Cattin' the Chain '10

[hoppe56307]

just curious if anybody is heading out friday or saturday. i would like to but dont have a wheeler or sled to get around on the lake. would be willing to provide bait and use my auger, and share cost of gas.

[DTro]

was out there this afternoon/evening. Bite was SLOW until the sun went down, and then it was game on!

Like always, the bite was very light, but I once you figure it out, it's a blast. We caught no less than 40, but I don't think we broke 50 (we were keeping track, but then lost track )

There was a few times when we didn't have 1 line in the water because the bite was so fast. I finally broke down and just pulled one line out altogether

We were fishing in anywhere from 27-32FOW and had 16" of ice.

[Borch]

I fished a bit shallower, (24) and had a good eye bite until the sun went down and then the cats took over. Definitely a light bite like Dtro mentioned. Ended up with about 40 myself with about 15 smaller eyes, a pike and a crappie tossed it. It was fast and furious up until I packed up around 9pm and still had 2-3 feet of cats on the hummingbird.

The Jason Mitchell meat stick came in handy tonight with the light bite.

Man it was cold!!!!!!

[riverrat56]

I too found the Meat Stick to be very handy last night out there, worked great for detecting the light taps. We couldn't get fish on any big jigs after sunset, I think one rod had on a 1/16 oz Forage Minnow and I had on a Diamond jig. We did lose a few fish due to the small hooks but had alot more bites that way.

[DTro]

oh, by the way. There were several vehicles parked out on the ice off the winter access, so parking has become much easier now.

[KG243]

Is it a long walk to good fishing?

[Borch]

I'm guessing that folks will be driving out very soon and given the weather for sure by next weekend. In fact I saw three 1/2 ton trucks drive past me at the landing as I was unloading my sled and gear. But as always be very careful.

KG243,

If your planning on heading out maybe we or someone else here could meet up for some catting.

[Brad B]

how thick is the ice on horse shoe now. it must be pretty thick if people are parking on it by the access. I drive a blazer and would like to get out by the meth hole but would it be drivable to that spot or does the ice still vary.

[Borch]

I'm not sure Brad. There was about 16-17 inches in that area last Saturday. I did not find any slush and the lake is rough from all the travel in the snow/slush and it freezing up.

[Rick G]

I have been finding pretty much the same ice depth and conditions as Borch all over the shoe except for between the island and shore in the far west bay over there I found 11in. as of last night.

[rattleL]

Ill be up thier Wednesday will probaby take the wheeler out just to be safe.

[silverbulletguy]

Borch-would love to meet up sat/sun if you're headin that way. I'm a cat rookie but love catchin fish. Just have a problem with eatin them so I let them all go. I tend to swell up a bit if I eat them.

[Borch]

It's possible I might head out there this weekend. Not sure at this point. If I do I wouldn't mind some company.

[Rick G]

I also will be out either Sat or Sun in the bay west of the meth hole.

[nater]

Could be a little get together out there this weekend. I was thinking about heading out there again one of the days. Need to fight something a little bigger.

[silverbulletguy]

Hope to get out that way this weekend. If you're out there and see me stop and say hi.

Dark Blue S-10

Frabill

Black coat and bibs

[hoppe56307]

Has anyone attempted to drive to the meth hole from the winter 22 access?

[rattleL]

I was on Long today if its anyhelp on the south end of the chain had 16-17 inches in most places.......o and yes the cats were biting well

[rattleL]

I was on Long today if its anyhelp on the south end of the chain had 16-17 inches in most places.......o and yes the cats were biting well

[catchnothing]

I will be there this weekend. Hopefully driving on the lake

[aanderud]

Ice should almost certainly be drivable by weekend. It was 16 inches last weekend, and we've been well below zero every night since. There really isn't much snow on there insulating the ice at this point, not enough to worry about, in my opinion. I hope to be up there Saturday, if all goes as planned. I might be inclined to try shallower, where Borch was. Wouldn't take as long to drop the jig back down to the fish, plus I wouldn't mind bringing home a few nice eater 'eyes to test out the new electric fillet knife santa got me.

[maddowg1192000]

you guys are really making me want to make the trip back down there to try for cats again. I have terrible luck with them in the winter. I have made around 6 trips down and caught a total of 1 cat. Hoping to make it down next week and try again, maybe this time with a little help or luck I will find them. good luck to all and hope to see some of u out on the ice

[catchnothing]

maddowg, hope u get on them next time cause they are a blast

[Halvey]

Hello,

I have two young grandkids in Hutchinson who love to fish with Grandpa, and it really helps to have as close to a "sure thing" as possible when we venture out. If anyone is willing to give up the details of Chain cats, such as where to go on the ice, bait and lures, it sounds like it would be a blast for two kids and an old man. You can email me with any helpful info.

Thanks much.

[email protected]

[Roman_K]

Ill be heading out to the chain for the first time on Saturday. Sounds like there will be a good amount of people out. Hope to finally meet some of my fellow catfisherman out there! Should be a good time!

[NELS-BELLS]

I also will be out either Sat or Sun in the bay west of the meth hole.

Have you been out there lately? Are they driving out yet? If so, how was the access off that road?

A friend of mine from Hutch has never caught a catfish before, so I thought I would take him out there. I was there last year with my son.

The problem is, the only way he will go is if he can take his big wheel house. I'm not sure that house will make it down and back up that access.

Nels

[Borch]

Nels there was 16-17" of ice last Saturday. The landing is like it always is, steep. No road out there and the ice is rough and rutted. Other than that it's all good.

[aanderud]

I'll be driving out with my dodge 4x4, trying to stay away from as many of the snowmobile and atv tracks as possible. It's definitely not the smoothest ice ever, what with the frozen slush and all, but I am not worried a bit about the overall thickness and strength of the ice after all the cold weather we've had the last couple weeks.

Halvey, if you check out the cool cats thread from the last couple years, under the FM gatherings forum, there's a map and everything on where to fish and where to get on the water. Dtro has marked up where the access is and where a community hole is that has plenty of fish in it.

As for baits, you can catch them on just about any type of jig. I highly suggest using DEAD minnows (or halves of minnows). If you use a live one, you will not be able to tell if you have a bite 90% of the time -- honestly, 90% of what we caught the last few times out on bobbers, and most of those did not take a bobber underwater, they just nudged it a little this way or that, like a live minnow would move it. If you use a live minnow you'll get a few of the aggressive ones that will actually take it under, but you'll have many bites go undetected or many fish just skip over it because they're too lazy to hit moving bait.

If you are jigging, get their attention with the jigging but then stop when they start looking at it. They really don't seem to want to hit anything that's moving too fast. Of course there are exceptions but I'm just telling what I observed on MOST of the fish.

Glow up your lure, whether it is yellow or red it will not matter, but they seem to like the glowing.

Use small lures if you are comfortable doing so, especially if you aren't getting fish on the larger jigs. The other day I think they did tend to hit the smaller lure Darren used a little harder than the bigger jigs I was using, but who knows, it wasn't really a statistically relevant sample size.

Do NOT use a split shot or any weight above your jig. If you do, you won't be able to detect the very light biters when they just suck on the bait and move it up a tiny bit. Again, you may get some fish but you'll miss many detects just because the split shot will reduce your sensitivity.

If the fish are biting really light and not taking the bobber under, don't be afraid to set the hook on first movement you see of the bobber, especially if the bobber lifts part of the way up. This is true whether you are using a meat stick and you see the tip of the rod move ever so slightly or if you use a bobber. Unless your kids are super-gurus at bite detection and can hold their jib uber-steady when the fish is staring at it, you should probably use a bobber on all of their lines.

We actually saw very few fish the last time we were out until the last 1/2 hour before dark. Then, the bite was on all the way through til 8:15 or so when we left (and Borch was catching them til 9ish I think, with fish still active at quitting time). Our experience so far has been that the daytime fish have been bigger, but much fewer and further between. I mean probably 10x fewer fish than that last 1/2 hour of daylight into the darkness. About 1/2 hour before sunset and into the night a few hours has been almost nonstop action -- at least nonstop fish on the marcum, with some willing to bite eventually. During the day you have long gaps of time when you won't see any fish, but it seems like the ones you do see might be a bit bigger.

[Rick G]

Nels that spot I was in last year is in good shape. As of last night there was almost 20in there. The ice is rutted up and travel will be slow going but can be done with a house in tow. The good news is the cat action has been fairly good so far this winter and overall size has been good too.

[Halvey]

Thanks for the fine info.

Halvey