Cattin' the Chain '10

[DTro]

Here's that video I mentioned:

[Borch]

Looks like you might have been sitting on top of a few cats.

They didn't appear to be very interested in your offereings though.

[aanderud]

It was the craziest cat stack I've ever seen. We were in >40 f.o.w. with cats stacked from 22 feet down all the way to about 36 feet down. There was an occasional fish at maybe 14 feet down even, but the main stack was lower.

I can't believe how little they cared about our minnow heads. I was kicking myself for leaving the liver at home, I think we would have caught a few more with it.

Also, what Borch said about the hot half-hour was what we experienced -- something like 7 of our cats came within a single half-hour span between 615 and 645. Plus a few that came unbuttoned halfway up, and a bunch of misses. I got a few while Darren was using a jiggin spoon, then Darren decided to really concentrate on a venom bobber instead and nailed 3-4 quick ones to catch right up. At that time, I thought we could easily hit 20 fish each...but they stopped biting just as fast as they started.

Good luck when you're out there, and keep the reports coming in. Find a hole or a steep dropoff, and you'll find cats. Getting them to bite -- now there's the trick!

[Notcho]

Went to the chain Saturday and Sunday morning fished from around 9-12pm, fishing was pretty good. It was the first time out there this winter for me and I was in about 20fow.

They seemed to like a large glow yellow and white frostee spoon with a big fathead hooked in the dorsal fin jigged about 2 feet of the bottom. Also caught a couple deadsticking with a small crappie minnow with a tiny glow jig. The biggest was about 7lbs...pretty fun on 3lb. line!

Saturday caught 8 lost 4 and sunday caught 6 and lost 3. I noticed that they were very spooky, drilling holes would make them scatter until it got quiet. I think the key now is to find out where everyone is fishing and go in the complete opposite direction away for the noise.

"pics or it didn't happen..."

[Borch]

Here's one of the nice cats from last night. Not huge but an average chain cat. For some reason I was glowing in the photo so it's not the great pic. Like I mentioned the glow red lindy rattlin flyer was the best bait. This one has a 1/16 oz version stuck in it's mouth.

[aanderud]

Nice, a 7 pounder is a great catch through the ice! Have you been fishing upstream a ways? I seem to get bigger fish the further upstream I go on the chain. Large quantities downstream, but fewer big ones it seems.

[Notcho]

Not upstream but in the current away form the commotion....

[wcso811]

hey trapman was wondering if you would give up what lake you were on. dont need a location just lake. me and 2 of my buddies were on long last friday and caught or limit of cats but no other fish species. would like to get some craps for the wife and kids. if not i understand, just will have to stick to the cats then. thanks.

[aanderud]

hey trapman was wondering if you would give up what lake you were on. dont need a location just lake. me and 2 of my buddies were on long last friday and caught or limit of cats but no other fish species.

wsco, any specific depths working for you? How about baits, techniques, time of day, etc? I would like to get into some bigger fish than what we ran into on Sunday. Thanks!

[IceHawk]

Nice video Dtro I know the location you were in they stack up there!! They sure can be frusterateing at times it seems like they like to play cat and mouse no pun intended! I have had the camera down in that area also and I call it danceing cats on ice. It's truely amazeing and something to witness. There usally are so many that they bang into each other. Don't get frusterated they do go in that area at times and certain times of the yr. I have had 75 plus fish days there. I'll tag along next time if you don't mind a extra stick I have a few other spots that are close that have good pods that may be interested. By the way Dtro I sent you a email back. I had a few questions and anwsers for you.

[rattleL]

fun what you see when you explore, dropped my camara on some of my far away spots a few weeks back and they were stacked like wood weve had days like you say where you catch 70 plus cats in a day but that 5 inch ice sometimes gets a guy thinking what it might be like around the next bend.

[FishinVeteran]

Awesome video once again dtro! I'm amazed that you guys were sitting in such deep water, on a river system and were still able to see anything! Must be awful clear water, I wonder if that has something to do with how finicky the fish are?

Aanderud; what is a venom bobber? I don't know if I've ever heard of that before but it sounds like something I may need to pick up on my way to the lake.

Borch; Nice pic! Thou must be holier than I, I've got the walking on water trick down pat, but the glowing ora thing is fancy!

[aanderud]

Venom bobbers are the newer, more expensive, more adjustable version of an ice buster. I still use the oldschool ice buster but Darren changed over to the newest gadget. I got a couple at the Shack is Back benefit last week, just haven't broken them out yet.

[Shack]

B.A. that is cool you scored the chip and some Venom's.

Click Here for more on Venom floats!

Cedar Island has some stacked holes also. Nice video Dtro!

[Brad B]

dtro is it my computer or is there a problem with this site. I can't see your video and other videos on here.

[harvey lee]

I just tried the video and it plays fine.

[Brad B]

then it must be my computer because all I get in his post is this little symbol up in the upper left hand corner of where the video would be. In the past I have been able to click and view the videos but not recently. do you or anyone on here have any suggestions as to what to do to fix this.

[Borch]

Try downloading flash player or enabling Java. Unless your in a server environment with a firewall. Then the firewall setting could be blocking access.

I never see videos when I check from work.

[fishuhalik]

Same here borch. I only have internet access at work, so I never get to see any of the videos posted on here. Oh well, at least it's free!

[Guest Kyle]

anyone have any experience smoking these fish? I am planning on smoking 6 of them this weekend. I cut the heads and tails off, and gutted them like a trout. Looking for some advice...are they any good smoked?

[Borch]

I've heard that they are. I have not tried one though.

[Rick G]

Is any fish bad smoked? I tryed it for the first time this winter and it tastes like smoked sunfish or walleye imo. Well the snow we had filled in some of the ruts on the main road over to the meth hole and beyond. The bad news is the bite is as slow as ever. I got a few fish through out the day and did get a short hot bite that lasted for around a half hour right after the sun hit the tree tops. I think I ended up getting around a dozen with almost half being on the small side. I was using a little different rig on the rod that got all but one fish. What I got the fish to bite on was a 1/16 long shank jig head glow in color with a whole fathead that i smashed under boot so it was good and messy. The other rod I was using ole tryed and true 1/16 frostee spoon with a head of a fathead and like I said this set up got me only one cat but did get a few walleyes and crappies.

[FishinVeteran]

Riverfishingmiss, did you catch walleyes and crappies in the meth hole? Do people usually catch them in there? I thought I read a couple posts back that you had to search elsewhere for them. It'd be great if we could pick up a couple of those while we waited for the "hot half."

[Borch]

Walleyes and crappies can be caught in the meth hole area. There is more than just a hole there and if you get outside the main hole there are plenty of eyes a crappies to be found.

[Brad B]

Try downloading flash player or enabling Java. Unless your in a server environment with a firewall. Then the firewall setting could be blocking access.

I never see videos when I check from work.

thanks for the info. I ended up having to download flasher player. now the videos work.

[Rick G]

Yes the meth hole area does have crappies and a few walleyes and can be good at times but dont limit yourself to just that one area. lots and lots of good spots to try out there.

[fishuhalik]

Have any of you guys tried the fast attach rigs for a jigging spoon? I saw a post in the St. Croix forum about them, I think it would work absolutely awesome for those light-biting cats!

Here's the link to the post. They're on the bottom of the page.

http://www.hotspotoutdoors.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/2179226/1

[aanderud]

fishahulik, that looks like a sweet rig. I might try some of those.

[Rick G]

What a weekend it was out there for my group. Sat we got to the lake and were set up on our first location by 10am and had nothing but a couple small runts by noon so we packed up and headed for one of the off the beaten path spots and this is where we ended up spending the next two days. By 2PM it didnt matter what we put down it was getting smacked within minutes of getting the spoon to where we were marking them. The fish were going so good they were taking the icebusters all the way down and sometimes clear out of the hole and sometimes hit so hard the float would make a ploop noise while going down. All together I think we got somewhere around 100 fish for the six of us. Im just taking a guess at the number asa we didnt keep a count on them this time. I spoke with a few guys as I was heading off the lake and I hear it wasnt just our group that got on them as everyone I spoke with was doing pretty good. Today we got set up at the same spot by 7am and the bite was still good up untill around 10 when things got kinda slow. There were still tons of fish below us they just didnt want to feed any longer. We did get a few short runs of activity through out the day but just wasnt like sat. Best depths were 22-30fow best bait was 1/16 lindy flyer or the 1/16 frostee in either pink or red.

[DTro]

Great to hear rfm!

Thanks for the report, guess I better get my butt back up there again.