Catfish Holding Deep after the Rain...

I heard Cathy on the phone a couple of times before we headed to the lake, "yes, headed to the lake, fish fry tonight." This is before the boat was even hooked up. The only way you can guarantee worse luck on a fishing trip is to pump the live well full of water before you make the first cast. Fortunately Cathy brought her game as things cooled off for me and Matt had a good day as grandkids Coraline and Warren took winter break from school to join us.  

Me and Matt had a slow start on the last trip out and were under the gun for a promised fish fry. We finally found the fish shallow that day and caught mostly fat blue cat. This trip we started in the shallows but in the past week there as been low temps of 13 degrees and after that 7" to 10" of rain fell around the area. Shallow water was up and runoff had stained it and we caught nothing in am area that had been holding cats 5' deep. We moved out deep and when a couple of reliable spots fail to produce we again found fat blue cat holding right on the rive channel 32' deep.    

As our guest sometimes find out a catfish bite can be light and takes some finesse to recognize and without practice the kids had trouble hooking a fish. I only did marginally better. They did serve as net and reel up helpers for old grandma.  

Ok, you get to eat. 

Blue cats definitely on the prowl. We had at least 10 fat ones, maybe not as big as the last trip but they were enough to feed all these fishermen, the Zamora clan, and take a bag of fillets to my mother in law Geneva today. 

Boat lunch was summer sausage, sardines, smoked oysters, cheese and homemade cookies. 

Pretty much all that was required of me was to drive the boat to the lake and back the trailer up. Yeah I did fry fish but I think there's enough room for everyone to do the part they like.  

 That's 22 fish and about 10 fat blue cats. A quick internet check has HEB selling farm raised catfish $4.41 for a half pound fillet or $8.81 a pound. I did not weight the fillets which most were big enough that I cut into long finger strips for cooking. I did fry one small whole cat and a few crispy backs for grandma and Coraline to knaw. I say $46 to $65 worth of fresh fish here. We are on track for a 400-500 catfish year.