I'm really getting into catfishing lately, as you may have noticed from recent posts.
It's something that I haven't done too much in the past, and as catfish grow bigger an pull harder than many other species of game fish, it's not hard to get addicted. Add in the extra benefits such as my spot being less than a 15 minute drive from my home in Montreal, free parking, small crowds with the convenient bite in the cooler evenings when things are quiet and work is done. Talk about a winning recipy for some good fishing.
I headed out to my spot alone, got set up and started fishing around 8:00 PM. I didn't bother with live minnows, as I kept and froze the leftover ones I had from last week's failed outing. I got my first hit at around 8:30, fish took off with the bait and set my baitrunner screaming, kind of the way a carp would. I engaged the reel, hooked and landed my first fish of the evening within a couple minutes, 26 inches / 10 lbs. As my buddies weren't showing until later, I had some other people fishing the are snap some shots, and released the big cat.
1/2 hour later, I got my second hit. Same story, reel starts screaming again. It seems that big catfish have an easier time picking up dead minnows than live ones. Anyway, I hooked into it, landed it after a few minutes. This one measured on 28 inches, but was extremely fat, weighed in at 14.5 lbs. Went back to the same guys, they took some pics and I offered them the fish. One of them gladly accepted, he said they were excellent eating.
It's something that I haven't done too much in the past, and as catfish grow bigger an pull harder than many other species of game fish, it's not hard to get addicted. Add in the extra benefits such as my spot being less than a 15 minute drive from my home in Montreal, free parking, small crowds with the convenient bite in the cooler evenings when things are quiet and work is done. Talk about a winning recipy for some good fishing.
I headed out to my spot alone, got set up and started fishing around 8:00 PM. I didn't bother with live minnows, as I kept and froze the leftover ones I had from last week's failed outing. I got my first hit at around 8:30, fish took off with the bait and set my baitrunner screaming, kind of the way a carp would. I engaged the reel, hooked and landed my first fish of the evening within a couple minutes, 26 inches / 10 lbs. As my buddies weren't showing until later, I had some other people fishing the are snap some shots, and released the big cat.
1/2 hour later, I got my second hit. Same story, reel starts screaming again. It seems that big catfish have an easier time picking up dead minnows than live ones. Anyway, I hooked into it, landed it after a few minutes. This one measured on 28 inches, but was extremely fat, weighed in at 14.5 lbs. Went back to the same guys, they took some pics and I offered them the fish. One of them gladly accepted, he said they were excellent eating.
My buddies showed up at about 9:30, by which time I had a couple biteoffs, probably smaller ones playing with my dead bait.
I hooked into my next one around 10:30. Once landed I realized it was quite long, measured in at 30 inches but weighed only 14 lbs, as it was thinner than the other one.
Just as I released it, my buddy hooked an eel, probably measured 30+ inches or so, must have weighed a few pounds. Another quick release, the moon hid behind the clouds and the bite died down completely. We left around 11:30 PM.
So it turns out that I beat my personal best for channel cats twice last night, once in weight (fat hawg) and once in length (lean and mean).
I'll post the pics once they are developped.
2 comments:
Where is this catfish hot spot in Montreal?
I really want to know the best spot for fishing in montreal. Well i am 12 years old and i wanted to catch a fish since i was little but all the spots i went to either had no fish or dogs chasing me :(
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