Fishing Forum

Decided to go fishing with Craig and his dad, we had a great time. We started throwing the cast net and putting some shad in the boat. I have a nice bass pull off, and then we boat a few nice little bass/white bass. Craig hooked a really nice smallmouth on ultra light. It ends up breaking him off boatside, and I had a terrific laugh. We didn't catch anything after that, since that smallmouth was showing off a shiny hook to the other bass. We went and tried the panfish for a little bit to catch catfish bait. I put around 8 bluegill in the boat, while they snagged up on a tree by the bank. Steve puts a nice crappie in the boat, then we head downriver.<br /><br />Anchor #1-I get set up just the way I like. A few minutes later, a rod loads up. Steve is in the back of the boat, and I hand the rod back. Somewhere along the line, it comes unbuttoned. I won't lie, it was probably not a big fish with a giant skipjack head sticking out of its mouth.<br /><br />Anchor #2-We set up on the big fish hole, usually producing something in nice current. A rod takes a polite bow, and I crank down. I'm into a decent fish in a lot of current. I end up boating a 33 lber. Steve didn't want to reel this one in as he wanted to take pictures.<br /><br />Anchor #3-Craig has his navionics in my depth finder, and I find a new hole I didn't know about. We anchor for awhile, with nothing to show for it.<br /><br />Time for a break. We anchor up out of the current, and what do you know, there's 10,000 spotted bass. They ate all of our shiners, and a couple of gar decided to bite as well.<br /><br />Anchor #4-We anchor up behind the market street bridge piling, and lose a few baits. I am pretty whiney at this point, I'm hungry, I'm hungry. Craig heads for Mellow Mushroom. Steve and I motor around checking out the navionics. Won't be long till I own this nice little toy. We mark a point with cool structure, something I've never seen. I know this will really help on the lake, but great for the river too. We head over to get ready for the pizza delivery. Steve throws out a dead bluegill. Craig arrives with pizza, and the rod starts bouncing. funny stuff, there's a catfish down there. he just kept at it, what an aggressive little blue, if only he was bigger. Steve finally sets hook, and it turns out to be a flathead. We took a picture of the flathead with the aquarium in the background. I'd have some of these pictures if Craig would stop being lazy and send them to me.<br /><br />Anchor #5-Spurred on by coke and pizza, we head downriver and start looking at some new spots. So much looks so good. We head back to an old haunt. We see big fish hanging off serious structure. Anchor up, nothing. Move on down, throw some rods out, nothing. I take another rod, and make a nice long throw back to a piece of structure I saw earlier. Current is around 60,000 at this time, has to be a big catfish down there. A clicker starts screaming, Craig grabs it. I tell him to tighten down the drag. he's kind of a wuss sometimes like that. He's trying, but he can't do much. It heads right, I reel in a rod to the right. It heads back to the left, I get that rod out of the way. It buries under the boat. Craig gains, putting a ton of pressure on this big blue. The blue heads toward the anchor. I tell Craig he better get that darn fish back under control. Finally, after a nice battle, Craig boats a 68 lb blue. I didn't know he was man enough to be honest with you. <br /><br />Anchor #6-We go back to the big fish hole where I caught my pb last year, but nothing happening. tons of current, and I can't quite anchor the way I like. We did catch Craig's anchor that he lost from last time.<br /><br />Back to the ramp. Typical catfish anchor bite for me. Lots of heartbreak and frustration, but when a big boy bites, nothing gets my blood boiling like that. When you can't just overpower a fish with 30 lb line/80 lb leader, you know it's serious.<br /><br />Great day with good friends. I have about 60 gps points marked now, geez, I hope I don't start fishing the lake!<br /><br />Sam