Few Cat Stories And Pics

[ciRe]

So my buddies and I have been rod n' reel and setting lines for our deer seasons. We've actually done pretty good even with the flats.

First weekend we went up to Louisiana, mo to fish above the Clarksville dam with some buddies that live up there and Saturdays haul was a better day than Sunday even though we caught a bigger one on Sunday. We were using all sunfish 2"-4" most made it alive but a lot did die. I think this weekend we had around 120 hooks out. Sunday we had 1 blue go 30lbs.

Second weekend I decided to go out with the ol' lady and my buddy went out with a few other people and sadly they killed a monster. It went 80lbs and of course it was a blue. They were just south of the golden eagle ferry. After seeing what they caught before they made it back home I was disappointed because if I went with them I would have tossed it back in the water so someone could catch it rod n reeling.

This past weekend we were up by the Winfield dam and we probably shouldn't have set Friday night but our egos were bigger than our brains with the rain. The rain was suppose to clear up around 6 but didn't stop till 8 making it hard to set lines and before we even knew it it was pitch black. This was only my second time up there and I ended up hitting a dyke (the motor jumped a little) but not hard at all but was still a reality check that the river will be able to eat up in the dark and may never be found. We had 1000s of mayflies around the lights and the boat but none on Saturday evening. We were using gold fish Friday night and only ended up with 5 channels. Saturday we threw nets in ditches at a duck club and caught buffalos galore to use for bait because we didn't want to spend $40 on 5 channels again but we were wrong on that night. We got out nice and early and split off to set lines. Usually during this time of the year we only set on the main channel but we decided to be different an set a few on all Missouri islands. And those were our best lines of the weekend. Caught one nice flat that went around 15 and 1 blue that went 23.

So far between us our biggest flat was 42lbs and the blue was 80lbs. We are taking a break for a few weeks but will probably do another weekend before bow season starts for us.

[Smalliebigs]

Sweet!!!! I was thinking of looking for some skipjacks with my net.....If can find some and get some, I think it's time to go chase some Blues out of Columbia botttoms.....My buddy has caught three in the 60lb class in two weeks....we have been fishing Below Bryan Island on the Missouri and it is really good.

[ciRe]

Skipjack is by far the best blue bait I have ever used. I wish I knew where I could go catch some. It's just hard spending around $10 for 2 frozen pieces of bait. The big guy was cut bait from a big head that was cut 6"x4". If you get into the skipjack I'll trade you some buffalo considering the ditch we catch em is only 10 miles from my work.

They are trying to get me to go camp on turkey island this weekend but I think the ol lady and I are going to Montauk.

I've never been to Bryan island but sounds like a good place to fish.

[ciRe]

With the flooding down south we went back out to the river. Ended up mainly on the Mississippi again and it was absolutely horrible. We only rod n reel fished this weekend (besides a hour of jug lines) and the biggest cat was a 5lb channel on a shad. We went up to cuivre to catch some shad with the throw net and where our honey hole was covered in gar. One throw we had over 30 gar that tangled us up pretty good but was a good laugh. One of the guys that has been going with us for a while wanted his brother to come so he went out with me. Around 1145pm on Saturday night we decided to go to a new spot and I told him to toss the anchor and when he did he went in the water with it. We were right next to a log jam but we were setting up on the cuivre where there wasn't any current thank God. After that we were done for the weekend because it just wasn't worth it.

Only good pic if the weekend was of all the gar.

[Old plug]

Gar are awful plentiful this past few years everywhere it seems. I have been fishing for them here on LOZ. I have caught several from 40 to 48 inches long. I have seen some bigger ones roll. I love the fight they put up.

I will start jigging for catfish soon. I have caught my share share of 20lb and up doing this. The conditions have to be right and those conditions relate to feeding white bass. Something we have not had much of in my arm of the lake for sometime.

[ciRe]

Caught this guy on a buffalo. Fun fight but we needed up with only 7 flats all weekend. Threw back the blues so flats is all we kept.

[bfishn]

Nice! Rod-n-reel?

[Smalliebigs]

Sweet fish!!!!! it looks like you did good up there.....We need to try below Bryan Island on the Missouri

Caught this guy on a buffalo. Fun fight but we needed up with only 7 flats all weekend. Threw back the blues so flats is all we kept.