I hadn't done much fishing for ever and a half, and never really learned to be good at it. I got permission to fish at a private property joining the Enoree River not too far from where I live. I've been a few times so far this year. Yesterday I caught these two little varmints. I let them go, but was glad to have finally caught something. :)
Oh, and yes, I am aware the top one is upside down. I was hurrying to take his picture and throw him back in the water before he drowned. :D
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/22845/pumpkinseed_fish.jpg)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/22845/Bluegill.jpg)
Okra,
The top one looks like a redbelly and bottom one looks like our green sunfish here in WV. I catch and use them on set hooks for catfish. The sunfish live in shallow water hiding in the rocks. Use a #10 cricket hook with about 1/2" of nightcrawler about a foot deep. Usually catch 5-6 between baitings. They are fierce fighters for their size and will often grab the bait before it hits the water, will attack your float and a 4" fish will nearly jerk the pole out of your hand. They are great to fish for with the grandkids.
Never fished the Enoree but used to fish the Combahee when I was stationed at USMCRD PISC. At dead low tide could always catch a mess of crappie at one big clay root. Only had about 30 minutes before tide shifted and very swift and could not stay on the spot.
These two guys were about six inches long. They did fight pretty good, but I think that's a little too big to use for bait in such a small river. That would be one giant catfish to try and swallow these guys whole. I caught them on a single salmon egg, each.
I tried for catfish today with blood dough, and got no interest. . . . .
Okra,
I use baits up to about 1 lb when I can get them. My 85 y/o mom was out with me last year and we were catching half lb bluegills and using for bait and she was concerned as wanted to eat the bluegills. They are very good eating if you are willing to take the time to pick around the bones. We fry our bream whole/bone in.
Often have nice flatheads get hooked eating smaller channel cats that size or bigger. Had one 5 lb flathead on hook last year had been killed and partially skinned (like catfish do when get a baitfish) by a bigger catfish. The one who ate the 5 lber is the one I'm still chasing.
Channel cats and blues often hit my 3-4 inch baits but bigger is better for flatheads.
River does not have to be too big to hold big cats if steady flow and some deep holes. Good luck.
I would echo Sawmiller's reply. The river needs to be big enough to have flow and have enough of a food source to permit the cats to live. You need some places (holes) with some depth. If the river does not fluctuate too much and get almost dry, you'll find some nice size cats in there.
You could always give this a try.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nZ5DI6Kd3s
I hope to be catching a few of those this weekend Okra, and as WV was saying my grandma used to take us kids fishing all the time and she'd be cleaning them as fast as we could catch 'em, no bait there :).
The river has some good flow, probably at least 5 mph, maybe more. As for how deep the holes are, I couldn't say. There seem to be a lot of 3-4 ft. holes, but I don't know about anything deeper than that. There is a lot of cover in the river as a lot of trees fall in. This river never comes close to running dry.
I'm more interested in catching the 12-18" catfish than the big boys anyway. . . .
Okra,
Yes, the 12-18 inch fish are probably better eating but there is a lot to be said for bragging rights. It is sure fun to go lift a 38-40 inch fish at the landing and watch the expressions on the other folks faces.
I'd actually probably rather eat the half lb bluegills but my wife and friends are spoiled and prefer the boneless fillets.
For some reason when I was a kid we never filleted our catfish even though we caught lots of nice sized fish. Even a 1 lb catfish is easy to fillet. I remember Dad taking a bunch of 4+ lb frozen fish to local butcher who cut them crossways on his meat cutting bandsaw. When fried the backbones and ribs would pop right out but filleting is still the way to go.
Another thing we never saved the fillets off the heads/cheeks which are well worth saving on anything over 4 lbs or so. Just split skin on the head, pull the skin down over the eyes then peel off the chink of meat there with a fillet knife.
I find my catfish consistently yield 60% fillets. A 20 lb live weight catfish will return 12 lbs of fillets. I find a deer yields about 34% completely boned out meat and I trim them close saving even the small bits to make canned venison.
Yep, well, at this point I've never yet caught a catfish, and I hear the small ones are good eating, so I'll try them first. Unfortunately my whole day just got planned for me for tomorrow, so probably no fishing. :(
Don't feel too bad I hardly got to go over the weekend due to haying, did go out one night and gotten nearly eaten by mosquitoes, one good strike but missed it, then called it quits. Summers not over yet :).
Took my 5-yr-old today for about an hour. Plopped that little salmon egg right down in a hole where I could see a mess of sunfish, and had it less than a foot away from them, and they took no notice. Guess they'd had their fill of something and didn't feel hungry.
Okra, we call those "Goggle Eyes". They have the body of a bluegill except a bit more plump, and the mouth of a bass. For eating, I much prefer bluegills.
Quote from: Magicman on July 07, 2015, 06:21:48 PM
Okra, we call those "Goggle Eyes". They have the body of a bluegill except a bit more plump, and the mouth of a bass. For eating, I much prefer bluegills.
At this point, I'd just enjoy getting something on my hook!
Eat em Okra, They're bigger than butterbeans. We all eat butterbeans.
I would put the knife to them too, unless you need some live bait for the big cats, or bass, Grandmaw Lolly use to crack me up when we would fish, she was a bit hard of hearing, so loud talking was pretty normal, " what he say?" would be a very common sayin'
right behind "there's a bit on that fish!" We got to do some blue gill fishing last week, just one bitters, but piles of them. we got this double, ya they got tangle in the photo shoot ;D
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/30023/IMGA0465.JPG)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/30023/IMGA0464.JPG)
and then the next morning while top water fishing I scored a pretty good bass while alone in the canoe, which is brutal when the wind pics up
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/30023/IMGA0480.JPG)