Second Hand Kitty at Willard 6-28-06

[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]TubeBabe and I hit Willard NE area about 6:30 AM. Perfect morning. No wind, no bugs, no power squadron. Water 75 degrees and good clarity.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Kicked out into an area where we saw some sporadic individual feeding splashes (not carp). Casted a variety of hardbaits, plastics and even feathers. TubeBabe had one hard smack on a 3" white twister. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]We both put out a rod with minnow to drag while we continued casting. The small cats were pesky...one after the other. We eventually each kept 7 and released as many or more. The ones we kept went from 14" to 17". Lost a couple of larger ones at the tube.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]At 8:15 I set the hook in another "bitty kitty" and it took off on a dandy run. Yeeeee Hawwww. 21" wiper that weighed out at 4#. Really bent my stick and stretched my string.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I worked over to the dike to investigate the small fish that were jumping right next to the rocks. I fired out a tandem rig of small plastics and promptly started bringing in little smallmouths two at a time. They were in there gorging on the shadlets.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I dug through my collection of hardbaits and found a couple of little 2" shad imitations. I think they are made by Cordell. I have had them since I lived in Arizona and used to fish the largemouth boils when they fed on the small threadfin shad each year. They are small, light and run shallow. Got a good wiggle. I tried them on the little smallies and they approved.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I kicked out into deeper water, where I had been seeing those occasional splashes. Two casts later, with the little shad wiggler, I got nailed. I was using a light spinning rod and 6# line so I got beat up a bit. I was thinking another 4# wiper. Surprise. It was only about 14". Fought bigger. They all do.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]After exercising several more of the mighty mites, I passed on my remaining shadlet lure to TubeBabe and she scored a couple of the small wipers before it was time to depart. They were still hitting. I caught the last of about seven or eight as I was kicking back in.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Now, for the title story. I was casting a small plastic, near the dike, when I felt it stop and then start jumping. Strange. I reeled in the fish and was really amazed at what I finally realized I was seeing. I had hooked the tip top of a 1 foot section of fishing rod...broken. To the rod was cinched about five feet of line, to which was tied a lure, upon which was a 13" channel cat. I am sure there is a good story behind that, but I can't figure how that little channel cat would be capable of breaking a rod, and then having the line wrap the broken tip and to stay secured to the fish. Even more remarkable was my hook finding the tiptop of the piece of rod and bringing the whole thing up. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Oh yeah, I released the little catfish. I would love to hear the stories he tells the other fish around the evening fire.[/#0000ff]
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[AFDan52]

[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 4] [red]Pat, I must say you are the Dapper one in all that fishing gear. LOL[/red][/size][/font]
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[fishinfool]

Thanks for the update tubedude and tubebabe, looks like a fun day on the water.

fnf
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[ironworker]

awesome report and great pictures. i wish i had as much time as you two do to do as much fishing as you two do.
thanks for sharing. [cool]
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[chefwhofishes]

Fine fishing you two. Looks like you got yourself a Producer there, hang on to that one.
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[Playas44]

Nice fish. Quite the catch on the cat fish with the extra pole. I hope to get up there on Saturday morning.
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[Theekillerbee]

Nice report, and crazy story about the pre-hooked kitty!
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[lunkerhunter2]

I did a similar thing with a cutt at Lost creek last spring. We were throwing Jakes spin-a-lures from my boat and close to the bottom i had a good hit. Set it and thought it was a huge fish. It turned out to be a 13" cutt with a 5 blade willowleaf pop-gear stuck to his jaw. I hooked the swivel at the top through the eyelett. Go figure. I also caught a musky by catching some 6# or so mono and it started tugging back. I got it to the boat and there was a 28" musky on a crappie jig!
P.S. nice catch and a beautiful day to be out.
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Dapper??? Nah. Dapper only goes with "Dan". I have heard the term "Dapper Dan" many times...never Dapper Pat or Dapper Dude. The term does fit you better, you handsome devil you.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]When ya go afloat without a boat (poetic) ya gotta carry whatever ya might need. Some goes in pockets on the tube. The rest goes in the vest or the chest pouch. I might look kinda "over-dressed" but I usually got what I need...and I know where to find it.[/#0000ff]
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]It is a Producer. They are great trolling lures, for sure...especially the prism shad. But, ya know, I have a tough time getting up to trolling speed in my tube. Never have been able to get the planer boards to work right either.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Most of my wiper fishing is casting. Has anybody used Producers while casting, or are they better for trolling? I would suspect that they would work well for fishing the boils or casting along the dikes.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The hooks are still good on the one I "acquired". Just for grins I might throw it a bit and see if something likes it well enough to hit it again.[/#0000ff]
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