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Cattin the Chain 2013


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Here's little better report from last night. We walked to a spot I fished a few weeks ago....My buddy last night was a cat thru the ice virgin, and wouldn't walk on the actual river regardless of what I told him there was for ice so to plan B we went. We were set up and fishing by about 3, and it was SLOW for the first hour with me catching 3, so I took the vexilar and went and rechecked some of the holes we drilled to try to get back "on the crab" I looked in one hole and yelled to Jim "Hey wanna know where the fish are?" his reply was "Yes, On your rod right now" He had his first fish through the ice while babysitting my line. He was on the board! The action picked up pretty good from there on, as far as marking fish but they weren't biting too good. After sunset it improved, and they were a biting more aggressive. The trick was to keep switching colors! Everytime you'd switch colors, you'd catch a couple fish, then you'd have to change again. Overall wasn't great, but it was "good". I did catch one real nice fish that I wish I would have measured, it was probably 4 inches longer than any fish I've seen caught this year. It was god times s always!

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  • Rick G

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Action was pretty slow this evening for cats, I got 3 and my buddie got a couple. Just wasn't a great day for them, good thing other species were still biting wink

If you plan of hitting Horseshoe be advised, the area beyond the meth hole is pretty bad as far as snow is concerned. I wouldn't try to get to any of the back spots with out 4wd.

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Knee is healing fast and I am thinking I may get one more chance to go after a few cats this year yet. I will be up there next weekend(might try it?) or the week after.. Cant walk yet but with the heavy snow footing should be good. I think I can ride the honda wheeler.

Hows that for dedication to fishing.

Don

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Now you say it. Did you like watching me back outta there?

We were your silent cheering section while you were backing all the way to the meth hole. I realy didn't want to break the shovel out again wink

I some fool told him he could make it all the way back with 2wd grin I told him he should punch me that guy in the mouth for telling him this grin

Don, thats is true dedication, don't over do it wink we don't want you having any set backs.

Made it out today, cat's weren't real high on the priority list. Tried for crappies and walleyes, did pretty darn good on the crappies, got a few walleyes too. Had to move around a bit to stay on top of the active biters, but it was well worth it.

We only got 4 cats between the two of us, but they were nice wink got two 24's , a 26 and I ended the night with my big one for the year so far, a 28in pig on my tip up grin. I saw my tip up light go off, by the time I got the 100ft to my flag the fish had spooled me, I have around 200ft of 6lb mono on my rigs. The only thing that stoped it from taking everything was my knot wink It was easily my second best fight of the winter, and was the biggest cat I have ever gotten on a tip-up with a live minnow.

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I didn't want to shovel any more either. That's why I waited to turn around where I did.

That had to be a fun one to get on a tip up. How long did it take to tug it in? Did you get any pics?

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If you plan on hitting Horseshoe be advised, the area beyond the meth hole is pretty bad as far as snow is concerned. I wouldn't try to get to any of the back spots with out 4wd.

that is a under statement. I had slow going even with the 4X4 on when I was there on Thursday. There was a few spots were I had to drive forward and backup to pack the snow down. after that it wasn't to bad. it was nice to have that short plowed road out there in that one area but even that was blowing in.

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Walleye fishing on the chain this weekend was rather good. Found numbers of fish holding on the edges to shallow flats,(southeast of meth hole). Caught a few bigger cats that seem to be cruising the same break. Not a strong catfish bite as far as numbers go; but I'd take quality fish,(mid to upper 20's) over numbers of smaller ones anytime. Great weather to boot.

As far as travel goes, good rubber and 4x4 only, that is definitely an understatement.

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Want to thank Rick and his buddy for everything they did for me on Sunday afternoon. They helped me find some fish wink and they helped me understand things to look for as far as contour to help me catch more fish in the future. Ended the day myself catching a couple crappies to take home. I did end up catching the biggest catfish of my life at about 6:00. In 20 fow I noticed a big line on my finder at about 10'. Jigged my buskshot spoon in front of its face and he took it. Not what I was hoping it was after I set the hook, but man what a fight. Thanks Rick for helping me land the beast and for giving me some tips throughout the day!!

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Cable Guy, it was fun fishing with you. Always good to meet up with other members from here wink.Hope to se you out there again sometime.

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Not too many Cat specific reports lately..... Everyone thrown in the towel on the Cats? I'm hoping to be after them again this weekend!

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I may try one more time to ice some cats in 2 weeks if my knee allows. After that its open water cat fishing which I can catch an unlimited supply of cats off my dock. They fight harder(broke 4 lines last year) and longer. Largest one off the dock last year 5 pounds.

Don

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I will be giving it one more go in the river section next wek sometime. Them I'm pretty much done for the year as far as the cats go.

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We hit the ice yesterday for Cats, and were surprised by a couple things......It was a spot I've fished a few times this year with pretty consistent success wich didn't change, but what did was the number of fish that were usually in this spot were not there! ANYWHERE! We drilled the are into swiss cheese, and the fish are gone! We started out around 2:30 and I had a fish on right away, and had high hopes after we put 7 on the ice in the first hour, then it got TOUGH! I started drilling and never really found the school. A few buddies showed up and they too drilled a bunch of holes with little luck on finding a school. Fast fwd to about 5pm....All 3 houses were NOT on fish! more holes were drilled and to our surprise we found an area of ice only 6 inches thick!and NO CATS!!! We stayed put and the few fish that would come through were pretty lazy, and preferred chicken livers (I hate them nasty things) We ended up with around 30 (according to my buddies count) The other things that was a bit of s surprise was the quality of the fish, we had several "big" fish. I had one that was much bigger than any cat I've caught up there....I actually thought I had a big Pike on, this thing took some serious runs after bring hooked, I'm lucky I had him on my St. Croix vs. my lighter wt. rod..... I am pretty sure I'm done "Cattin' the Chain" for the year, and it was a year that will be very hard to top, but I'll be sure to try next year!

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6 inches of ice? Were you fishing a current area? Where was the thin ice?

My guess would be in the river somewhere wink

Great report wooduck, this is the time of year the schools of cats start to break up. Now instead of finding them over the deep spots they will be found at all depths scattered around the system. It does make it a bit tougher to target them in any numbers.

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6 inches of ice? Were you fishing a current area? Where was the thin ice?

Nowhere that a vehicle would ever travel....unless they needed their head examined!

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Pretty common to find that kind of ice in the areas we fish up there. You can run into these spots not only in the river sections but portions of the lake where the river channel is. Snowmobile or ATV is your best friend smile

Also not surprised to hear the fish are dispersing, that happens every year about his time and its one reason the Cool Cats GTG dates where changed up a bit the past couple of years.

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Wow, 500 replies to this little thread. Who would have ever thought this topic would have grown into what it is. 500 posts and 50,000+ views in one winter grinpretty cool.

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Well, just for giggles I might make one more trip up Saturday. I'm sure I won't get into hundreds of fish, but then again even a couple dozen is better than nothing. My son is itching to go after we struck out on a couple closer lakes last weekend (and took this weekend off due to the new baby). I'll play it by ear depending on what the wife thinks about us being that far out of town with an 11-day-old at home.

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(and took this weekend off due to the new baby). I'll play it by ear depending on what the wife thinks about us being that far out of town with an 11-day-old at home. [/quote

Congrats on the new addition to the family grin

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Congrats!! Hope all are doing well. You can always use the excuse that the baby is getting all of the attention and you want to spend some quality time with your son wink

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Thanks guys! That's sort of what I planned to do actually, say it's "for Adam's sake". He skipped fishing all this last weekend because the baby was so new. At one point he said "Dad, it's been SOOO loooong since we've been fishing", with Mom within earshot. I said "well, Son -- you're right, it has been 6 whole days". smile But in all seriousness, I will be out somewhere with Adam Saturday. Not sure if I'm going to drive up there and hit up one last day or if I'm going to just hang locally somewhere.

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aanderud-pm me your email-or clear you msgs. Could possibly have a tip on a lake a little closer to you.

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We were out near the meth hole this morning and got a few cats and a wally. The cripple has made it out one last weekend. Going out on snowmobiles tonight for some more cat fishing.

Don

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The cripple has made it out one last weekend.

Don

Good to hear you got back out. The knee must be healing up?

Going to make my last outing for the cats tomorrow.

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