Post by captainbrad on May 3, 2012 11:05:18 GMT -5
Catfishing has improved over the past week as some warmer temperatures are maintaining water temps in the mid 50s. Fish are being caught near the faster current close to structure like snags, rock piles or some sort of small hole. They seem to be running depths of 12-15 feet of water fairly tight to the structure so be prepared to lose some tackle. Sucker is again the bait of choice but goldeye and sheephead has been working as well. You will still have to endure a lot of pecking and bait stealing in between solid bites but the fish are there and the big hits are getting more prevalent. Big fish seem to have not turned on yet as many of the fish being caught are in the 20-26 inch range with only the occasional fish over 30 inches being caught.
Trip Note from May 2:
Last night I ran the first guide trip of the season. I had a return customer who brought his 7 and 8 year old sons with for their first catfish trip. We started out with a 25 inch fish then nothing for the better part of an hour. A couple moves later we got into a big tree pile and banged off a quad. (only the 5th time I have had a quad) We then could not get into the spot I wanted because of shore anglers so we made a run trying a few spots landing a couple fish. With an hour left we went back to where I wanted to go and finally got the anchor down. Within 2 minutes we had a triple and ended up landing 10 in the last hour of our trip. As we were packing up we had a crushing hit that not only ended up stealing the bait but broke the snell. I wish we could have seen that one.
Trip Note from May 2:
Last night I ran the first guide trip of the season. I had a return customer who brought his 7 and 8 year old sons with for their first catfish trip. We started out with a 25 inch fish then nothing for the better part of an hour. A couple moves later we got into a big tree pile and banged off a quad. (only the 5th time I have had a quad) We then could not get into the spot I wanted because of shore anglers so we made a run trying a few spots landing a couple fish. With an hour left we went back to where I wanted to go and finally got the anchor down. Within 2 minutes we had a triple and ended up landing 10 in the last hour of our trip. As we were packing up we had a crushing hit that not only ended up stealing the bait but broke the snell. I wish we could have seen that one.