The older you will get...: Shallow Water Catfish and a Baked Stuffed Catfish Recipe...

To continue our recovery from covid it seemed like a fishing trip would be definitely the ticket. A little deep breathing exercise, some sun and a chance for a good heathy fresh caught supper seemed like just the ticket.

There were signs of spring on big Lake Sam Rayburn. The boat ramp parking lot pretty full but still easy parking, the lake is up though rumors persist that the level will be dripped for construction work on the damn riprap, water temps in the shallows hitting that magic 65 degrees where everything where all fish in the lake get hungry and the sights of folks moving around and planting fish attractor spots.

We hit the area called the Canyon for the first time since the water came up. It's a place of islands and shallow flats with an old submerged railroad tram crossing what was a hilltop before the lake came in and deep water near by. We caught mostly channel cats in about 4 feet if water as opposed to the mostly blue cats we had been catching across the lake at the spot known as the deer stand but I did take big fish with this blue. I experimenting with the saltwater popping corks, giving a little pop now and then to attract fish. He never took the big cork under instead just swimming off with it due south down the lake before I turned him back.

Cathy swings one in. Usually I set up with the wind and it makes the corks lay out for better placement on the spot but I marked a deeper spot with a floating buoy, let the crosswind drift the baits till the reached a shallower spot and that's where the fish held, right at that change, less than a foot.

News Flash! Dead bait on the bottom fisherman catches bass on lure. Since were were recovering from COVID I told Cathy I did not want to clean 30 or 40 fish but just a few cats for supper and maybe try to locate some white bass. No white bass but she caught one and I caught 3 of these.

They were light colored from the muddy water but in the photos they look like Kentucky Spotted Bass. WE tossed them back but these are legal fish. If camping would have been a nice blackened fillet on the grill.

We ended up with 10 catfish. We caught them between 1 and 3pm, a midday bite. As you may know Cathy is not an early riser. I don't think it has occurred to her that if she fished early she could be home for a nap later.

I took the big blue and the largest channel cat, four fillets to make a cream cheese bread crumb stuffed supper.

Soften cream cheese and chop fresh spinach. Fry bacon and reserve stir fry celery, onion, peppers in the grease. Mix these veggies with cream cheese, spinach, a squeeze of fresh lemon and one cup of bread crumbs. Season Cajun, Italian, Greek, your pick. Place two fillets on greased cookie sheet on top of a bit of butter and top with stuffing. Top this with the other two fillets and a sprinkle of your seasoning choice. Top each with a slice of bacon. I baked for 15 minutes at 350 then broiled to brown a bit. Served with cheesy oven roasted potatoes topped with the reserved bacon crumbles.