The Great Spring Break Catfish Roundup...

We headed out to the lake with the Flying Zambroskis who have been on spring break. The wind was out of the perfect direction for some catfish slip corking at one of our favorite spots which by the way did not produce last trip. That trip turned into a good one, just had to hunt the fish down but this one was high on the excitement plan as everyone had some good action. 

If you note the details of this picture you see a blue cat on the floor of the boat in a net. The deck crew was busy netting the first fish while the second fish was busy almost pulling Cathy's second rod in the lake. 

 We had a practice session on casting and reeling the day before this trip so the boys were ready and Luca hooked and landed his personal best blue cat which we did not weigh but I imagine a good solid 5 pounds at least.

  Note the orange marker buoy to the right of the net handle in the photo. We use these to mark drop offs and chummed areas. Ezra hooked a fish I would guess in the 5 to 7 pound range which tangled him in the buoy which then hung solidly on the bottom and between all the pulling and the fish fighting and everyone trying to help managed to break 15 pound test line. Ezra was not disappointed as he got to see how big the fish was and it was an exciting experience for all of us and a good man against screaming beast struggle. This is an indicator that Ezra enjoys the quality of the time spent on the water over the quantity of fish boated.     

Besides he caught more and got to drive the boat. 

The fish were in water about 6' deep next to a flooded island. We used slip cork rigs. If you don't know about these they are rigged by using a bobber stop knot on your line at the desired depth you wish to fish followed by the cork and then a weight and a treble hook. We have been doing good lately with a smaller size hook than we usually use.  

Milo, who fought and threw a rusty fit to get his turn at backyard casting the day before seemed content to laugh like a little manic every time a fish came in the boat. 

With the big fish coming right off the bat and all the excitement I was slow getting on the leader board but I finally manage a couple of channel cats and one decent blue. It seems we are catching more and bigger blues this year because it normally takes 20 or so channel cats of fillet size like I'm holding here to feed the Zambroskis and lately they have been sated with 9 or 10 blue cats. 

I do note that the guided catfishery similar to Lakes Tawakoni and Texoma  seems to have arrived on Sam Rayburn with guides advertising services by posting pictures of ice chests full of fish like Luca's and usually one big double digit cat. I knew this would happen as techniques improved and spread and also with the use of the live scope fish finders. 

Just for the record I've fished that spot in the photo of me and Milo for almost 50 years and caught at least 7 species of fish there. My dad showed me the place and now my grandkids know it too.     

Final count was 12 fish. A very rewarding, happy day on the water.