Went on a walleye trip and a cat fight broke out.

I had the opportunity to tag along with Jeff and his Uncle Billy on a walleye trip to the Saginaw River today. We launched at Rust Ave about 8 am and motored downstream a couple of miles to fish an area we usually catch fish at. I dropped my jig and plastic and Bam! fish on. Not a keeper but a good start. Or so I thought. That would be my only walleye of the day. Jeff managed to land 3 or 4 throw backs as well but after a couple of hours moving spot to spot with nothing to show for it, we decided to move to the down stream of a bridge piling to try and catch some monster flat heads.

First drift Billy hooked up on a big (>< 36") flathead , second drift Jeff nailed a big channel cat and a few drifts later I scored on a channel cat as well. We worked our way back up stream, stopping in all the usual spots to make a drift or two but the walleye bite was ice cold today.

Our last stop was a 30' hole surrounded by 7' of water and , after catching a couple throw back walleye and a 16" keeper, started hammering the cat fish. We caught fish from 6" long to pushing master angler size (30"). All together we caught and released close to 50 fish out of that hole. We even had on and landed a triple of eater sized fish. We were catching both channel cats and flat heads. What a great time!

Here's a few pictures of our fish.Attachment 360242Attachment 360243Attachment 360244Attachment 360245Attachment 360246Attachment 360247

Lots of fun

Those cats can put up a good fight!


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I like the size in the bottom pic. I call them fiddlers. Good eating size. By the way I cleaned 8 bass today that my friend Murry and I caught. We fished tue and wed about 5 hrs each day in the tennessee river. Caught about 10 throwbacks each day. 2 smallies 16 and 17 inches and 6 kentucky spots.
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I could not tell you how many fishing trip I have gone on where I planned on fishing one species of fish and ended up doing something completely different.
I say I would rather catch something than nothing at all!!!
catfish are a blast to catch and I agree the smaller ones are good eating!
I remember one trip to Muskegon lake I was targeting walleye but they would not cooperate , I noticed schools of gar pike cruising just under the surface.
switched gears and tossed small crappie jogs at them and had a blast, did NOT bring any of them INTO the boat though....wayyyyy to many teeth!

I can't tell you how many times yesterday, while we were getting rained on and pushed around by the wind, that one of us would mention leaving and trying to find some walleye. About that time one of us would stick a hog and we'd make one more drift. I thought about keeping a flat head to eat, I don't remember eating it, but decided to let them live to fight another day.

I just want to catch fish, I don't care what kind they are.

I cleaned 2 flatheads earlier this year. I took the meat and cut into small strips, because I like to fry small piece's. I went over every piece and cut off any fat or red meat. I got nearly a gallon off those 2. I have not fried them yet, but I have eaten them before. They are great, just takes a while to clean and prep.

Another fight?
First the DR, then Morrison, now on Saginaw.....

I kept wondering how you fellas were doing while it was raining most of the day. Hopefully Billy had a bikini top so he and Jeff could get in out of the rain.

At least you were catching fish, that’s a good thing.


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Steve, you should take Aiden up there, good chance he could get another master angler patch. Our tape only went to 20" so we weren't able to measure the big ones but I feel certain that we each caught a fish that would have been close to MA size.

Only 4 trailers at the launch when we put in, 2 when we took out. Lots of elbow room.