Back at you Steve

Another beautiful night on Lake Mendota. Two bites two fish well over 30. First fish a 33.5 x 20 second one 31 x 17. Sonny’s blood. The fish weren’t snapping but the two bites I got were solid fish.

Nice looking channels Kev. Just for curiousity’s sake do you know how they taste compared to river channels, any diffrence?

Well done Kev !!

Great looking critter. I am always amazed that cats are that big and in Mendota at that.

Nice fish, Kev. You’ve got a great King of the Cats Channel Cat score that is going to be tough to catch. I’ll be after you this next week – I need a couple of big channels to stay in the game.

Congratulations Kev those are some giant channel cats.
I got to fish lake Mendota in April with my brother Jerry
and we had nonstop action on big channels.We released all of the big ones and kept four small ones to eat.You have a great lake for big cats.
Dave

Real porkers Kev!

…and you didn’t even get rained out!!

We had a bit of rain around 2:30 – 3 when we came in.

It was a beautiful night to be on the river!!

Mossy,

They taste like dog bleep. The few I have kept the meat is all yellow with fat even the small ones are kind of nasty. I don’t recommend eating them over 2 lbs and I haven’t caught one fish all year under two pounds. There was a big high water spring a few years ago and they are just gigantic now. Next year will be even better. I think I am averaging over 29 inches per fish this year but I haven’t been seeing 10 fish a night. Just a couple here and a couple there.

Id take a couple here and a couple there of that size, the consistancy of your size is amazing

Ya Kevin, its sounds like a really good bite. It also sounds like thier not staying in one area and that they may be moving around looking for something to eat, maybe not it might be the water temps. This a just wondering question: Have you tried drift fishing the weedbeds fishing a chub or big minnow under a bobber and letting the wind drift the boat? Maybe put a crawfish under the bobber and try that, Im just curious what works on catfish in Mendota. I fished Mendota along time ago in my early 20’s and its a nice lake and then it had some very nice bluegills in it and some sumo perch through the ice.

The problem with drift fishing it is current, boats, wave, and wind make doing a controled drift a real challenge. Instead of having the boat do the drifting, I use lit bobbers. I anchor up. Pitch one out and see where the lake takes it, then I move the boat so I can present one rod as far as I can get it to stay still and the I use one bobber quartering to the current to drift around the weeds. The fish are definitely oriented to the weeds. I get most of my fish in 5 feet of water 10 feet from the bank on the inside edge of weedbeds, I also get them right in the weeds and on the outside edge. I’ve tried dragging jigs on humps and got a few here and there. The bigger fish cruise the weeds unafraid of any ambush predators and that is where the dead fish collect. Think of the soap scum line in a bathtub. that is the area I try to target. Mendota drops into 70 feet of water pretty quick in the main lake and it is my belief that the oxygen level is poor down there so most fish are in the upper 30 feet until turnover. i’m out of here. tonight is the night for the 35 to come.