Stopped off at the Jordan River for a few minutes of fishing on my way home from work today. Glad I did too. Throwing a curly tail jig, on third cast hooked into a cat.
10 minutes later picked up another. Both cats were about 24 inches + or - an inch.
Total fishing time 20 minutes.
2 nice cats
How much does a cat this size typically weigh?
I do need some identification help.
Although I would say that both were channel cats, the look so different in color.
Performed CPR on each fish, and I could almost hear them purr as they swam back home.
As you can see in the pics, one is gray in color, and the other is an olive color. Can these both be channels?
I would say that those are both channel cats. Maybe a female and a male??? I don't know much about catfish but I'm pretty certain those are channels. Those little black dots on the yellowed one have been on the channels I caught and not the mudders.
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If they were 20" plus, they were definately channels. Nice job!
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[#0000FF]Nice work. Pretty kitties.
The olive colored fish is a female. The dark grey one is a male. You will also notice it has a head wider than its body. Sometimes the females turn darker during the spawn (early summer) and the males get downright black. Males can also get torn up and ugly from rolling around in the rocks...fighting other males and spawning with the females. Love can be dangerous.
A 24" channel cat will usually weigh on either side of about 6 pounds...depending on girth.
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Nice catches, I'm still looking for my first kitty of the year. I swear I've found the deepest spot on the river but I blew catching one last week but this week didn't get even a bite at the same spot. With how low that water is, there's no way nothing is in there! I'm guessing my baits from last year have gone bad...must need to catch a new fresh one.
Anyway,I've never used jigs for catfishing for cat fishing. I wondered if you'd share if there's a special good one or if they all work pretty good? Also, Right now I know the water is clear but I wondered, do the jigs still work in summer when its murky? I've heard catfish can't see very well and I don't think even fish with good eyes could see much in the Jordan River in the summer.
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[#0000FF]Channel cats have GOOD vision...in clear water. But even in murky water they are assisted by feeling vibrations with their sensitive lateral line.
Lots of cats caught all year on lures. But adding some "sweetener" doesn't hurt.
In addition to plastic jigs, cats will hit spinners, crank baits and even flies.
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Like pointed out, the size will tell you its not a mud cat but if you catch smaller channel cats, you can always tell the difference by the tail fin. The mud cats tail fin is hardly forked at all where the channel cat will have a deeply forked tail as you can see in the first picture of your post. Nice catch by the way and it looks like you got to break in your new whoopin stick combo you picked up at Cabela's. Thats always fun!!
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Great lookin channel cats! Good job? Did you release them or fry em up? Some people have a thing about eating fish out of the jordan river. Me? I don't have that problem
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Very nice. Awesome that you let them back to be caught another day.
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Oops looks like I quantum posted. Should've finished reading before replying.[crazy]its a little rude for a guy to jump right to the picture before reviewing the full post[
] no disrespect ratnest. I'm posting from my phone. I think anyone who's done that knows what a pain it is.
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That's interesting. Do you know specific jigs that work well or do they all work pretty well for cats? I've used lures on the jordan but have never caught cats on them. The only way I've fished for them is simply a big hook + some type of fish or worm. Last year my biggest cats 28-30 or so inches surprisingly came on worms when I was trying to catch bait fish haha. I hope by adding something new like jigging that I could catch more and possible big cats than I did last year even though last year was definitely a big leap for me in that regard.
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I've caught a bunch of cats on the Jordan, when it was murky, with wooly buggers while going after carp. My biggest cat actually came out of Utah Lake, in Lindon Boat Harbor, with a black and chartreuse wooly bugger -- and you know how dirty that crap is. I think any tube jig will work, as long as it's bouncing along the bottom. Put it in front of their face and it'll bite. Great way to catch a walleye as well, not to mention whities and even the LMB that are in there.
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Cool. When I'm not a poor college student I definitely want to learn to fly fish. I need to explore the river closer to the lake but I definitely feel something is up/wrong with my methods for fishing the Jordan because I'm not catching as many as I should despite knowing the deepest/best spots. Other than once last fall where I caught 8 suckers in an hour, at most of my spots I just catch 2 or 3 maybe 4 if lucky fish and then it is totally dead in that spot after that. I'm pretty sure there should be a lot more fish than that in the holes I'm fishing.
So I'm hoping tube jigs and lures will answer that problem Speaking of catching whities, I didn't catch a single whitie last year. Granted I haven't fished by the lake, years before this I couldn't keep them off my worm if I would reel in, let it sink a little and keep reeling and so on. Heck I even caught my first small mouth out of there but not a single whitie last year. So I've never got to try white bass meat as kittie bait.
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Couple of things:
If your holes aren't producing, I'd say it's time to move. I've caught plenty of fish in less than two feet of water. In fact, the majority of my fish on the Jordan come in less than two feet. (I don't really fish it often once they open the gates) Just because it's deep doesn't mean there are fish there, you know? I don't know how often you fished the Jordan last year, but saying you didn't catch any white bass sounds near impossible! Anything white: tube jigs, flies, gulp minnows, spinners, curly tail jigs, etc. will all catch white bass. I never targeted WB, but caught them as far south as 4000 south, so being close to the lake isn't really important. Seriously, try a gulp minnow on a small lead head jig and just make your way up the river. Unless it's a really cruddy area with poor conditions, I don't think you could go more than 100 yards without catching at least one WB.
Lastly, I sure hope you didn't catch a small mouth bass in the Jordan... Don't get me wrong, I love catching smallies, but I don't think they're supposed to be in there.
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"That's interesting. Do you know specific jigs that work well or do they all work pretty well for cats?"
[#0000FF]Actually, it is difficult to find a lure they WON'T hit. I have caught them on all kinds of plastics, marabou jigs, spinners and crankbaits. They hit anything you might be fishing for white bass or walleyes.
But, black is always a good color. Looks like a baby bullhead to the fish. And black with a chartreuse tail is good for all species. I also catch a lot on my red and chartreuse tube jigs.
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Well that's the thing. I'm always in the predicament...After I catch my few at a hole, stay and be patient or move to another spot? I've tried both ways and usually do better moving but it bugs me having to do that because I doubt there's only the fish I caught in the hole. Maybe I will have to try shallower spots more often. My only question is how do you decide what shallow spots to spend time fishing since most of the river is shallow? Is there some in the shallow spots or is it like a canal/lake and totally slow?
About the white bass...my methods are very simple(I mostly use worms when I'm trying to catch something besides catfish) so perhaps that plays a role in me not catching any whities but still, I didn't catch any the ways I did when the water was higher before last year. I've tried gulp minnows but never really thought about trying that. I always just left it on a big hook on the bottom. I'd get lots of hits but what ever was doing it was either really small or not interested enough to hit it hard enough to be hooked. I'll have to try that.
About my small mouth bass...I could be misidentifying it because I don't really know how to tell the differences between small mouth and large mouth bass. Here's how it looked..you tell me
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LMB for sure.
There are smallies in the jordan just not many.
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The mouth on the LMB extends back past the eye when closed, on the SMB the mouth does not go past the eye.
Colors very on fish, but the LMB is typically green and the SMB is brown.
The dead give away on that bass is the green line running down the body. Also, Smallies are often called "yellow eyes" or "golden eyes" because, well, you can guess. Some LMB have yellow/golden eyes too, but not often if I recall. Someone mentioned the mouth, etc. but the best way to tell is the long green line. It may be faint on smaller bass, but Smallies don't have it at all.
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Either way, that's my first LMB on there. As you can tell it's not very big but I was really excited when I caught it. Literally the day I bought that lure and did the first cast, he took it. Sadly after letting him go I got snagged on something and lost that lure. I thought I found the magic spot but
ly haven't caught one since then at that spot or any of the spots I usually fish. How common are LMB in the Jordan and are any decent size?
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