Catfish, Hot Sauce, Global Trade, What Else Do You Want to Know?...

For the first time this summer, since the catfish left their spring time shallow water patterns and found cool shelter and shad to feed on in deeper water our new fish spot Los Brazos did not pay off. Maybe it's because the water is dropping a bit. We headed over to our old favorite hole which was is a stick up that had been submerged earlier this year by high water. We call this spot the Dog Walker because when we first fished it there was what looked to be a dog leash tied to it. The leash is long gone, but the fish were there. 

The dog walker water is 30' deep. We have spent the summer catching the cats suspended, more or less pitching to them around the flooded timber. At this spot the thermocline seemed to be located in a channel drop off into 42' and the cats were close to the bottom on the edge. We had some nice fish and a good many throw backs but maybe not as many small ones as last trip where we fished Los Brazos.  

Again we used our favorite bait JPIGGS. All punch baits work but I have good confidence is this one. 

Matt, who came up from Houston to fish shows a bent rod. 

Final count for the trip was 34 cats. They were cooked up. We ate them with Miguel, and the grandkids Ezra and Luca. For those that don't know, Ezra only eats wild caught catfish. It seems that most restaurants, unless they specify, serve imported fish which if they don't call it catfish does not have to be subjected to the same meat inspections that farm raised USA catfish does. These laws hurt the American catfish farmer and I have always doubted the wisdom of shipping a product like this thousands of miles to a consumer. Can't be a good practice so you should probably do what Ezra does and eat local.  

We did not cook all the catfish but I took several pounds of fillets over to a friend in trade for his fresh tomatoes and two bottles of Whisker Bomb Hot Sauce. This is a hot sauce that seems to be associated with the guys in that little ol band from Texas, Z.Z. Top. I have been eating the habanero and instead of the usual central American style with the heat tempered by flavors of carrot and lime this is straight on Texas heat in a good way. The other bottle is Louisiana style and I have not tried it yet.

Get out, go to the lake, eat wild caught meat, fiery hot sauce and listen to your grandkids.