04-12-2012, 07:56 PM
Recently I’d seen couple of posts about cats being caught near the reeds. I looked at the weather forecast and it looked awful. Lousy all weekend but a warm spurt with a peak on Tuesday. 3 consecutive days of warming, why does that never hit on a weekend! Reliable spring weather forecasts rare, so I just watched. By Tuesday morning, I couldn’t stand it any longer. I hadn’t been fishing in 6 months and it was the hottest day of the year so far.
I got the afternoon off, called everyone I knew who might go on short notice and blanked. I’d go alone. I was on the lake @ 3 P.M. The theory was I'd find a secluded little pocket in the reeds that was sheltered and shallow. The air was in the mid 70’s, my old fish finder was from the mid 80’s, menu button broken, so I don’t know how warm the shallow water was, other than hot!
On the way over, I dropped two lines in and trolled up a couple of white bass for bait. I was just thinking two would be enough when one rod hung up. I pulled quick u-turn and before I could get to it the other rod hung, Amateur! I guess first trips of the year are to get the kinks out of the brain as well as the equipment. Drag was working on the second rod so I kept moving toward the first. I heard a clank and looked back and my best spinning outfit had vanished into the lake. I flippled on the electric anchor, which fell 2.5 feet and tangled, so I ran to the back and tossed the manual one over, along with a fish marker. The water was only 5’ deep and there was 50’ of mono between where my jig and my rod lay on the bottom. I could overcome my stupidity by catching that line and retrieving my outfit. 90 minutes passed untangling the electric anchor and then dragging large weighted hooks over the bottom. With the electric anchor and a decent breeze I worked over the entire area. Admitting defeat, I pulled up most of the line to the anchor. I bent to pick up my marker and there it was, a string of mono lying on top of the anchor line[
]
Hoping my luck had turned I went to the shallow spot and anchored. I was 50’ from shore in 2.5 feet of water. I set a bobber at 2’ and flipped it out. Before I could rig the second bobber rod, the first bobber started north. I Took out the slack, set the hook, and came up solid. I was just thinking, “This guy has shoulders” when the fish took off, the line broke, and the bobber was flying back at me. Didn’t I know better than to trust a knot that had been sitting for 6 months!
I retied and put on the other half of the shrimp. The next cast was in the water less than a minute and I had a second fish on, beautiful cat about 5#. Instant replay and the next one was 3#. I finally got the second bobber in and the first one took off again. Shoulders again, 7.5#. To keep this shorter, in 45 minutes I had 10 hits, broke off #1, missed one and put 8 kitties in the boat. It was the most wide-open cat bite I ever saw! My little pocket was barely 50’ across and there must have been cats lying shoulder to shoulder over the whole thing.
All the fish came on shrimp. It happened so fast I forgot all about the whites I was going to cut up. Didn’t even have time to dig out the fish basket. The largest cat looked like it would spawn any minute, but was stuffed with 4” minnows and the remnants of juvenile crawdads. For the bass anglers out there, they weren’t reddish brown; they were dark green with orange undersides.
I’m glad I didn’t give up after all the tackle problems! With the current weather, it will be another week before the shallows heat up. I only had a cell phone with me but here are a couple of marginal photos. Nothing like TubeDude’s pics, but admissible in the court of skepticism.
[signature]
I got the afternoon off, called everyone I knew who might go on short notice and blanked. I’d go alone. I was on the lake @ 3 P.M. The theory was I'd find a secluded little pocket in the reeds that was sheltered and shallow. The air was in the mid 70’s, my old fish finder was from the mid 80’s, menu button broken, so I don’t know how warm the shallow water was, other than hot!
On the way over, I dropped two lines in and trolled up a couple of white bass for bait. I was just thinking two would be enough when one rod hung up. I pulled quick u-turn and before I could get to it the other rod hung, Amateur! I guess first trips of the year are to get the kinks out of the brain as well as the equipment. Drag was working on the second rod so I kept moving toward the first. I heard a clank and looked back and my best spinning outfit had vanished into the lake. I flippled on the electric anchor, which fell 2.5 feet and tangled, so I ran to the back and tossed the manual one over, along with a fish marker. The water was only 5’ deep and there was 50’ of mono between where my jig and my rod lay on the bottom. I could overcome my stupidity by catching that line and retrieving my outfit. 90 minutes passed untangling the electric anchor and then dragging large weighted hooks over the bottom. With the electric anchor and a decent breeze I worked over the entire area. Admitting defeat, I pulled up most of the line to the anchor. I bent to pick up my marker and there it was, a string of mono lying on top of the anchor line[
] Hoping my luck had turned I went to the shallow spot and anchored. I was 50’ from shore in 2.5 feet of water. I set a bobber at 2’ and flipped it out. Before I could rig the second bobber rod, the first bobber started north. I Took out the slack, set the hook, and came up solid. I was just thinking, “This guy has shoulders” when the fish took off, the line broke, and the bobber was flying back at me. Didn’t I know better than to trust a knot that had been sitting for 6 months!
I retied and put on the other half of the shrimp. The next cast was in the water less than a minute and I had a second fish on, beautiful cat about 5#. Instant replay and the next one was 3#. I finally got the second bobber in and the first one took off again. Shoulders again, 7.5#. To keep this shorter, in 45 minutes I had 10 hits, broke off #1, missed one and put 8 kitties in the boat. It was the most wide-open cat bite I ever saw! My little pocket was barely 50’ across and there must have been cats lying shoulder to shoulder over the whole thing.
All the fish came on shrimp. It happened so fast I forgot all about the whites I was going to cut up. Didn’t even have time to dig out the fish basket. The largest cat looked like it would spawn any minute, but was stuffed with 4” minnows and the remnants of juvenile crawdads. For the bass anglers out there, they weren’t reddish brown; they were dark green with orange undersides.
I’m glad I didn’t give up after all the tackle problems! With the current weather, it will be another week before the shallows heat up. I only had a cell phone with me but here are a couple of marginal photos. Nothing like TubeDude’s pics, but admissible in the court of skepticism.
[signature]
![[Image: happy.gif]](http://www.bigfishtackle.com/images/gforum/happy.gif)
] I enjoy reading others and I decided I should try putting in the time to share some my own adventures. You asked about the half shrimp thing, That is my confidence bait and, like you, I see fewer bullheads in mix with shrimp. I am an process engineer by training and profession, so it is my lot to always look for patterns in the data. Mine show that open water fishing I catch more fish on average with shrimp but bigger fish with fresh cut bait. When they are rooting around in the reeds, the shrimp seems best. But every days is different.