Coosa River Cats in Elmore County Alabama

[Slab]

I had a wonderful opportunity a couple months back to fish with a two tournament catfishing professionals. Fishing is fishing, and all fishermen are pretty much the same. We all love that tug on our line, with the mystery of not knowing what exactly we have at the other end. If you want to talk about a couple real down to earth fishermen, Michael Haney, and Rodney Crimm fit that bill well. These two guys were a ton of fun, and catching some catfish was the icing on the cake. More on cake later in this story! lol



Rodney and Michael had not fished the Coosa river in many years, and they knew they were going to have tough time locating fish. They are more comfortable fishing waters like the Mississippi river where they would “bump” or drift the flats slowly bouncing their baits along the bottom. Here on the Coosa River, the waters were very deep and very swift. Here they felt they had to fish ledges, drop-offs, and structure that held fish. Once they found an attractive area, they utilized a two anchors. They dropped one anchor down, let out a bunch of line (maybe 150 ft. or more), and then dropped a second anchor to keep them over their target location.




They stuck cut bait on their hooks and threw them in all directions. Michael liked using the heads because the smaller catfish would be less inclined to steal your bait, while catching the larger ones. We had rods out everywhere, seemed kinda like we were spider rigging, but for catfish! Lol



As they say, these guys were "loaded for bear". They had so much gear, something for every occasion. Rods, Rodsox, rod holders, anchors, pre-tied rigs, iced bait, locators....and all sorts more. I thought Crappie fishermen carried a lot of stuff, these guys have us beat!





They did not do bad for the day, a couple nice Flatheads and Blues. They've caught way bigger, but it was not a bad day on a relatively new lake to them.





Great video of some details about their rig. see www.flatheadfevertackle.com for some of the gear (like that Draggin Chub) mentioned in the video. And they are obviously BnM Pro-Staffers that use BnM rods. We love our BnM rods and Reels don't we.


And one thing I forgot to mention. Catfishermen like to snack (you shoulda seen what they had stashed under their consoles, all sorts of stuff that rhymes with honeybuns and little debbies....doh). Afterwards we enjoyed cake. Ashlyn's Cake Cottage in Millbrook Alabama made the best tree stump Red Velvet cake ever, it was awesome, just had to say. Thanks for coming along on our fishing trip. Now you can get back to crappie fishing.

[STUMP HUNTER]

It is hard to top the pull from a cat. Great pictures from your trip!

[Ketchn]

I bet that was big fun , I used to target catfish when I was a younger fella and they really do pull well

["G"]

All fishing is fun

[SuperDave336]

Yup I bet that was fun. Never have been a big fan of cat fishing though. But if one gets on my line I do enjoy the fight. Beautiful cake!

[Slabprowler]

Fun times for sure! I’d like to had a piece go that stump ! That looks like a good ern! Thanks for sharing

["D"]

I have gone a few times and targeted catfish in the Tennessee river here in Savannah. Problem I have is catching smaller ones. I don't like to keep the bigger ones , so I have to put a lot back. 2 to 3 lbs is big as I like to keep to eat. Our little town of Savannah Tn. bills it self as the catfish capital of the world. Even has a stainless steel catfish statue in front of the city municipal building and an annual catfish derby. Winning weight this year for 5 fish was a little over 131 lbs.

[DockShootinJack]

That sure is an awesome looking tree stump cake

[river scum]

sounds like you had fun. man that lil flathead would eat good! slurp "river cod" and "river chicken breast"(the belly meat). cheeks aint bad either and good size.