Catfishing Online Log Book

This post is to share general information on catfish outings and give a real time *what’s working now*, and also give us the ability to look back through time to see what has happened, when, and where. The more accurate the information we can give, the more we can learn, and the more we can all benefit over time from this post.

Please reserve photos for post on other threads.

Examples of good input would be.. Date, Time fished, fish caught and species, fish activity times, bait choice, water temperture, outside temps and notable weather conditions, structure type and water depth, flow, moon cycle.. anything that you can think of that may have been a factor in the fishing outing.

Even a minimal amount of information can be very valuable in the long run.

Example.. not a real outing…

5/13 Mississippi river
water temp 63
outside temp: 90 degrees, dropped to 80, hot and very windy
time fished: 8pm – midnight
new moon
bait used: 7″ bullheads
fish activity time 10:30 – 11:30
water warming quickly, elevation dropped 1′, flow is moderate but diminishing.

Fished multiple spots including a feeder creek, storm water discharge, and a sand bar adjecent to a deep hole. Only runs were at the feeder creek on the current seam in approx 10′. 7 runs total, 2 Flatheads caught at 27#, 7#.

Sunday May 13th

Minnesota River, Shakopee area
8pm – midnight
bullheads
water temp 63.8
water level is quickly dropping
outside temp 90 degrees, very windy

We made a quick trip to a recently productive storm drain and camped out. The fishing was slow. 1st run came around 10:30, only one fish at 11 pm. 3 runs total, only fish(13.5#) came from 10′ of water on the current seam on the downstream side of the eddy. One other run came from the same area as the fish was caught, and the last run came in a few feet of water very close to the storm drain.

Very little baitfish and other fish activity which was a huge change from previous nights which were more productive.

Monday, May 14th
Pool 1 Lock & Dam
1 broken Loomis GLX…$330.00
2 Hamm’s beers…$2.00
Nightcrawlers..$2.50

1 channel cat around 1 lb=

Quote:

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Monday, May 14th
Pool 1 Lock & Dam
1 broken Loomis GLX…$330.00
2 Hamm’s beers…$2.00
Nightcrawlers..$2.50

1 channel cat around 1 lb=

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$2.00 for two Hamm’s??? You got ripped off

Post deleted by Steve DeMars

Come on guys, even I didn’t hijack this thread. I am deleting this post because this topic could be very useful if we don’t muddle it up. Not trying to be the board police, I am just saying.

I agree pug, thank you.

If this post will be useful at all.. it needs some participation, and it will lose interest in a hurry if people have to scan 3 pages to get 3 log entries. Bummer on the bad day Jeremy!

Mississippi River Pool 1 5/14
water temp unknown
bullheads
outside temp 80
9-11:30 pm
shore fishing

The fishing was slow. 1 run, no fish. No baitfish activity. It seemed the fish were there as the bait would go into a panic on regular intervals for periods of time. Maybe they want something besides bullheads?

The walleyes were biting good while catching bait

5/14 7:30-12:30
Minnesota river
bullheads/chubs/cutbait
boat.. 4 spots
3 sheephead 1 channel
Slow night missed one run…shallow enough to see the fish leave a wake on its departure. Channel caught in the last 5 min before departure. Hammered the cutbait.

Friday 5/18/07 7:00 to 1:30
Mississippi Pool 4
From boat
Channel cat caught on live sucker, hammered the bait and kept going at 9:02
Flathead caught at 11:58 on smaller live bullhead very close to timber in about 4 feet of water.
A few more runs, but no fish to show for it.

5/22/07

Mississippi River
water temp unknown
weather: surrounded by storms, occasional light rain
6 pm – 11 pm
bait 3″ shiners, 5″-6″ bullheads
water depth 15′-30′ near industrial structures

5 fish total feeding very agressively, shiners took most of the fish. Fish from 5#-20#, no missed runs. All fish bit between 6 pm and 9:30 pm. No snags or significant bottom structure present, fish were roaming the deep searching for food, lines near retaining walls did not get bit. 7/0 red hook with 3 3″ shiners was most productive. Most fish were small, the large fish have not been present at this location this year as of yet which is he exact opposite of the previous 2 seasons.

No signs of spawning activity yet, unsure of water temp, I believe its upper 60’s.

5/22
MN river
2 flats just under 10lbs on bullies
1 channel 11.14 cut.
steady rain going on. Bites would come in waves.
water temp 67F
fished 3 spots total.

5/28
St Croix River
Spent most of the afternoon scouting new spots
1 Channel Cat 28″ on cut sucker
Only fished 1/2 hour – wife pulled it in (nice fish)
Weather warm (80) windy (SSE 11-25 mph)
Water temp 65
River elevation: 676.4′ (Normal Pool Elevation 675.5′)

5/28
Mississippi River Pool 1
Water temp 68,
80+ degrees and gusty south winds

Scouting new spots and checking in on old reliable spots. Worms and shiners for bait. No active channel cats to be found anywhere, no bait for flatheads along. 1 sheephead, 1 carp, way too many smallmouth bass, NO CATS. Shore fishermen did report some flatheads being caught in a couple locations.

Channel cats are getting scarce in numbers, spawn time?

5/27
Mississippi Pool 8
East Wind from 3-5mph
Rising Barometer
Surface temp of 68 Degrees

First bite came at 10:30pm, swing and a miss.
Two other hits that followed shortly until hooking up at 11:30pm, which produced my personal best at 54lbs.
12:00am fish on only to become unbuttoned before getting in the boat. One more slam at 1:00am with nothing else happen till 2:30am at which time we called it a night.

5/31/07
St Croix River
Full Moon, clear, calm winds, 73 degree surface temp
Fished from 7:30pm – 12:00pm
18 lb flathead at 11:00pm on a bullhead (only run of the night)

6-2-07 from 9pm to 2am
Mississippi P1
72 degrees air temp
full moon
bait; bullhead
One run and miss and one flathead 26 lbs First hit around 1030pm second hit and fish at 1am. No barge traffic after 9pm.

6/4/07
St Croix River
Fished from 8:00pm to 1130pm
Weather was unsettled with a round of showers early in the evening. Light breeze turned calm around 9:00pm. Partly cloudy, Cool evening – jacket weather. Lots of gnats when the wind went calm.
River elevation: 676.4′ and water temp 69 degrees
Caught one 24″ channel cat at 10:30 on cut sucker.

6/2/05 spent the afternoon after channels on cut. Caught 3 fish on cut and 3 on crawlers. Some real small ones on crawlers. After the rain hit I found an area that looked to be holding a ton of bait but couldnt run raps thru because of the garbage floating on top. We set some smaller bullies 4-5″ and ended up with two channels and 2 misses that I think were channels. Always seem to be nicer channels that hit the bullies. Didnt hang for weights.

6/5/06
fished p2 from 8-10:30
8:15 had the 1st fish on (3 lbs) 9:30-10pm we boated 4 flats 5, 11, 14, 36 lbs. My buddies new personal best and at 10:30 monica caught a 25″ eye. All on bullheads small and big. They really didnt seem to care about size last night. Left at 10:30 because we were out of bait

I will take mark water temps next time down and keep ya all advised

6/8/07 Mississippi River Pool 2

7pm – 1am
Bullheads
16′ – 18′ of water near a steep rock bank.

Fishing was good during the daylight, 4 flats caught from 7:15 to 9:45, 3 missed runs shortly after, no big fish caught, all fish ranged from 6-15 pounds. The fish were very agressive until dark, activity diminished after dark. Witnessed 1 channel cat about 9 pounds caught on a shad around midnight… only late fish.

6/8/07 Mississippi Pool 8

After catching gills for bait, Wats and I fished Flatheads from 8:00pm – 2:00am.
Surface temps were found from 68.8 degrees to 70 degrees.
After a week of brutal winds, by night the west wind laid down to a breeze!
Fished from 6-12fow near deeper holes and a rock point.
First spot we were run off from pestering dog fish slamming the gills.
Second spot 8:30 produced a 5lb Flathead for Wats and three other hits only to be dropped. The gills were jumpy the whole time until dark. After dark Wats caught a large soft shell
Third spot produced one heck of a slam around 1:00am only to be dropped again By 2:00am with nothing going on and a cold damp air finding its way through our clothing it was easy to make the call to head home.

6/9 mississippi River Pool 2

Same location as previous entry 5pm – 1am
7″ bullhads, and bigger 7″ bullheads
Heavy boat traffic in the daylight hours, 1 flat before sunset, another lost just after. No early bite activity. One other missed run, and one baby(started at 2# and ended up 3#) flathead late that ate 2 baits.

Very poor results this evening.

6/10/07 St Croix River
Fished from 7:30pm to 12:00am
River elevation 676.8′ (normal is 675.5′)
Surface Temp: 69 degrees
Weather: Partly Cloudy, warm day 87 degrees, Light SSE wind, evening cooled off – light jacket weather.
Sunset at 8:57pm
Fished two spots – fished first spot from 8:00pm to 9:45pm with no luck – lots of snags, lost 6 rigs with bullies. Fished second spot from 10:00pm to midnight – had runs right away. Had 2 runs on bullheads at 10:07pm and 10:13pm and missed both. Caught one small 5# flathead on a bullhead at 11:10pm. Hung it up at midnight – beautiful night for the run back in.

6/10 Minnesota River
6:30pm to midnight
Water temps 69-74 degrees

Fished 2 spots, nothing happening early and through sunset. 1 run at dark for a missed fish. Moved to spot #2 and the 1st fish came within 20 minutes(10:30?) Consistant action from 10:30-11:30 on bullheads. We landed 3 at 12#, 20#, and 30#, and got a bonus 12.5# channel all on bullheads. We missed 3 other runs. Fish were all in 8′-12′ on cut banks, one fish had many wounds from digging out beds, no sign of digging beds on the other 2 flats.

I dont think the spot was significant tonight on the action given. A front was bringing a storm in slowly from the west, and the fish turned on the feedbag heavy for about 90 minutes before the front arrived. When the winds from the approaching front came in, the bite was done.

A tree fell on my house when I was out fishing.. its ok, the fish were biting!

6/12/07 -Mississippi backwaters

Water temp 62

68 degrees start of the day – 85 @ finish

waning crescent moon

bait = 4″ to 6″ sunnys

7:30am to 12 noon

current med heavy…slightly dirty

Fish 3 holes average-15 to 20 ft in the back channels

4 flathead runs…1 dropped the bait….1 caught- 15 to 18#??

multiple hits-lots of drops- on stinkbait for channel’s

2 boated , 1 fiddler,1 5# for supper

6/12/07
St Croix River
Fished from 07:30pm to 11:30pm
Weather: Clear, winds calm, warm night – 91 degrees today
River Elevation: 676.4′ (Normal 675.5′)
Surface Temp: 75 degrees
Sunset: 8:58pm
Only fished one spot – caught a 22″ flathead on a large bullhead at 9:46pm (the only run of the night)
Lots of bait fish and fish activity tonight – beautiful calm night with lots of bugs
I’ve switched to fishing circle hooks on my flathead rods. I missed two nice runs on my last trip so I decided to try circle hooks. I’m using 8/0 Gamakatsu Octopus circle hooks with bullheads. I leave the reel engaged and the rod in a rod holder and I let the fish load up the rod before I take it out. My only run was a small flathead but he hooked himself perfectly. I’m going to try this for a while and see how my hookup percentage goes.

Great Twins Game – they beat Atlanta

6/13/07 Mississippi Pool 8

Drifting for Channels with cut sucker.
Slight breeze out of the South.
Not a cloud in the sky.
Water Temp 71 degrees.

The drift took place in 6-20fow. Sand flats and the tips of wing dams. The same areas that produced 8-11lb Channels for me last year.
Very few bits and only one large sheephead was boated.
Things have got to break wide open soon
First night this year I fished in a T-Shirt all night.
Bugs were also nasty, but still not as pesky as the large boat traffic

6/12 Minnesota River
water temp 76.5
6″-7″ bullheads
8pm-12:30am

A couple babies(5#-7#) bit early around 8:30 at an inlet with good flow. Bait and gar everywhere. I stuck it out at that spot through the dark hour and 1 more run came to a lost mid size fish. I relocated to another creek around 10:30. We had several runs over a 2 hour period, many missed fish, fish lost to a snag that came in overnight, and a big fish in the end that decided to unhook itself after a good battle… one of those nights.

The bites were more aggressive than previous nights, the fish seemed to love the new snag, they would hit the bait and head for it immediately. All bigger fish took baits well after dark.

6/14 Minnesota River

8pm-12:30am
Cut bank near a creek mouth, no creek flow?
water temp 78

Our 1st fish(flat) came at 8:10 that weighed in at 38.5#, that fish was not tight to the bank or any defined structure, it was in the main current in roughly 15 fow. The next fish/run came at 8:45 and the screaming run turned out to be a 13.4# channel. That line was positioned about 10′ from shore just downstream of the creek mouth on a steep bank, that rod recieved many runs last night which I suspect were all channels taking the bullheads. The last fish came at about 9:45 which was a 23.8 flathead which came from about 2′ barely within the creek mouth.

Several runs late, but every one of them were screaming runs and stolen bait, I hightly suspect channel cats were the culprit.

6/14/07
St Croix River
Fished from 7:30pm to 10:30pm
Weather was beautiful – Clear skies, calm wind, warm day in the 90’s.
Surface temp: 77 degrees.
Lots of bait activity all night.
Fished with stcroixer – it was nice to have some company. We tried a couple of new spots that looked promising – nice current flow, good cover, and a lot of bait nearby but we got skunked. We fished 2 rods with cut bullhead for channels and 2 rods with live bullheads for flatheads. No runs at all – we called it an early night at 10:30 shortly after the Twins game ended.
A great Twins game – they beat Atlanta with a rally in the bottom of the 9th.

6/16/07 Saturday night.
St Croix River
Fished from 7:30pm to 12:00am.
Surface temp: 81 degrees (at this water temp the spawn can’t be far off).
Weather: Clear skies, Calm winds, sliver of a new moon.
River Elevation is at normal level: 675.5′
Current flow is getting low – lots of algae & summer crud floating north of Stillwater.
Fished 2 new spots last night – caught one 24″ flathead at 11:30pm. I never detected a hit – He picked up the bullhead and swam under the boat and got himself hung up. I was checking the rod because I couldn’t see any bullhead action on the rod. Then I noticed it was under the boat – took me 20 minutes to get him into the boat. My 65# test PowerPro pulled in the snag and the fish.
At least I didn’t get skunked.
Beautiful night – every island was full of campers. The summer fireworks season has started on the St Croix – gives you something to watch on a clear night.
Twins lost to the Brewers – that’s two in a row.