Dunnville Catfish Report

[Fisherpete]

I have wanted to catch a channel catfish for probably 15 years or so, and after hearing about Dunnville, and Fishmasters magical cutbait, decided to make a go of it today. My regular fishing pal Albert bailed, but the seat in my boat was filled by fellow team one member, Marko, who at least had fished Dunnville before, albeit from shore.

 

I arrived at Fishmasters place around 8:30am, and launched the boat. Soon after, Fishmaster Steve opened the doors to the shop. Great guy, and offered some advice on rigs and depths to try. I bought the biggest egg weights I have ever used (3oz), some 6/0 circle hooks, and a couple baggies of Fishmaster's magical cutbait. I already had 150 worms in the boat that I picked off my lawn the night before as backup bait. Marko then arrived, bought some cutbait as well, and off we went...

 

After an EPIC 30 second boat ride out to the magical depth, we dropped the anchor, tied our rigs and started fishing. Another boat with three fishermen pulled up 50 yards away, and on their second cast, bagged a beauty 19 pound cat!!! I started dreaming about having a banner day at this point... Soon after, Marko caught a chunky 26" carp on a worm... more inches for Team One!

 

 

 

Marko then caught a decent sized sucker. After that spot cooled off we decided to try a few other locations along the river, but had no luck. We eventually returned to our original spot and tried again, and Marko got another sucker. The 3 fishermen from the morning also returned, and fished for a bit with no luck. As they were packing up and reeling in their lines, one of them snagged somebody's broken off line in the water... he proceeded to pull in all the line by hand, and guess what was on the end of the line? ANOTHER DAMN NICE CAT!!!! HAND LINED!!! Smaller than the one in the morning, but probably still pushing 10lbs. I was just a wee bit bitter at this point... Marko left at 3, and I fished two more hours, and had one hit and miss on a worm, probably a sucker that couldn't get that 6/0 into his puckered yap!!!

 

My learnings for the day...

1) Catfishing is very relaxing! I will do it again for sure. It felt really weird only bringing a handful of terminal tackle with me, and not the normal obscene armada of lures, but I loved the simplicity of it all.

2) To bottom fish cats with bait from a boat, you really need 2 good anchors (front & back). I only had one, and the boat was constantly swinging around from the wind & current... made it really hard to watch the line properly for hits. Next time.

3) Cutbait is nasty lol. In a good way.

 

Steve, great shop and operation you have there, thanks for the advice and the yuk bait... I'll be back soon to try it again!

 

Great fishing with you Marko, you are welcome in my boat anytime!

Edited April 1, 2010 by Fisherpete

[spinnerbaitking]

Nice report, I'm hoping to make it down there for a day of big cats this year, how do you get to Fishmasters place, never been down that way before

Thanx Richard:Gonefishing:

[Fisherpete]

I just typed in his address on my GPS... or Google map it.

 

Fishmaster's Ultimate Charters

776 Main Street East

R.R. 6 Dunnville Ont. N1A 2W5

Ph. 905-701-6874

[Steve Piggott]

Fisherpete were you in the green lund with a 115? I was in the 20 foot lund with the tiller.We boat 15 cats a total of 152 lb.The big trick yesterday was to move around.We would move every half hour.If you see me doen there don't be shy come by and say Hi.

[Fisherpete]

Hi Steve,

 

Wow, you did really well again... I wish I had that Lund, my boat is a 16' Tracker, I just threw on my brother's 9.9 Merc for yesterday. We moved around a bit, but I really don't know what to look for structure wise out there... river fishing is totally new to me! I sent you a PM...

Edited April 1, 2010 by Fisherpete

[Marko]

Hey Peter it was great meeting you and fishing with you even though the fish did not co-operate all that well.

We did manage 26 new inches for our team, before the trip i kind of hoped they would be catfish inches but it was not meant to be for us.

 

We moved around a little bit and marked fish consistently but did not really have any hits other then on worms. Maybe not having two anchors and moving around a little bit had something to do with that who knows haha.

 

I cant believe how lucky those guys were, i don't know how many times we casted in that area where they snagged that line and nothing.

Maybe next time.

 

I`ll probably make it down couple more times this spring/summer for some carp/catfish fishing.

 

Next time we can just follow Steve around hahah

And thanks for the pics by the way

[Aaron Shirley]

Better luck next time. It is a cool way to fish. I know what you mean about a lack of tackle LOL

Definitely need 2 good anchors.

 

I will be down there this weekend.

 

Good fishing!

 

Aaron

[TC1OZ]

Sweet looking carp! I'll have to try using worms, never done that before.

[Big Cliff]

Last year when we went, Steve had to use 4 anchors and that was still tough with the wind and current. I was sure glad we had a guide because he worked hard while we all fished. Sure looking forward to our trip on the 16 th.

[johnnyb]

I was fishing from shore yesterday...certainly not a lot of action for those of us lining the banks.....and I didn't see a lot happening out in most boats. But definitely a relaxing way to fish...totally hear you on the lack of tackle...I MAY go down one more time...Steve figures the next couple weeks are going to be the peak of cat-ivity

[SBCregal]

I was down there yesterday fishing from shore as well. We got there around 3 and left around 5:30 and only saw one fish caught off the shore while we were there. Definitely gonna head down there again int he next few weeks. If anyone sees a guy with black hat and long goatee, say hi.

 

ryan

[johnnyb]

Ha -- we were there around the same time, Ryan! Was the fish that you saw get caught the one that had the line wrapped around a log? I was the next group down from that guy...dodging the fellow with the carp setup casting from the top of the embankment

[SBCregal]

not sure if it the line was wrapped around the log or not. we saw it when he brought it to the group of guys right at the end of the point there to weigh it on their scale. my gf and i were the 2 people on the other side of that point, near the pond. only i was fishing though, we had planned to get her license at fishmasters but he was out.

 

ryan

[johnnyb]

Yeah, that was the fish...if I make it down there again I'll keep an eye out for ya

[vinnimon]

Hey pete, shortly you will receive a pm with a picture.I hope your not jealous.This will friggen boost us up there in another catagory and Im adding it to OFAH.ITs not a kitty but a tiger,LOL.

[Fisherpete]

Nice work Vince!!! Team one inches baby!!! And yup, I am jealous, but am heading out again this week to get a LION!!!!