Eat a big one to catch the bigger one another day.

[ChrisCarter]

I've been able to go catfishing over the past week at Halleck Pond. Monday and this morning was no exception despite the heat after the sun started coming up. Monday morning, i caught 8 catfish on a J-hook and hot dog, weren't really decent sizes, probably 11 - 13", not as big as the ones i caught the week prior and took home to filet and fry. They all went back into the water, but as the day wore on, i kept thinking about the big one lurking out there and maybe i should've kept the 8 decent ones.

Nevertheless, i shot out today to get rid of the last 4 hot dogs i had. The bite was slower today, i didn't need to slowly drag the bait along the bottom, just let it sink and every 2 or 3 min, slowly move it. Caught 9 catfish today, but i changed positions two times as sunfish and bluegill were eating the bait up again. The first one was one of those decent size ones that i caught Monday morning, but i told myself, not this time, i'm keeping you. Shortly after that, i nailed a 4lber, biggest one i've caught out of there. I was tempted to put the decent one back, but i said no. The rest for the next hour or two were smaller and as i said smaller fish were eating up the bait too quickly. I noticed the catfish were kind of cold, not warm like last week, so they must have been in deeper water just rarely coming into the shallower water to feed. So i moved a little deeper and away from the small panfish, a few small catfish that went back into the water, before i hit the big one. This bad boy had to be close to 30" with a good 10 to 13lbs on him. Joggers saw my rod and the splashing and stopped to look as i slowly worked him in. Now i knew better than to use the rod to lift him out of the water, so after he stopped fighting, i had two choices, either lay down flat on the pavement and pick him up with my hands or pull the line up so i could grab him. Since it was a 20lb mono line i felt confident that it would hold. I was wrong, SNAP! The line broke and he went back into the water. I was mad about two things, 1. I was stupid enough not to get down and use my hands to pull him up and 2. That was my last good hook. So i ended up rigging a little bit smaller of a hook and catching a few more small ones, but nothing worth taking home and i never saw that big boy again.

I went over to my gma's house and fileted both catfish and fried them for some lunch. Boy they tasted good. But i still think about that big boy that got away. Now i have to decided whether to get treble hooks or circle hooks for catfishing instead of the j-hooks to increase my hooksets.

[Eager Beaver]

Sorry to hear you lost the big one but at least you got out and enjoyed the morning air. I am waiting for the temps to get back into resonable temps and then will venture out to Beaver to see what is happening down there. A friend stopped into coffee this morning and said he had been out to Wehrspan and only caught one Crappie off of a jig and no one was catching anything on minnows. EB

[crappiedoc]

Keep at it, all good things come in time. Open seat for you any time your down my way.

[NIMROD]

Now i have to decided whether to get treble hooks or circle hooks for catfishing instead of the j-hooks to increase my hooksets.

Trebles can be a pain. I'd go for the circle hooks in about #1 or #2 hook. Most folks use too big of hook for light line. Just remember with circle hooks, just reel no hook set! Up your odds by baiting if legal there. I would consider carry'n a landing net too! We use Turkey liver or Chicken liver here when there are no Catalpa Worms..

[ChrisCarter]

I'll give the circle hooks a try. I have some circle hooks for crappie fishing when i am using minnows, but they are long enough to put the type of catfish bait i use on them. I normally don't get hooks based on what size of the fish i want, but rather what type of bait i am using. Never tried liver, but i guess i need some kind of screen (like a pantyhose) to wrap the pieces of liver in to make sure the bait doesn't come off the hook. I would imagine the liver would keep the smaller panfish away from it.

[no1son]

I'm not all that much of a catfisherman, but I definitely second circle hooks. My problem with trebles is that they catch on anything around them, but don't seem to be any better at hooking fish, and when you do get a hookup, you frequently end up having trouble unhooking the fish without damaging it, if you intend to release it.

[jordy1380]

You can use circle hooks, khale hooks, or double action circle hooks that you can set like a J hook. The double action hooks are pretty big so I'd buy a smaller size than the normal size. Maybe in the 2/0-4/0 range. You can easily pack them with bait. If you ever get to a lake again where you think some bigger cats are use blue gill cut for bait. Use the head hooked through the eye with a circle hook or use the mid section hooked through the belly area with a circle hook. Circle hooks for catfish has made catching them super easy!

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