MoCarp

"In November 1879, the U.S. National Museum received a blue catfish weighing 150 lb from the Mississippi River near St. Louis. The fish was sent by Dr. J. G. W. Steedman, chairman of the Missouri Fish Commission, who purchased it in the St. Louis fish market. The following quote from a letter from Dr. Steedman to Professor Spencer F. Baird, U.S. Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries, suggests that catfish of this size were not uncommon. “Your letter requesting shipment to you of a large Mississippi catfish was received this morning. Upon visiting our market this afternoon, I luckily found two, one of 144 lbs, the other 150 lbs. The latter I shipped to you by express.” NEXT?

Sorry Slappy...them critters get WAY WAY bigger, if we have not lost the genetics, Mark Twain would have called our blues "nice but just fiddlers" "Records of huge blue catfish date back to the Lewis and Clark exploration of the Missouri River. They described large “white” catfish, undoubtedly blue catfish, reaching nearly 1.5 m in length. Heckman (1950), in his Steamboating Sixty-Five Years on Missouri’ s Rivers, provides the following account: “Of interest to fishermen is the fact that the largest known fish ever caught in the Missouri River was taken just below Portland, Missouri. This fish, caught in 1866, was a blue channel cat and weighed 315 lb. It provided the biggest sensation of those days all through Chamois and Morrison Bottoms. Another ‘fish sensation’ was brought in about 1868 when two men, Sholten and New, brought into Hermann, Missouri, a blue channel cat that tipped the scales at 242 lb.” Heckman provides other evidence that it was common to catch catfish weighing 125–200 lb from the Missouri River during the mid 1800s. Even Mark Twain, talked about seeing “a Mississippi catfish that was more than six feet long” (Coues 1965) http://fisheries.org/docs/pub_sympsample.pdf

poop water from the chicken plant at southwest city can't be helping..also heard that keep catching the "newly american" Hyper Harvesting fish out of Grand ( by hook-castnet-and gillnets...enforcement is nonexistent on Grand, can't ever say I saw a CO much less been checked or creel checked.....Guatemalans, Costa Ricans, Mexicans and now I hear Nigerians...all being brought into work at "The World's Largest Poultry processing Plant"....but its over the line in Missouri-not much Oklahoma or Grand Lake Water Authority can do about it at least till it gets lots worse

fall can be tough bite on bass.....seems they have to get through this transition period...

just learn what a smallmouth looks like you'll be good then

good fishing right now..big browns on taney...muskies hitting.......always bass

gigging is not popular in smallmouth circles...ozark tradition on suckers, good eating in the winter....jet boats get you all over the rivers to some killer smallmouth spots....but fishing is so outstanding in the lakes, the rivers kinda go to wanting in some areas....within 2 hours drive you can fish for just about anything...a kayak and wade fishing is popular here..no gators and poisonous snake are uncommon compared to MS.....red wasps are less an issue here thank goodness and no fire ants!.....walleye fishing can be awesome here...

My Nephews are fishing fools...they keep telling me that I need to move back...lol

My sister lives near the pearl river...great hog hunting there

if your after cats, green sunfish or baby carp about 7"-10" some of the white river chain of lakes have flat heads pushing 80.....small kansas lakes are the best for flats....LOZ and Truman for blues...grand lake has nice blues as well but it can get rough in the main lake..stockton has great channels

welcome!!! I grew up fishing in Mississippi, still have family in Jackson Co.....different animal here..the 'bream" are un tapped here some places here they will AVG 8"!........where abouts in MS are your from???

Buddy Of mine near lives near Bentonville just landed this lump.(gotta love real time fishing reports) ..guess this stuff catches eh? one like this will rip the guts out of most reels

I bet I think your one of those "Oregon" Fishermen..only thing missing intros Video is the towel so you don't touch any ICKY

I think Everyone has lost a rod to Mr Carp...They have an annoying (or appreciated) trait like a bonefish to bolt at full speed away from perceived danger..sometimes with a rod in tow! a trophy sized common will test even the best tackle..if there is the slightest weakness they will find it...one reason reels like the DAIWA TOURNAMENT BASIA CARP REEL are so expensive last time I looked over $500 each if you can find one....awesome reels though

you can have issues with fast current

here is what it does under water

it should pack well into your PVA..as it melts it will explode and scatter a nice little chum patch near your hook bait

Mix that in and store in till your ready in the fridge in a ziplock bag...when your ready to fish tou add a 1/2 can off sweet corn with the water drained off and a hand full of hemp seed I usually put the hemp and corn in a strainer for a few minutes to drain off the extra water that will melt your PVA bag Once that is mixed well add about 1/4 cup of peanut or sunflower seed oil and mix well...needs to set 30 min or so..usually I do this just before the drive to the location

to bump up the protein levels I use a small box of tapioca, it also absorbs moisture

next add coconut flakes this will dry out you mix, I like to let it set overnight after this step

Then add boilie crumb, just use the same boil you will use for hook bait, again Mix Well.

next add spices and amino acids cinnamon, paprika, chili powder, black pepper...some salt... betain, gyciene, arginine, Lysine ..mix well

a blend of proven items for a PVA friendly stick mix wiz up some soft white bread, I remove the crusts, in a pinch you can use store bread crumbs or Panko flakes put the bred in 1st and use a fork to un clump the crumb

Many waters have that happen the biomass in the predator fish niche gets ate up with tiny crappie and that never get more than 6" and die of old age never getting a sniff of size...they eat most all of the YOY baby fish keeping the population dynamics off...uber preds would be the way to get it back in population but they need to stay in to do their job. northern pike would turn a ton of baby crappie into big pike...after a few years the pike stocking would fade out with almost no recruitment from naturally spawned pike..blue catfish the same deal...as far as why I suspect the outbreak of LMB virus may have let the crappie get out of control in the 1st place...prob need to see the raw sampling over the last 20 years....most lakes boom when 1st impounded...and fade....they just can't sustain the harvest levels..even the avg angler has the ability to harvest way more than they did in the past....IMHO we need to take a hard look and fish size and limits