taking them home to clean. They'd offer them another fisherman or someone on the bank who was happy to get them and by the end of the day that person went home with a very nice mess of fish and actually, everyone was happy with the outcome. One person had plenty of fish for a family fish fry, the others had a nice day on the water then did not have the hassle of cleaning 1-2 fish.

[WV Sawmiller]

    (Still struggling for new topics) Did you know a live well in a boat is a water tight container with a hole in the bottom? Often the live well is made as part of a bench seat on a boat. When you launch the boat the water fills up the live well to the depth the boat is floating in the water. I.e. If the boat draws 4" of depth there will be 4" of water in the live well. Most live wells have a rubber plug you can insert so when you are traveling on the water the water inside does not drain out. You can also insert the plug and fill the live well and any fish in the container will live as long as there is adequate O2 in the water for the fish.

[Old Greenhorn]

No need top struggle Howard, here's one. 
 Did you know the wild Turkey has eyesight that is three times that of a human? They can also see 270° around their head but because their eyes are on the sides of the head they have poor depth perception? This is why they are constantly moving their heads up and down and back and forth, to get a better depth perception. In addition they have an increased ability to detect color and particularly UV hues to the point that some of the washing detergents we humans use can actually enhance the Turkeys ability to detect our camo, because to them it is 'glowing' and sticks out like a sore thumb.
 I can say from personal experience that their ability to detect any motion is beyond incredible. As a prey species they have developed over time to focus on their own safety and detecting predators. It has always amazed me the wonderous skills I have seen them display.

[WV Sawmiller]

Tom,

 Great post but I think you meant to put it in the Sister "Did You Know" Thread. : :D

 I too can verify turkeys have great eyesight but I am not sure about the smell. If I remember some of my wildlife biology classes correctly many birds cannot smell and I thought that included turkeys. I will have to do some more research on that.

EDIT: Here is what I found -

Five Senses of the Wild Turkey - The National Wild Turkey Federation

BTW - I used to have this same argument with my old mentor. ;)

OOOPS - Sorry Tom. It was me who posted in the wrong thread. (Now where is that embarrassed emoji?)

[Nebraska]

Ok catfishing is mostly what I do when I fish, and  most of the common baits I have used. Howard what was that little mention of soap as a bait??  

[SawyerTed]

Our lakes and rivers have a mixture of catfish.  We have flathead, channel and bull catfish but blue catfish have been "imported."   The blues have done spectacularly.  The state record of 109 plus pounds came from the lake not fat from @Tom King 

The flathead tend to eat live baits.  The blues eat cut baits. The bull snd channels will eat either but also eat stink baits of various kinds.   

I fish primarily for blue catfish with rod and reel using cut baits.  My bait of choice is shad of perch, then cut bream or mullet.  

My uncles taught me to run set hooks and trot lines when I was 8 or 9.  My Uncle Jay tended to prefer to catch cooters, brown river turtles, on set hooks. We caught many, most of which were as big as a washtub.  I know because we could fit two, one on top of the other, in a big washtub.  

Four or so years later mom and dad got a place on Lake Norman.  Set hooks were frowned upon but we had a floating dock and the bank curved perfectly to run a trot line. That's how I passed my time at the lake until the fumes got my attention- car fumes and perfumes. I caught many fish on that trot line.  I caught a large freshwater drum on it.  I've probably only seen 4 or 5 ever.  

[WV Sawmiller]

Nebraska,  

My dad, my mentor and I all used to used soap for bait on our set hooks. We mostly used Camay but Ivory or Octagon were other popular brands. We used to use mostly Camay and you wanted it from a big store where it was fresh. Old soap from slow moving country stores and such and Ivory tended to be brittle. Dad made a soap cutter using a guitar string like a cheese cutter. I remember we got 45 baits out of a bath sized bar of Camay soap. We'd cut it into 4 square strips with one thin (3/8") strip on the side. We'd cut the square strips into 10 baits each and got 5 baits out of the thin strip. A finished bait would be about 5/8" square X 3/8" thick. When you put it on a hook it would soften and swell up to about 3-4 times that size. As near as I can tell the oil in the soap was what attracted the catfish. I have seen it used on trotlines by native tribesmen in Africa and have seen it used on River Monsters so it is a world known bait.

 There were many advantages to soap. It was pretty cheap even using high priced beauty soap like Camay. It was very clean to use. It lasted pretty much forever in a good tight coffee can with a lid. You would only catch channel or blue catfish on it. A trash or undesirable fish like gars, eels, mudfish (Bowfins), or turtles would not bite it. That was one of the main reasons Dad switched to it. Previously he used raw, fresh frozen shrimp. A disadvantage is that a Flathead catfish would not bite it - they will only bite a live bait.

I don't know if you can even buy Camay brand soap anymore. I have not seen it in years. Dad and Mr. T always used White or Pink. I don't think it mattered as it pretty much all faded to white in short order in the water. If used in fast current it could wash away fairly quickly.

Ivory was cut but was brittle and hard to cut without breaking. I got the semi-brilliant idea one time to soften a bar by putting it in the microwave. Trust me and do not try that! It does not contribute to marital bliss. : If you are going to use Ivory soap I'd make a good soap cutter from a think wire/guitar string on a turnbuckle or such to tighten it. I don't see why a big C-clamp with a wire across the throat would not work.

Ted,

 Trotlines can be very productive as you can place many hooks in a small productive area. You can test various levels and different baits using weights and floats and seeing which hooks are catching fish and adjust as needed. You can hide them from fish thieves by using a few feet of dark or camo cord where you tie them so they are hard to spot. I routinely tied mine a few inches underwater to a submerged root or snag.

They can also be very dangerous in swift water or heavy boat traffic. I was working one in Ga and a fast moving boat ran over it while it was on the surface and cut it with his motor before I could ditch it. Another time one broke in swift water in the Fall when leaves had drifted against it and created too much drag. The broken line and a few hooks cut my hands badly that time. I used to work them across the boat pulling from side to side with the boat facing upstream where possible.

ADD-ON: I used to use trotlines to catch Alligator snappers and sometimes a softshell turtle. I never tried cooters. Dad said people used to eat them when he was a kid and would even nail hooks to logs where they'd climb up to sun. They'd get hooked on them. Softshells are the best eating and are good fried like chicken.

[SwampDonkey]

Have never fished for or ate local ones. We have the brown bullhead up here. I did catch one by mistake, when fishing for trout on the Dungarvin. It's a slow dark water river the color of brewed coffee. I've ate catfish at one of Jeff's pig roasts, I believe fishfarmer's specialty. ;D

They recommend worms, or cheese for bait, and fished at dusk for local catfish.

[KEC]

I watched a nature show on TV very recently narrated by David Attenborough. They showed a place in Africa where there is a deep cave with water way down below the surface. There are catfish in there that are blind and feed on whatever falls  down the entrance hole. WV, you'd need a long cable to lower a trotline down in there to get em. :D

[WV Sawmiller]

 

 
With the weather changing I figure this will be the last week I can put out lines. It is already getting harder to catch bait. I put out lines yesterday using minnows from my creek. I often put 3-4 minnows on a bush hook. I picked up 2 small cats while baiting, lost one 5-6 lber at the surface and caught 20 or so little bream for bait. This morning I had 7 more small catfish. None over 5 lbs. In fact all 9 fish were only 31 lbs. They only filleted out about 16 lbs. One small flathead and the rest were channels.

   I broke 2 lines that got hung up and had a couple stolen it appears.

  I'm trying to get enough for my housekeeper to have a fish fry at her church and if possible to the little church 1/4 mile down the road. We will see if the catch picks up.

  I may have to start taking my crossbow. I had a very large doe, a nice yearling or her very large fawn and another adult doe all withing 20-40 yards of me as I was catching bait about 1030 this morning. Of course first I better verify that is part of the State park and legal hunting. It is a narrow strip of woodline between the road and the lake and too close to the highway for firearm hunting.

[WV Sawmiller]

 

 
Well, fishing is still real slow but at least the average size has improved. I only had these 2 this morning. First is about a 2-3 lb channel cat and the second is a 23 lb flathead I had on my last hook. That spot is one of my "smokehouses" right next to a big log where I have caught several similar sized catfish in the past. My weight estimating is no good. I thought he'd weigh about 16 lbs but when I put him on the scales he weighed 23 lbs.

This makes enough catfish to feed 90-100 people at a typical fish fry. (For planning purposes I figure 1 lb of catfish fillets will feed 3 people when you figure in the side dishes and desserts and such. ) My housecleaner wanted some for her church so these are earmarked for that.

[WV Sawmiller]

 

 
Well, since it is Friday 13 and I was torn between whether to take up my lines or leave them out one more night the only reasonable way to decide was based on rules of chance. I decided if I had a fish on the first line it was a sign I should leave them out. If not, I'd take them up. As luck would have it I had a shaking sycamore limb on the first line so I rebaited and  left the lines out. I caught 7 fish and the biggest was a 7.5 lb channel cat. Wait! There are only 6 fish in the picture. I noticed that when I cleaned them and looked high and low for that other fish including double checking the boat and around the area where I took this picture. No luck. I decided maybe my wife was right and I am losing my mind. My cleaning lady came up to get about 25 lbs of fillets for her church to have a fish fry - or two. While I was getting the fillets out of the fridge in the barn I spotted Lost Willie over under the door to my boat house. It was a 3.5 lb channel cat and had been there about 3 hours and was curled up dead so I was going to throw him in the bucket with the heads and gut but when I reached for him he started flopping. (It is Friday 13th after all.) Since he was still alive I went ahead and cleaned him. That was about a 30 lb catch for the night. I will take up my lines tomorrow.

[WV Sawmiller]

 

 
Okay, fishing is done for the year as I see it. I took up my lines today. The first stretch down from the landing did not have a single fish and only a couple on the side above the boat landing. I had put out 5 more lines yesterday including 3 at one of my smokehouses at a now dead juniper tree. The biggest fish at the upper left was on one of them this morning. He had hit on a 1/3 lb largemouth bass I had caught yesterday while fishing for crappie with creek minnows. It weighed 12 lbs. The smallest fish was on the line yesterday and I staked it out in the creek last night. It was the only catfish this whole trip that had swallowed the hook. All the others were solidly hooked in the jaw or lip with the circle hooks I am using. I actually wondered how he could get hooked with a bait that big. I hook my bait in the eye sockets and they live much longer and look more natural. The bass had completely filled the gap in the hook but this shows the hook worked as designed.

   When fishing with bush hooks I always try to tie the line to a solid but limber green limb that will hold the weight of the biggest and strongest catfish I may catch but still give some flex so the fish can wear itself down. Also with a solid, rigid tie point the fish might be able to rip the hook out of his mouth. My favorite places to put a line are around big logs and brushpiles. Any place that looks like it is full of bluegills and crappie should be considered a prime spot for big catfish who are feeding on them. 

   The problem is sometimes these prime feeding and resting areas for catfish do not always have a handy, limber, green limb overhead to tie a line to. Often there is a tree or big solid limb overhead. What I hope to do next year is collect some old inner tubes from my local repair shop and cut them into sturdy strips I can tie in prime locations then tie the bush hook to them. That will allow me to put them in more favorable spots and still have some give on the lines when a big strong fish gets hooked. 

   Fishing is never the same and while many things work year after year you have to change with the times. I never heard of a circle hook when I was learning to fish for catfish but they are all I use now. That does not mean I won't change again if something better comes out.