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.