Finesse Catten

tonight i am going down to casey goodes camper to spend the night and fish for catfish. Tomorrow we are fishing a bass tourney with some other guys our age. The thing is, casey wants me to bring one of my bass baitcasters down to fish for catfish with. I do have 30 lb. powerpro on my abu garcia, but im not sure how its gonna hold up. the rods nothing to heavy duty either. Im just hoping i dont snap my rod on some 50 pound cat…Anyway, ill let you know if we catch anything…we are going to some secret spot i guess where a friend of casey’s got a 47 pounder the other night. I saw it and it was HUGE! the biggest cat i have ever held. I cant imagine one of those 70 pounders!

Hmm, I’ve caught 6+ pound walleyes on 4lb test with an ultralight pole. 25 lb muskies on 12lb test with medium light bass poles. As long as you keep ’em away from the stumps/rocks/etc you should be fine.

Though if it’s above 25lbs, good luck making them go anywhere.

Sounds like a recipe for disaster, or heartbreak.

If you want to get the fish to the boat, you better gear up or .

A 20lb Channel Cat will school you like you won’t believe. A 50lb Flat… Hmmm…

hey im just glad it’s your equipment your wrecking and not mine!!!!!! i can only hope you snap that rod before the tourney that would atleast give max and i a shot! don’t stay up to late or else u’ll fall asleep and have to forfit! LMAO

I thought I would toss this in…just to muddy the water a bit…

There’s a fella on the Croix (not many snags) that fairly consistantly boats Flats into the 30’s with 6 lbs test and a walleye rod.

The way he manages it, it to use his trolling motor to keep above the fish. So he’s really just lifting the fish. He claims it will run him 30 to 40 minutes to boat a high end 20 using this method.

The fish pretty much has it’s way with him and if it was a snag infested water…breakoffs would be the norm.

My personal opinion would liken this to going grizzly bear hunting with a .22…..yeah it can be done, but the chances of the bear getting away with some lead in it…wounded are too great.

Using light line/rod/reel can be great fun….but at what point does it take it’s toll on the fish? Broken off hooks in there mouth, fatuige…ect.

I don’t know the answer to that question…it’s for each person to decide.

I don’t think there is any doubt that fighting a fish for 30-40 minutes on light line increases the mortality rate. In my opinion using a super line like Power Pro is the only way to go for jigging up cats. You can get them up and back in the water without putting so much stress on the fish. Slipping the current with a heavy mono is a nightmare. Don’t even bother with it.

When I was your age and living on CTH K my brother and I fished cats the same way BF. I is hard to own enough gear to do everything a guy wants to
Hope you tied into a good one

I don’t intentially fish for them, but do stumble across them at times while fishing for bass or crappie. It sure makes for an exciting time when you think you’ve got a great bass or walleye and it turns into a 20lb channel cat. Usually they fight differently, but not always. On my bass gear with the drag is set properly the line won’t break unless the fish finds the nasty stuff on the bottom. I’ve never had a pole break fighting a fish, but then I always baby the poles when traveling and never leave them in the boat.

No bass or walleye anywhere fights like a 20 pound channel cat.

Unless you are talking about a 7 pounder that turns into a “20” by the time you get home to tell the story.

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My personal opinion would liken this to going grizzly bear hunting with a .22…..yeah it can be done, but the chances of the bear getting away with some lead in it…wounded are too great.

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But look on the bright side, a big flathead won’t maul you and leave you for the vultures for bringing the wrong gear!

Nope, 20lbers fight very different than walleye. However, for the first few minutes with it throbbing the pole from down deep I’m always hoping for a huge walleye. Two big 20lb channels (maxed out the 20lb scale) that looked like twins came out of the same spot on successive casts when I was searching around for walleye spots. I don’t fish that spot anymore since I’ve never caught a walleye there.