Supper Time

Well this is where the chow is being cooked. Today on the menu we will be having Cowboy Stew ,Bread or Crackers, Ice Tea, and Some type of Little Debbie for desert. As you can see Ole Bill is chowing down on the stew. Cowboy Stew is always a good meal oat the camp site weather your hunting,fishing,are just camping out. It is also a good body warmer also and you can feed a few people at a time with it. Well as you can see Ole Bill has had plenty to eat and it looks like he is headed to the tent or outback to the restroom. Until next time take a kid fishing.

Setting Out Our Lines

Well , were back from setting out our limb lines and Bill is cutting up bait for the next run. While he is cutting up the bait I see he had his lines out the back of the boat. Now he is threw cutting up bait he is getting in some rod and reel time . It looks like he is getting a bite on one of his lines. Yelp he's on now let's wait and see what on the other end of the line. Well he as got it in and it is about a 2 lb'er( and the batteries are dead in my cam ) well that is a start on catching some fish. Well ole Bill set there about another hour and did not get a bite. Now it's time I go and start supper and what shall I fix,Tune in to the next chapter and see what is for supper . Talk to you soon and in the meantime take a kid fishing.

Well y'all set back and dream that you are on the river and just listen to the birds,leaves blowing in the breeze and the sound of running water OH what a joy it is. This is a pretty wide spot in the river it is about 3 to 4 hundred yards wide and it was swift. Well now that we have the camp set up it is time to go and est lines and fish a while. So y'all enjoy the scenery while we go and try to catch a big ole boy. Talk soon and in the mean time take a kid fishing.

Our Camp Site on the Alabama River

Well I am back to do this project I have been canning things out of the garden for the last two weeks and it has wound down. I still need to get the peas in but there not quite ready now,maybe in two to three days and then I'll be threw with the canning and get back to fishing. Here are some pic's of our camp when we went on the Alabama River fishing for a few days. We were up on a bluff about ten feet above the water and had a great view of the river there. We also had a great breeze there and it kept them buzz saws off us also. It is so great to live in a place where you can be in five different river within twenty min. That is what I call a fisherman's paradise. Well I will close for this print and post some more pic's and write a little more. Have a great day and take a kid fishing.

Were into the Cut and Headed to the Alabama River

Well were on our way , we cut across the Tombigbe and now we are in the cut. This a a pic of Bill and his boat and you can see how loaded it is by the way front is out of the water. we have about an hour thru the cut being the water is so swift and our boats are loaded. There is a lot of trash in the river and also in the cut so therefore we will be going kinda slow. This is such a pretty place to be lots of birds signing and there is plenty of wildlife every where. well we past these two fishing camps on the way and that has to be the Tom Sawyers of the 21st century they are so neat. We have gone about 10 miles and we are about 8 miles from where we will be camping.my next post will be of our camp so hang in there and read the rest of the story.

Launching the Boats

Well we are at the boat ramp and look how high the water is. What a bad deal. Well that is not half of it Bill's two boys have not showed up yet and it is getting close to 9a. Well I am going to go ahead and lunch being I am already here and spent all the money on this trip might as well do it. It still be good to go camping and just being out doors with all the birds and other things. Well I have launch my boat and now I going to launch Bill's boat and then we will get this show on the road. Well it's 9:15a and we leaving the ramp and Bill's boys did not show,it's there lost not mine. Were going to cross the Tom Bigbe and hit the cut over to the Alabama River.I will post when we get into the cut and show some pic's of fish camps

The Boat is Ready to Go

Well it's Monday morning about 7a and I am putting the food in the boat. That is all I need to do and I will be ready to go. I feel like this will be a wasted trip because of the weather. That front blow in yesterday and the wind has blown all night and the water is still up. We had to go on anyway because of vacations had been scheduled and they could not be reschedule. Any we going to give it a try and see what happens and go from there.It's about 8a and were on the way.

Ready To Go

The boat is packed and we are ready to go. We had a cool front blow in about 1:00 pm this afternoon and the wind is about 15 mph out of the north. Being the water is high and the wind is out of the north it ought to be interesting. We will be leaving around 7 in the morning and will not be back until Thursday afternoon. Until then have a great day and take a kid fishing. Until next post enjoy life.

Count Down Day 2

Well the boat is loaded all except the food and rod and reel's. The river is falling about a foot and a half per day and that should be great for fishing. Went out yesterday and racked crawfish's and got about a hundred or so. I need to go down to the river and see if I can catch some shad. I have 31 blue gill's for fishing them log jams for the big yellow's. Well that's about it for today not much going on ,just waiting for Monday to get here. So in the meantime take a kid fishing.

Count Down Day 3

Well I said yesterday that it was not going to be to productive but it was a OK day. I got all the rod and reels that I do not normally use checked out and new line on them and there are ready to go. Went and filled up the boat with gas and got me two five's for spare gas. I bought me one of them new 100 qt coolers that says it will hold ice for five days at 90 degree's we will see. Today I will load the tents ,sleeping bags,table, and the rest camping gear. Well It's time I get up from here and start my day and in the mean time until the next post have a great day and take a kid fishing.

Count Down Day 4

Well yesterday was a good productive day ,I got all the batteries fully charged and most of the food bought. I worked on the boat lighting and added two new lights that will be used for night fishing. Then I adjusted my running lights so they would not be shining to for out in front of the boat. This morning I have a Dr's appt. so that will throw me off today,but when I get back I will start getting the fishing tackle ready and the rod and reels checked out. This is about all that will go on today. So until next post have a great day.

Cuont Down Day 5

Well today is a work day getting ready for the trip.Today we will start charging all the batteries on the boat and the one spear one. While this going on we will make the food list and go to the store buy the food. then if I have any time left I will go over the rod and reels and tackle.The check list has already been made so we will just follow it.I check on the rivers this morning and it fell 1.64 feet last night, which that is good for us.Well it is 6 am and the sun is up here in Alabama so I will close for now and get to work on this list in the meantime have a great day.

Count Down Day 6

Well today begins the countdown before we go on our fishing trip looking for the big one. This picture is our mascot that will fly at the camp. When we leave the boat ramp at Mt.Vernon,Alabama we will head north about 5 miles to the Alabama River and there will go 16 to 36 miles depending what the first sand bar looks like being we have had high water for two weeks now. The river has crest and feel 1.8ft. today. For now that is all will post progress of what is going on as for getting packed and start loading the boat. Y'all have a good evening and take a kid fishing.

River Is Up

Well when you see this floating down the river it's best to stay off. If you can see it on top you can bet that there's some under the water also. The police chief of town last Sat. hit an under water log and destroyed his lower unit on his motor. If you do decide to run the river on the rise stay out of the channel because that's is were most of the trash runs. For now I will stay out of the river until it starts to fall. So if you choose to get in the river be careful and don't become a number. Until next time take a kid fishing.

GETTING READY FOR THE BIG ONE

Well spent most of the day getting ready for the trip on the Alabama River next week. We are going to spend a week on the river ,fishing log jams and deep holes. We will be targeting big Blues and Yellows. We will be thankful for any we catch but we are looking for the 100 lb'er. The closest I got last year was a 63 lb Blue caught on the Mobile River. I spooled my reels with 65# Power Pro and 40# Cajun RED lightnin. I will be using Gamakatus 8/0 Octopus and 11/0 Eagle Claw King Kahle hooks. The choice of weight's will 4 to 5 oz no [roll and a bank sinker up to 10 oz depending the current. The reels of choice on this trip will be the Ambassador 7000is3 Pro Rocket and Penn's 309. The rods will be Shakespeare's Tiger Rod's MH and H 7'. We will be use Skip Jack and live Bream for baits. And to all you Mother's that read this I hope y'all have a happy Mother's Day Sunday. Until next posting have a great day and take a kid fishing.

RAIN

Well it looks like the fishing will be slow for a week are two because of the rain. Monday we got 8 1/2" and yesterday we got an 1 1/2 " and I think we have had our shear of it. So for now I will start getting my things ready for May 17Th . We will be taking a trip up the Alabama River for a week looking for that 100 lb'er and hopeing to find it. Until next time take a kid fishing and enjoy the moments

E-mail

I had an E-mail about not hooking up. Well the E-mail said they were using Skip Jack which is one of the best cat fish baits. He said he would get a good run and then when he picked up the rod it would let go. First of all when that happens you need to start watching your rod tip, because a gar will play with your bait and then take off with it and when you set the hook he will let go. I had take 30 to 40 yds before and then let go. Normally a cat fish will take it and run no playing around. So I feel he was getting messed with by gars . Hope this will help you

Fish Tacos

These might sound fishy,but they are really good. You might want to try them before you say anything.

RECIPE

10 to 12 oz fish fillets your choice ( I used fresh cat fish )
1 box taco shells ( your choice )
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 - 16oz Cole slaw mix
1/2 teaspoon celery seed
1 tablespoon sugar
1 package taco seasoning mix

DIRECTIONS

Prepare the fish as you prefer ( fried are baked )

Heat taco shells as directed

Mix in a medium bowl the mayo,taco seasoning mix,celery seed ,and the sugar and let stand 5 to 10 min

Fill the shells as you would any other taco.

Hope you will try this and enjoy it.

Until next post have a great day.

Spinning Reels

Spinning are a very popular reel now days.looking at these two pic's from left to right they are 1) this is what they call a long cast because of the spool design.This reel holds 325 Yd of 25 LB mono. I use this reel mostly floating a big slip cork with live bait. 2) This reel is a live liner which is used to free line your bait which i use it with a slip cork and live bait. 3) this is my salt water spinning reel.4) this is the all around standard spinning reel before they had all them fancy named reels.5) this is a ultra lite spinning and 6) this is a Miro lite Series and now they make a little lite series also. as I use all these reels for something in my line of fishing. If you could only buy one I would buy the standard reel with a 4;1 to 1 ,ball bearinds and a spool of at least 150 yds on 12 lb mono. I mostly use the standard reel for catching what I call skillet fish. The ultra and miro lite are what I use for catching my bait (blue gills) . So when your thinking of a spinning reel study it because there so many on the market now, so good luck.

The Spin Cast Reel

This reel is very economical to buy and very easy to use. This is probley the for most best saleing reel in the industry today. Most of there reels are closed faced and push button release therefore there no back lashes on the cast. I would think that the Zebco 33 would be the most popular one on the market today. I think that I read somewhere there had been 40,000,000. of these made ,now that is a lot of reels. These reel are used for a wide range of fishing. These reel are use for mostly pan fishing , But there have been some big fish caught with them. There are several models and makes out there now and there just might be one for you also. There is the micro lite,ultra lite, and the reg spin cast, the hog and then there is a salt water series also. The specs. on most of these style's now are Graphite body's, 5:1 gear ratio,auto line pick up, ball bearings and spooled with 2 to 20 lb. of mono line depending on the reel. Some of these reels also have star drag systems which is a littler to adjust and maintain. Each manufacturer also have these in combo's also which in turns makes it real easy to buy and worry about matching the rod to the reel. I hope that this little of informaition helps you.

Fishing Reels

Now it's time to start talking about the Rod and Reel's. There is several manufacturer's and a whole of styles out there on the market and every one says's it is the best. I going to name the styles and then I will discuss each one of them and we will go from there. I going to list each one then I will do a artical on one.
1) Spincast
2) Spinning
3) Bait Caster Small
4) Bait Caster Med.
5) Bait Caster Havey
6) Line Counters
7) Trolling Reels
8) Deep Sea Reels
9 Electric Reels

I think this is all of them ,if I missed one i will add it to the list.

Catfishing on the Mobile River

Well we went fishing Sunday night and the wind picked up and the barge traffic was way above normal. Barges were coming about every 30 to 45 min. and had the water churned up. The river had been above flood stage for about three weeks and that had them shut down and now there making up for lost time.

Well as you can see the catch was not very good . I guess it want get good for about a week because of the barge traffic. I was down at the river last night and the traffic was about 1 1/2 hrs apart. I talked to several fisherman that was coming and they were complaining about the traffic also. Any that is my report for Sunday the 26 of 2009. Have a great day and take a kid fishing. And remember give a man a fish and he will eat for a day , teach a man to fish and he will eat forever.

Sport Fishing

Well now that I have talked about hoop nets,boxes,trot lines,jug lines, and limb lines lets talk about the rod and reel fishing. It's so much fun when you get a 30 to 40 lb er on the end of the rod. When you catch a fish on the rod reel it becomes you and the fish, you want to bring the fish in and the fish want to brake you off. There is so many rod's and reels out there , I will get into them later. Weather your bank fishing or fishing out of a boat it is very relaxing to fish for cat's. Most people fish for at night but you can do ell in the day also. People always say that cat only feed at night, but that is not so. My 63 and 50 lb er were both caught in the daylight hours .There is also a variety of baits out there that are used for cat fishing. There are different times of the year when to use some of these baits. for now it is about 5:30 PM and I am going to get ready to go for some more skillet fish, the wind does not seam to be blowing has hard tonight then it was last night. My next posting will be how i do tonight. Until next time take a kid fishing.

APRIL 25,2009 FISHING TRIP

Well I went out last night to do a little skillet fishing for some cats. Skillet fishing ( is for small catfish used for frying whole). Went out about 7:30 pm and the wind was blowing 10 to 15 MPH and being that I was already out there I decided to give it a try anyway . Well I went to one of my spots and anchored out and started to fish. It has been about 15min and no bites but the wind is blowing so hard that it is hard to tell if your getting a bite or if it's the wind.Anyway I stayed there about an hour and caught these four that weight's about a pound or so. It would been a good night if the wind was not blowing because the tide and water temp. was rite. The rod and reel and bait of choice was ( Rod and reel was an All-star 7' med with an Nor-Fin spinning reel with 12lb Andes mono line and the bait of choice was small 1 1/2 to 2" crayfish) These fish are Channel cat's and some people here call them ellie cat's. When I'm fishing for these small fish I like to use a 1 to 2/0 hook and 1/2 to3/4 oz norool sinker rigged Texas style. When I rig mind I will slide the weight on,then a bead and then tie the swivel on. Then I tie the hook on with about an 14 to 18" leader. Useing this style of a set up the fish cannot hardly fill the weight and you will have more hook sets this way. My next we will start talking about Rod and Reels and then we will talk about how to make jug lines. Until then take a kid fishing

LIMB LINES,POLE LINES AND DROP LINES

Limb or pole lines are mostly used in the rivers. A pole line is usually made by using a piece of 1/2" PVC pipe and shoved into the bank with the line tied to it. The limb line is mostly used to fish the deep holes in a river and some lakes. The way this works is to find a good limb hanging over a deep hole and tie your line on to it . Most of the limb lines I use have one 13/0 stainless hook and 16 oz weight with a blue gill about the size of my hand. It's pretty cool to pull up to the limb and see it going from side to side and up and down and you know you have a big fish on it.

32 lb Blue Cat fish

Here is a 32 lb blue cat that I caught the other night. I caught on the Mobile River around the Mt.Vernon aera. I was fishing a slip bobber that I make . This bobber is for floating the bait a certin deapth. I caught this fish on a crawfish at 7ft on the side of a sand bar. It was about a 15 to 20 min. fight but what fun it was.

Until next post have a great day

Trotlines and Jug Lines

Trot lines and jug lines are properly the most popular to the sportsman then ant other cat fishing method there is. The trot line has from 25 to 50 hooks on it and to use it you tie it off on the bank to a tree or something. Run it at least 20 ft from the bank and then run it out 150 to 200 ft and put a heavy weight on it and drop it over board. ( I like to use a sand sand bag for my weight) then go back and put your hooks and bait on it. You can run the next morning or every three to four hrs if you are staying there.

Jug lines are used anchored or free floating. If used anchored most use five hooks spaced out and anchored to the bottom, when a fish gets on it tries to pull the jug under big fish can but they to the most can not hold it down. Small fish just bob it in the water. Like anchored they also use up to five hooks.

I myself prefer the floating jugs all the fun comes in when you are chasing a big fish down on a jug. I will get into make jug lines and trot lines later. Until next posting take a kid fishing.

Ways to Catch Catfish

Being there is several ways to fish for catfish lets discuss the ways to catch them.

1) Hoop Nets

The Hoop net is a device that most Commercial fishermen use. These nets are between 4 ft to 20 ft long and 2 to 4 ft mouths. The way they use these nets they will find them a spot to put them by anchoring one end then stretch the net to open it up and then tie it off so it will open. Usually they will bait them with cheese and that will draw the fish into the net.

2) Gill Nets

Gill nets or a net that is usually 6 to 10 ft deep and depending on your State law will determined the length. These nets are stretched out across a body of water and depending mesh size will catch most any thing that hits it and traps them buy the gills.

3) Boxes

Boxes are usually made of Oak . They normally are 12" x 48" with a 1 1/2" gap. Most of the time due to the slat spacing a box will only catch small fish.

Before you try any of these method's check your fish laws first.

The next post will be talking about the sport fishing

Catfishing

Welcome to the catfish ing Blog of the Catman. Well I decided to start this blog and shear info with you on fishing the Alabama Delta. I have been fishing for catfish over forty years. Old Mr. Whiskers was one of the least sought fish when I started fishing for them, but now it has become a big money maker and is getting bigger all the time. I have fish many lake and river in Texas ,as that is where I spent most of my life, now that I live in South Alabama I fish the Mobil,Tom Bigsbee, Alabama, and Tensaw Rivers. I will normally fish three to five days a week. Fill free to e-mail @ catman4926@bellsouth.net if you have a question about something and I will try to get an answer for you. I will be posting pic's of my fishing trips and reviews of how and when I went. Until next post take a kid fishing.

This was a little 18 lb. Yellow cat that was caught back in Feb.