# Catfish surprise



## Wallijig (Apr 26, 2012)

Never thought I would quit fishing from arms getting tired from reeling in and fighting fish, but today it happened. Buddy and I went to this small slough and were going to try casting for some walleyes with jigs and 4" plastic shad. To our surprise we found these feeding in shallows. We caught and released over 12 and lost another 10 or so after fighting them for while. Could not believe how aggressive they are! We would have one hit about every cast. Took forever to land one with med action pole, 8 lbs. line, and utralite reel. Thought they were going to bust my pole right in half.
Here's couple pictures:


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## muskiemike12 (Apr 26, 2012)

Nice! It is a blast to catch them that size.


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## Dragonman (Apr 26, 2012)

Nice fish, sounds like you had a blast, I love catching cats.


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## RickyRick (Apr 26, 2012)

Those are some nice size cats. With your pole set-up I bet you thought you were fighting a shark! :LOL2:


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## Jim (Apr 26, 2012)

Nice job! =D> 

Looks like you had a blast.


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## catmansteve (Apr 27, 2012)

Awesome  Those are blues, correct? Man, I wish we had some of those where I live lol


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## FFDOZIER (Apr 27, 2012)

Yes those are blues


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## Ictalurus (Apr 28, 2012)

AWESOME =D> =D> =D> =D> 

I would have guessed channel cat, the blues are much more blue down here. Not sure of the local color pattern though. Great catch!!!


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## Wallijig (Apr 28, 2012)

Guys fishing with me moved up from Texas and did lot of catfishing there. He was pretty sure they were channel cats. 

I never really pursued cats before. Is it common for them to hit Jig with plastic bait?
Then in that shallow of water? 
I do not believe they were spawning water temps still in low 50's around here.
Were were using 1/4oz jig with Northland Impulse 4" paddle minnow.


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## muskiemike12 (Apr 29, 2012)

Those are not blue cats. Not this far north. 100% channel cat. Channels can be caught an a variety of baits. I have even caught a few on topwater fishing for smallies.


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## jerseycat9 (Apr 29, 2012)

Were those caught in the red river area?? Nice fish!!!


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## Wallijig (Apr 30, 2012)

jerseycat9 said:


> Were those caught in the red river area?? Nice fish!!!



Nope in slough in SE South Dakota.


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## Rock (Apr 30, 2012)

nice fish! here's one i caught sunday afternoon. yours looks bigger than mine. mine is 8#'s. how much did yours weigh?


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## Wallijig (Apr 30, 2012)

I do not have clue what they weighed. Did not have scale and never caught catch fish before to do any kind of judgment. I stand 5'11" tall and weigh 230 lbs. They were longer and bigger around then my leg.


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## River (Apr 30, 2012)

25lbs. + ?


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## Rock (Apr 30, 2012)

i'd say maybe 12 lbs...


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## JMichael (May 5, 2012)

Definitely some nice looking fish and I'm sure it was a fun fight with your rig and a cat that size. I'd guesstimate them around 17-20#. I'd also classify them as channel cat. The blue cat around here will get so blue on their back/top that you won't have any doubt about whether they're blue cat or not. Catfish around this area will bite anything that moves, smells, or that they think might be edible. I've caught them on several different types of live bait, crickets, worms, cut bait, stink bait/cheese, all types of lures, hot dogs, soap, etc etc. And yes, you read that right, I said soap. If you've never tired it before, bait a trotline out with small pieces of Ivory soap some time and see what happens. I figure cats are related to sharks since they both have a reputation for trying to eat anything.


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## Redfox03 (May 6, 2012)

i've heard of the soap technique here in wisconsin. Haven't tried it yet though. I fish the Rock and Fox river here and get them. Caught a few flatheads and one blue cat i got here. I usually use nightcrawlers on stink bait. prefer night crawlers because they're not as messy as stink bait.


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## JMichael (May 7, 2012)

I prefer to use live bait just because it increases the chances of catching a flathead cat, since they prefer live fish as their food source. And personally, I think flathead is the best tasting catfish to eat. Most people around here prefer to use rice slicks for trotlines, and since this is rice country it increases the chances of finding their preferred bait. When bait is limited, we've even used some of those thick skinned hot dogs cut into small pieces and soaked in ATF to bait a trotline with. Something about the oil in the ATF that helps them locate the bait. And that's one of the easiest baits you'll find to bait a trotline with. :lol:


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## muskiemike12 (May 7, 2012)

Redfox if you did catch a Blue Cat, which you didn't, it would be a state record. There are no Blue Catfish in the northern tier of states. What you caught was a Channel Cat. Just like there are no Florida strain largemouth up here, there are no Blue Cats. A few years ago an angler claimed to catch a 60# Blue Cat from Minnesota waters. There was testing done on the fish and was proven that it came from the Missouri River somewhere south of I-80.


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## one100grand (May 7, 2012)

Based almost entirely on location, those are almost definitely channel cats. There's actually a formula you can use to approximate the weight of a catfish that I found a while back and it's actually pretty accurate and I use it on the fly I don't have proper weight gear:

Weight = ((X/Y)^3) * 2.3
Y = the length of an average 2 lb fish 
X = the length of your fish

I know this looks complicated, but bear with me - if we estimate that a catfish weighs 2 pounds at approximately 15" we plug that in as our Y value, then by looking at the fish I'd guess it to be about about 28", so we have 28/15 = 1.87; take that ^3 (or cubed) and that gives us 6.54; take that * 2.3 = 15.042 for a weight estimate. It's a lot of work for an estimate, but it's surprisingly accurate once you peg the average length to weight of a 2 pound fish in your area. 

Based on my life experience catching catfish, I'd say those look 15-20 pounds as the range and if left to guessing only, I'd guess at 17 pounds. 

Very nice catches for sure! =D> =D> =D>


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## Captain Ahab (May 7, 2012)

one100grand said:


> Based almost entirely on location, those are almost definitely channel cats. There's actually a formula you can use to approximate the weight of a catfish that I found a while back and it's actually pretty accurate and I use it on the fly I don't have proper weight gear:
> 
> Weight = ((X/Y)^3) * 2.3
> Y = the length of an average 2 lb fish
> ...




Math is not a fishing related activity!


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## JMichael (May 7, 2012)

Captain Ahab said:


> Math is not a fishing related activity!


Maybe not in your area and certainly not for me very often, but every once in a blue moon, I have to count my catches to make sure I don't go over the limit. So there is minor math involved for me. :mrgreen:


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## one100grand (May 9, 2012)

Captain Ahab said:


> one100grand said:
> 
> 
> > Based almost entirely on location, those are almost definitely channel cats. There's actually a formula you can use to approximate the weight of a catfish that I found a while back and it's actually pretty accurate and I use it on the fly I don't have proper weight gear:
> ...



You're right, but fishing IS a math related activity!


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