Pond Catfishing

I haven't written much here as my life hasn't been all about fishing this year.  To be fair this year has been really strange for fishing.  The weather stays too cold, gets too hot, it rains too much dropping the temperature of the ponds and lakes but raising the level and flow of the rivers and creeks.

I did build a spiral-wrapped casting rod to replace the one I broke lifting a 2.5# bass out of the water and into my boat.  I have the parts to build a Micro-Wave spinning rod to replace the rod that was pulled from the boat attached to what I can only assume was a sizable blue catfish.  

It was with Catfishing in mind that Pondboy called and I accepted.  I headed over to pick him up and drive to a small pond we had been wanting to catfish.

Here I will link to the article on www.dupageangler.com where Pondboy gets to tell the story of his Catch of the Day channel catfish.

First Fox River Wade of 2013

I was still excited but very, very groggy.  Summer wading happens at dawn and dawn is happening earlier and earlier every day.  

I picked up Dan (Pondboy) and we hit a drive thru for breakfast and more important for me coffee!  
Down the road we found the Fox River and the next thing I knew I had my breathable chest waders on, and my drift rod set up with Raven equipment up and down the rod.  Raven high vis mono, Raven premium balsa float, silicone float tubing, micro-swivel, fluro leader, Raven split-shot, and all that terminated to a Raven specialist hook.

I nose-hooked a minnow, set my float and worked the waist deep water for any structure I might bump my bait into.  I was set up perfectly for what happened next.  My specialized float designed for fast deep current dipped below the surface and slid to the right. I pulled the line tight and the specialist hook attached itself to the top lip of this cute channel catfish.

I caught cute little cats smaller than this in this stretch of river last year.  If I were a betting man I'd wager this might be one of those cats after a year of filling his belly.  I can't wait until he gets to be as big as my largest caught on this stretch. 

Hardly any time passes before Dan's drift picks up a fish.  Another channel cat, this one was a nicer fish than mine and we both beat the skunk.

A problem we encountered directly related to the river depth.  I'm 6' 2" tall, Dan isn't.  There were some spots we'd have to back Dan out of in order to keep water from entering the top of his chest waders.  In another the flow was strong enough to cause him problems.  With one part concern for my friend and another part smart @$$ I walked parallel and upstream from Dan to give him some slack water to make crossing the center of the river channel easier.

Once on the other side we made our way down to a warm water discharge.  We can't wade this stretch of river without trying to catch something in the swirling flow.

Both of us score bronze!  Two nice looking 12" smallmouth bass.  The fun part about smallmouth this size is when you're used to catching largemouth a smallmouth this size feels like a much larger fish.

Eventually we make our way off the river.   Not many more bites led us to another problem; extra bait.  I've written abut what to do with leftover bait before.  Today was different.  Today we fished a little pond for bass.  We didn't catch any bass though.

We caught channel catfish.  Who knew there were beautiful, clean catfish in a little, odd-shaped pond. 

Dan's cat was the bigger of the two caught.  We didn't get rid of much bait but we did get to catch a few pond catfish before our time was done and we had to pack up and go.

I mentioned on the forums of DuPage Angler that I thought I would devote more time to purposely catfishing this year.  I guess today was as good a day as any to start catching Mr. Whiskers.  Today it was accidental.  Next I think I'll try catching catfish on purpose.  They tug well.

I was itching to go wading and I got to.  The river is still too crazy fast to want to step in for a walk but ponds help scratch the fishing itch.  I'm hopeful the rain will level off to a healthy amount for trees, ponds, and crops but at the same time allow the rivers to drop in height and flow.  I love wading rivers.  I got bit by that bug and it's just in me now.  I got my first wade in for 2013.  The first of many to come.

5/26/2013 USGS Fox River 11.68 ft 1580 cfs @ Montgomery Gauge

Ben Can Catch

Talks about fishing Sunday looked like they were going to fall apart.  Schedules didn't synchronize and thus Dave's two boys would have been home alone while we were out wading.  That wouldn't have been right so what to do on Sunday morning.  The idea hit me while I was running errands on Saturday.  The almost immediate call from Dave meant he thought it too; take his boys out fishing.

We didn't need to get up at O'Dark-thirty since we were fishing for Bluegills.  At nine AM both Zack and Ben looked like it was O'Dark-thirty.  They were up but didn't look completely awake; I can relate some days.

Dave and I tied on slip floats, hooks, and split-shot to one of Dave's rods and the boy's two Zebco 202s then loaded kids and gear into the car and headed for a local pond.

The bluegill action wasn't fast and furious but some largemouth were eating Dave's 4" Yum Dinger plastic worm.  Two bass in quick succession ate the watermelon colored stick worm.  While the boys were watching the bass their father was catching Ben's float went down and stayed there awhile.  Once it was noticed we couldn't see Ben's float as much slack was reeled out of the line as the 202 could muster but the circle hook didn't find home and the float returned to the surface without a worm.

We rotated around the pond and I started catching bass about two and a half feet down near the shore.  That was when Ben started yelling Dad, Dad, Dad, Dad, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy.

This time he was watching when his float went down.  Ben knew that he was to watch for it to go down but once the float was down the excitement in his brain didn't let him comprehend what to do next.

"Reel Ben!" instructed Dave.

Reeling like a madman the Zebco Spincast reel caught the line.  The crazed reeling of a six year old finally got the line tight and the circle hook found lip.

After removing the fish and baiting the hook Ben was that much more ready to have the worm cast to the middle of the pond.  Once again he was a patient bobber-watcher until the now familiar chorus of Dad, Dad, Dad, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy occurred when his float went down again.

This time Dave, Zack, and I all said in unison:  REEL BEN!!!  

Bluegill number two proved to be the patience breaker for Ben.  He was excited to catch fish but his bobber-watching patience had ended.  

We got our gear together and walked the short walk back to the cars.  I learned a few things from our outing yesterday; Ben takes direction well and very literally sometimes, Zack can hit me in the neck with Crab Apples from ten paces, and Ben Can Catch!