POOL 8 MUDS

I am no expert at catfishing, but this year I set a goal to try to get out at least 2-4 times a week. With my friends and I all being 21 we figure nothing can beat drinking some beers and catching some giant fish. So last night we pull up and only were able to catch 6 gills. We set up to catfish in about 10 feet sloping into 20-25 and threw out. After ten minutes I had about a 6-7 lber. My first cat of the year. About twenty minutes later we had a DOUBLE one maybe low 20s and another small one. Then it Ended with my biggest cat ever. You guys want to help me on a weight guess. Also I am just using a five ott hook and all the cats swallowed the hook. What should I do to avoid this. Also only one cat made a run. The others just swam toward the boat with it. Any help would be good.

Kevin

another

my big one, guess on weight? sorry no inch meausrments

Congrats! Real nice fish. Its hard to guess weight when they get that big…even in person. I would guess high twenties, but thats only a guess, pictures can fool. You should be hooked now (on catfishing, not beer ). Anyways, nice MUDS

I would agree with 832, on the weight not the beer!

I use 10/0 Gamakatsu’s excusivly (2020). They’re fairly inexpensive…the only other thing a person can do is watch the rod tip as a cat bite is differant that a struggling bait…and then watch the line for the up stream movement…

Might want to use bigger bait as this slows the swallowing process down a bit.

Other WI guys have more experiance with gills as bait than I do though.

Nice fish!!

Weight?

Mid to upper 20s probably. Your hands are pinched pretty tight in its mouth. Bigger mudcats allow plenty of room for the 2 handed grip.

Nice fish dude!

I would also agree with the guys on the weight. I have been using circle hooks with great success this year. If you dont want to gut hook these fish a circle is one of the best ways to keep it from happening. Big live bait you may have to go to a 7/0 but usually 4-5/0 will do the trick most the time. Tuesday night I caught one about 12 lbs on about a 6 in bullie. I was using a 5/0 circle and got a great hookset. I will take a picture of the hooks location after being set and you might think about it. It takes a little getting used to but they work great. Last night I missed a nice one and was using a 10/0 octupus while my girlfriend got a nice fish on a 5/0 circle! That more just my dumb luck I think than anything but I keep leaning on these circles more and more every year.
I have been using diachi light chunk circles 2/0-7/0 depending on size of bait and fish your chasing. You can buy them from catfish connection. Just a thought

Joe, are you using mono or superline with the circles? I’ve got a Reflex rod with a 6500C3 and 25lb Big Game that I’ve been using 8/0 Gami circles on. I’m still wondering if it will work well with the superlines.