Fisherpete

Hey Clive... I got her on one of your creations... orange blade, orange tail. Same one that Al got his 42" on last fall. Johnny - that big girl we saw the other day is still out there waiting for you, get that rattly little silver lure out and bring her in!

1/1 for me on the muskie opener... really tough bite, pretty windy and tons of traffic on the water (fishing and otherwise). Didn't even have any follows today. Didn't start fishing till 2:30pm, so I really shouldn't complain. Thank god the wifey was along - I forgot my OFC sign, had to write it on the boat seat with a combination of her lipstick and mascara LMAO!!! 35" added for Team One... to be upgraded shortly...

The REAL fun at a launch doesn't start till the guy in front of you launches with no drain plug in and no bilge pump... and sinks his boat at the end of the ramp... then not only do you have to wait, but get to play action hero!

Isn't that called a jerkbait?

Great report Marko!

Gollum style. But bring a toothbrush for after.

*sigh* Ok, ok, you got me, my secret is out. I am Jim. I just don't post any of my giant muskie pics here so the rest of you don't get jealous.

But then you wouldn't have the pleasure of handling gobs of greasy grimy sucker chunks!!!

HA HA HA! Very funny Skeeter! But yeah, my hands are pretty chewed up from lipping these beasts like bass for the past few weeks... all is good until they clamp down and thrash - then that sandpaper mouth of theirs does a real number on the knuckles!!! Oh well, such is life... and apart from the trailer and boat key mishaps, it was another great day with even better company out on the Grand. Skeeter's first cat (ever!) was a true tanker, had an enormous head on it... she is most likely the heaviest cat so far to be landed in my boat this year. They fight really well, eh Dann!!! It was actually very lucky that we got her in, after over 5 minutes of battle, she powerdove at boatside and wrapped the line around the anchor rope!!! While Dann kept the tension on the rod, I somehow managed to pull up the 18lb anchor with one hand, being VERY careful to let out slack as she thrashed, and then scoop that big'ol cat with the net in the other! Dann's 20lb Powerpro was pretty frayed at the point where it was wrapped around the anchor line, but managed to hold! Here's another shot of Dann with the big fish of the day. OK, can someone on the site please enlighten us catfishers as to what the deal is on some of the cats being bright yellow and some being dull grey? I have heard varting theories, including different species, blue cats vs. channel cats, being fresh in from the lake compared to having spent some time in the river, and males vs. females. Anyone have the answer? Just curious... all the yellows fought like HELL yesterday, further adding to my confusion as to whether they are indeed a different fish!

Of all the fish that have been caught on my 5 trips, three of them came back with me for co-workers... smaller 5-6 pounders. I was actually at one of their places last night and tried a piece that they had done on the BBQ... it was OK, but after tasting it I don't think I would keep one to cook myself. Too many other tasty fishies out there to settle for cat... Dann, you want to go catfishing tomorrow? Send me a PM...

I have the 50lb Berkley digital scale, and tested it for accuracy with a number of weights when I first bought it - I found that it was accurate to within two or three ounces for items up to 20 pounds. Make sure that you tare it before each weighing.

Very cool! Catching the bait first is half the fun isn't it... stripers are on my future to catch list. I watched a fishing show not too long ago (Fish'n'Canada) where Pete Bowman was catching huge stripers with an 18" long eel-like lure.

Funny that you should mention Red Bull... at Will's (same brother in the pics) stag, we all got absolutely loaded on Red Bull & vodka and had a great night out on the town... got back to the hotel at 6am, wide-eyed and hyper as hell... "Whatcha wanna do now? Huh? Huh?" Man that stuff got us wired... hey Will - how did it taste on the way out? As good as on the way in LMAO! Oh man... I just found the pics on my computer, have to share the rest of the story now... Will had no idea about his stag party, it was a suprise... four of us snuck up on him one day at work and kidnapped him (gagged, pillowcase over the head and wrists duct taped behind his back), then proceeded to drive down to Niagara Falls... well, on the drive down, the pillowcase over the head made Will get motion sickness... and he puked inside of the pillowcase HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!! We had to pull over and let him escape the sack of shame... oh man, happy times... I blacked out the t-shirt to keep things somewhat PG here on OFC... The kidnapping & the drive down The sack of shame... notice the wetness at the bottom Arrival at the hotel, decorated the t-shirt The results of too much Red Bull & vodka

I had to work at 5am the next morning... so after driving home, unpacking the boat... etc... it was around 1am before I got to bed. I am seriously thinking next trip might just be an all-nighter... bring a big thermos of coffee and git-r-done!

LMAO young_one...!!! I'm not touching any chunky suckers from now on!!! With the circle hooks, you do not 'set' the hook as with normal fishing... just a gentle 'sweep' back on the rod... this causes the point of the circle hook to find it's way into the corner of the fishes mouth virtually every time. Not setting the hook is a hard habit to break... but practice makes perfect! I'm actually going to try some smaller sized circle hooks baited with corn in a month or so when the carp start going crazy on Rice Lake.

Hi there, my name is Fisherpete and I am a catfish addict. Certified! LMAO! I truly enjoy time on the water with both of my brothers, Will and Paul, but in recent years as our families have grown, getting time to fish together has become quite the challenge. A window of opportunity opened up for Thursday afternoon - and we jumped on it. Will had seen my recent cat posts, and was eager to get in on the action. To date, Will's biggest freshwater fish landed was a 6 pound pike... that mark would surely be crushed today. We arrived in Dunnville around 3pm, and as we launched the boat, were met by two fellow cat hunters leaving the water... they said they had a fishless day! There was also a pretty stiff wind blowing... but was I worried? Nah. After Tuesday's fish-fest, there had to be some fish still around. We launched, motored out and dropped anchor. Around twenty minutes later, Will's rod doubled over. Not the tap-tap-thump-thump kind of hit, but a solid THUD! Will grabbed the rod out of the holder, and leaned back into it... fish on baby! What a way to start the day, and to introduce Will to catfishing... this fish fought like a champ, peeling off drag and bulldogging like crazy at the side of the boat. She did NOT want to come up from the bottom. Will was shocked at the raw power of these fish, and his jaw dropped when we finally got her into the net. What a pig! First fish of the day gave my boat a new length record for a cat at 35.5", and she was thick too. Maybe our first 20 pounder? Didn't have my scale with me, so I will never know. As the day went on, we kept moving, and each move yielded a fish or two. The next 11 hits all came on my rod, but we took turns reeling in the fish. So strange how two identical baits, cast in the same area, on identical setups right down to the rod and reel can yield such different results. The average size today was incredible, there were just no small fish at all. Two fish actually were fought all the way to boatside not even hooked - they had just clamped down like a vice on the sucker meat!!! Both times this happened on a quite large piece of cutbait... today's lesson learned : 2" cutbait chunks over 3" chunks... This one was also a tank, 33.5" and thick all the way through... Once again, the witching hour provided some outstanding fishing... not quite as fast as Tuesday, but still great fun. As dusk turned to night, the fishing was getting better and better - but with a few hours of driving still ahead of us, we packed it in around 9:30pm or so. Another awesome day on the water... had a great time fishing with you, bro!

LOL... sorry Skeeter, fish porn on the way... give me half an hour or so... And fish-meister... Scugog don't got no big'ol cats... dose dere bullheads is mere kittens!!!!

Hey Dann, when you heading down to the Grand? I hit it AGAIN last night, this time with my brother Will... we started late, on the water and fishing around 3:30pm and, well, you will just have to wait until later today for my Kittycat part 5 report... Will is still grinning... As brifishrgy mentioned above, don't make the chunks too big, I had my first two cats get off yesterday at boatside, and both times, they were not even hooked - they had just clamped down on the sucker meat!!! (both times I had used big pieces). I fillet the fish as you would a walleye, except cut through the ribs instead of teasing the meat off of them. The bones don't seem to turn the cats off at all... I then use a strong pair of scissors and cut the fillet into 1" wide x 2" long chunks - the thick back meat and about half of the rib meat. I find that the small to medium suckers are the best - with the big ones, the chunks can be a bit too thick - the smaller cats have a bit of trouble getting it in their yap.

Low winds... 19 degrees... 4 freshly caught and diced up suckers... sounds like catfishing time to me! My son Fishernick felt it prudent to join me on a non-school nature-based field trip, and we were accompanied by fellow OFC member Johnny Bass, who had the urge to catch his first channel cat in a long while. Johnny, it was great to meet and fish with you... my son had a great time and you certainly helped keep him entertained during the slower periods of the day. We will do it again for sure! Great fishing chat on the drive down led to a missed exit... or two... and a minor 60km detour LMAO... but we still got on the water just after 9am. I guaranteed (to Johnny's horror) that we would surely get into the cats today... and also that we would have the first one landed by 10am... the kiss of death? Methinks not, although I almost missed that 10am target. With seven minutes to spare, the first kitten purred for us. We started catching fish at a steady pace, not fast and furious by any means, but consistent enough for the next few hours. There were a few other boats out there, and we only saw one cat get caught by them, so we felt ok about our results. A new species was also caught for Nick and I, the famous Sheepshead! They certainly are scrappy buggers, and not nearly as ugly as I had thought... the purple-blue iridescent head was pretty cool. Johnny finally got the skunk off mid afternoon... we had all been using the exact same setups, right down to the hooks, but for some reason they had avoided his bait until around 4pm. The only difference was that his fishing rod was 7' while Nick's and mine were 10'... I think the longer rods make it a bit easier to see the hits when the rods are in the holders. After that one, Nick struggled a bit but reeled in his new PB, a chunky 32" cat! Any OFC teams looking for a new teammate to add some inches? TOO BAD he is loyal to Rippin' Weeds!!! Hahahahaha!!! This thing had a MASSIVE head on it. And hahahahaha I just saw the chocolate pudding all over Nick's upper lip... maybe that was his secret weapon!!!!! Try it, people!!! And the catching continued... As the sun began to set, the excitement of "the witching hour" set in... and the cats did NOT dissapoint. The next hour was unbelievable, with Johnny catching 5 cats on the same hunk of mangled bait at one point (two of which were pigs), I caught the big fish of the day at 33", and the night ending with Nick and I having a crazy double header in the dark. Final tally : New daily record of 20 cats + 1 bonus Sheepshead... a great new friend, one super happy kid and some spectacular fishing memories that will never be forgotten. Is this not what fishing is all about?

Yeah, might be a pretty tough sell to a CO... since you would almost certainly catch mostly OOS species rather than the target carp and they obviously know this. I have caught a few carp over the years on moving baits as well, but it is the exception rather than the norm.

I am using 50lb Powerpro on one reel, 17lb Trilene XT on the other. I like the Powerpro better as it casts a bit farther than the Trilene. So far, both lines have held up very well. You can get away with less than 3oz sinkers on the calm days, but if the wind is up or the current really flowing, the 3oz is good. If you are going to Steve's (Fishmaster's), he has all the hooks, beads, swivels and weights for sale at competetive prices, and even better, sells pre-made cat rigs. Just tie on and ready to go. Don't forget the cut bait!

Your reports always make for an amazing read, and give the rest of us a benchmark to set our fishing goals at. You really have those giant pike dialed in - I can only imagine what one of those beasts look like coming through the ice. Thanks for taking the time to put it all together - I know how long it takes!

Yep, if memory serves, the big cat entry in the derby so far is 21 lbs... I will have to top that this week!

Still pumping... I swear, that 8 fish stretch at the end of the day was the most fun I have ever had fishing.

Nope, just fished for them using small hooks with worms. I don't have waders or any type of river fishing gear...