Kittyrama at Willard 7-19-18

[TubeDude]

[#0000ff]Last week I failed to get the fixin's for some smoked kitty...due to a hole in my basket. (My excuse and I'm stickin' wit it.) Got a new basket and hit the south marina this time for an all species session...as long as all species turned out to be catfish. Done deal.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Launched about 6:30. Air temp a nice 60 and water temp 78. When I drove off about 11 am it was 90 degrees and climbing. Water temp only went up a degree or so, but probably more later.
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[#0000ff]I got out of the channel with bait and lures unmolested. Had some intel that the fish were most active in about 14 to 16 fow. So I angled kinda NW out of the channel and moved to deeper water. About the time I hit 10 feet I cut the electric motor and put out a LHBE minnow on one rod and started pitching a blue shad plastic on the other.
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[#0000ff]About the second cast with the plastic I went bendo on my first kitty. Released it about the time the bait rod line clip popped and I hooked into kitty number two. This one had gulped the hook so I cut it off and added the fish to the basket. While I retied I dropped over a new purple glitter flig with a small minnow on it...and then put out the bait rod again as soon as I had a new hook on it. Wham...Bam! The flig rod took a deep bend and then the line popped on the bait rod. Double trouble. First of several times today. Some problems are better to have than others. Netted them both. 4 fish within about 10 minutes. And then it got better.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I took 2 full bags of minnows today...each with a "long dozen"...13 to 15 minnows. Went through all of them...only missing a few hits. Almost a perfect hit to hookup ratio on the fligs as usual. Tried several new colors and they all worked. Also caught a few more cats on plastic and some on flig and crawler. As long as I was in their zone they tore me up. Poor me.
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[#0000ff]Saw a boat anchored right up against the rock dike down by the feed lot (hog farm). Saw them score a couple of fish in close. Talked to them later at the ramp and they said they had caught limits of good sized cats.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]No boils today, but did see some brief "slurps". And the only birds I saw were large groups of gulls flying back over the dike from chowing down in the feed lot. Didn't even see any terns picking shadlets off the surface. But I did see quite a few groups of shad on sonar in different areas and different depths.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I easily caught a couple dozen cats today, keeping my legal limit of eight. I released a lot that were bigger than some I kept. Three were kept so I could recover my fligs from their innards later. Greedy little buggers.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]As I nosed my tube up onto the ramp I heard "Fish on!" Looked over to see an old gent sitting on a bucket...bendo on something between the bank and the dock. Wow. Turned out to be a nice sized cat. Then, before I could get packed up and headed for the cleaning station he proceeded to bring in several small wipers...about 7 or 8 inches.
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[#0000ff]I had seen the wiperettes working over something small as I launched earlier. Back at the ramp I could see several small schools of what looked to be spottail shiners rolling all over the algae covered rocks. I'm guessing that if there are a lot more of those shiners in the harbor there are probably some predators around as well.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Fish cleaning station was clean and functional. Had my smokitty fixin's in plastic bags and on my way right about 11. Didn't completely beat the heat but sitting in that water is way better than yardwork at home.
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[wiperhunter2]

I figured you were doing good when we saw you a little to the East of the marina in deeper water this morning. I was out with ZUKI_BLUE, when I waved at you at the ramp. Glad you got into them Pat.
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]I was happy to see that when you waved you used all your fingers.[/#0000FF]
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[#0000FF]How did you guys do?
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[SkunkedAgain]

Sounds like a fun day!!! Way to nail them... Later J
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[fishgiver]

A great day for others but just another day for you! Since I gave up my pontoon and got a boat Willard has not been kind, always did better in my pontoon and fly rod. Have to learn to fish spinning rods again although I still throw a fly now and again.
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[wiperhunter2]

Well, it started off pretty good, with a quick wiper for Gene, then a cat before the sun came up but after that it slowed down when I lost my favorite worm harness. I resorted to using lures and pick up another cat, then it shut down for me. Around 11:30 Gene picked up a couple of eyes, one that went 20" but I decided at that point that I'd had enough of the heat, so we headed in around noon.
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[Tin-Can]

I wonder if that was the same old gent that was there last Friday. Guy sitting on a 5 gal bucket, casting what looked like about a 5 foot rod, light line, small bobber about 2 feet above the hook. He caught and released at least 3 small Wiper just in the time it took me to get my boat off the trailer, tied to the dock, park the rig, and back to the boat.
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]Most likely. He seemed to know what he was doing at that spot. And he was using two short rods and soaking bait under a bobber.[/#0000FF]
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[#0000FF]Couldn't help wondering if that might be me when I can't paddle around in my rubber ride any longer.[/#0000FF]
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[#0000FF]How did you do yesterday?
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[Tin-Can]

Me? I did terrible.................I had to work all day[mad]
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[Piscophilic]

Thanks for another great report. I'm glad you got your fixins and your fligs back!

I can't remember how many I have cleaned with hooks inside only to get home and remember that I forogt to get the hooks back[]
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]For cats I plan to keep I have a couple of rituals before putting them in my basket (or live well). First, I use a pair of pliers or heavy side-cutters to remove the spines on the dorsal and pectoral fins. I do that while the fish are still in my initial kitty-grip...under the belly and fingers around the spines. That makes them easier to handle later and saves some wear and tear on my basket...and reduces holes for them to use as escape hatches. Also makes it easier to lay them flat for filleting.[/#0000FF]
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[#0000FF]The second thing I do is "mark" them if I have to do some "recovery"...for hooks or fligs...while cleaning them later. I usually do this by removing one or both of the large soft barbels at the front of their mouths. Then, while filleting, any fish missing that part of their anatomy gets a more "in depth" CSI treatment to get back my tackle.
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[Piscophilic]

Sounds like a great system. I'll have to try it and see if I can remember why some of them are short a whisker!
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[fish_fear_me2]

Looks like you are still catching cats. Great job!!!!
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]Thanks. I have been wanting to get down and hit the Knolls before the water level gets too low. But this monsoonal flow always messes up the weather forecast for that part of the lake. Wimp that I am I don't like fishing in 4 foot onshore breakers.
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