Channel cats

[Turk]

Hey all,

Anyone tangle with any channels cats yet?
Either targeted or accidental?
Steve O how's your smallies hitting for you?

Keep catchin'
Turk

[Note: This message has been edited by Rick]

[Steve-O]

Smallies are still close to the rocks/shoreline. best one is 17" and a lot of smaller ones....
caught a couple of nice eyes in the same area as the smallies. jig and leeches, plastics etc., etc..
you been down by the Kinni yet?
I fished it once and almost got blown off the river.

[Guest]

ive been fishing the missy off the shore of Nicolet Island in Minneapolis...and ive been throwing out line every morning and early afternoon before i go to work, for the past week and a half, and have been targeting and raising an average of 3-4 channel cats per day...ive tried a few different baits and what they like most is "Catfish Charlies" blood dip with treble dip-worm, and sometimes i throw a little blood dough on the treble following with a dip in the stink....ive tried chicken livers bagged in panty hose (so you can redip in the blood and not lose all your bait)...also tried sucker minnows cut up, but they thrive on the DIP and THE DOUGH....

what do you think about eating them from the metro area....(younger ones only? not at all?)....hope this helps

[This message has been edited by skitch358 (edited 06-30-2002).]

[Guest]

Turk,

Last week I "accidentally" caught a 23-inch channel cat ? shortly after you trolled by with a client. I was dragging a crawler on a spinner rig over the hump by the YMCA camp south of Hudson (22 feet deep).

Where/when/how do you recommend catching big cats?

Paulie

[Guest]

BIG BAITS!!!

Some of my biggest cats, flathead and channel cats have been on big minnows. Worms work for everything, but in the St.Croix big chubs or Suckers. Last year I caught a pound and a half white sucker on a worm. I put a couple of cuts in it(not mortal wounds, just enough to let the oil and blood ooze a bit) and catapulted it out there at sundown.
45 min. later I was fighting and landing the biggest fish of my career on the water. 65lb flathead. 53 in. long.
Just an example of how indiginous baits are just flat out better!

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[Turk]

Sucka makes a great point native suckers are a great bait, the beast of a flathead proves his point. Nice fish by the way, that fish (flathead) is so big he's Mr. Sucka to us!!! The classic places on the Croix for flatheads and places I fish are deep holes or deep areas near narrows (both near current) at night for flatheads. I like the end or begining of deep runs as well, places where I believe fish will hold. Another criteria is sunken wood or snags. However I have a spot I like that I believe is snag free, at least little wood, but holds cats; either it holds cats or they come cruising through at a given point in time. The trick from what I've seen is to stay out till dawn or at least 4:00 am.

Keep catchin'
Turk
www.croixsippi.com

[This message has been edited by Turk (edited 07-09-2002).]

[Guest]

The beginning of a run tangled with waterlogged wood or caught on rocks is great! Some of my best have come from the later hours of course, however, I beleive that some of the bigger fish seem to finish up before it gets extreamly late and go lay back down for the night. There is always an exception to the rule, but for the mosy part dusk until about 1:30am is about when I'm ready to reel in.
Have you done well in the twilight hours? Say 2-4:30am or so.. I have caught a few, but now the consistency of that 4 hour bracket. Maybe it's because a person gets tired. Funny, I never seem to get tired when big walleyes are biting until morning, heh.... but that's another deal...

Maybe I'll take you up on one of your guides some time Turk and we can trade spots. Just as long as you don't take your clients to one or two special ones, heh....

See ya out there. PS: I see Grizwinski fishing a lot of the same areas I do north of Hudson. How has he been doing? I don't know him personally, but it's hard to mistake his face.

See ya!

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[Turk]

Mr. Sucka,

Good comments, I feel the 1:30 to 3:30 am window is really prime time, but like you say the tired factor does come into play. Then some nights you wait it out and nothing just the darkness leaving and there is the bright world again...

I really don't know the Griz, and I wish I'd see him more often on the Croix, but I do know he can fish and catch fish, lots of fish, on all different bodies of water. He is a Minnesota fishing Legend, and from stories a colorfull character to say the least.

If you ever see me say hello, what boat do you float in?

Keep Catchin'
Turk
www.croixsippi.com

[Guest]

It's more of a pleasure boat than a fisher, but I do just fine in it. It's a 17' Glastron Tri-Hull walkthrough windshield with a 115 merc on 'er. It has brown on the back.
I saw a boat kinda like it out there once, but they definately weren't fisher people.
When I go farther north on the river where things start to get shallower, I take out the lil' rat. It's a 1963 15' Seaman aluminum w/ a little 3hs evinrude and a troller on the back. My stealth machine.

Most of the time spent in the bigger boat though, since I just finished restoring the inside and had the motor rebuilt. She's a fasty!

Maybe we'll troll by eachother at the narrows some day.

See ya!

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