Dragging for Cats!!

I started playing around slow dragging cut bait for channels last night and picked up one nice fat 26″ channel and missed two. I’m starting to see lots of bait pods showing up on the St Croix and most everything is chasing them right now. On a flat calm night you can just watch across the water and see fish just hammering all the bait. Find the bait and you find the cats – they are most always in and around all that bait activity. Seems a little early in the season for the bait pods to show up but this warm water must have hatched them so the circle of life goes on. Time to chase bait and catch cats.

The St Croix has bottomed out at its normal summertime low of 675.3′ and the water temp was a warm 83 degrees last night. There is a lot of backwater crud and grass floating in the current right now which must have busted loose after this last rain. You have to clear your lines about every 10 minutes or so as they pick up a fair amount of grass.

By the way – along with the bait hatch came a serious cruiser hatch – darn things are everywhere and throwing some serious wakes.

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By the way – along with the bait hatch came a serious cruiser hatch – darn things are everywhere and throwing some serious wakes.

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The scurge of the St. Croix. Argggh!

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By the way – along with the bait hatch came a serious cruiser hatch – darn things are everywhere and throwing some serious wakes.

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do they make a spray or thermocell to repel those too?

Steve could mount a cannon. I personally would go with paint ball guns with permanent marker ink.

I’ve got a few potato guns laying around the garage

The other part of the problem is that the things are full of thong bikinis. Kind of breaks the concentration on fishing.

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The other part of the problem is that the things are full of thong bikinis. Kind of breaks the concentration on fishing.

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Oh, so you saw me

Luckily I did not see you. That would have probably caused me to have a stroke. Why did you have to destroy the mental images I stored from last night – now all I see is that vision of your photo in the thong. EEWWW!!

Ah thongers! I am trading in the paint gun for binocs. Only when Ralphy is not on the water.

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Ah thongers! I am trading in the paint gun for binocs. Only when Ralphy is not on the water.

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But how will you know when I will show up???

Mike is on the board catching two cats while dragging cut baits. Not close too the double digits yet but it was a pleasure taking a picture of these kitty’s at 20 and 22 inches.
The first came out of 6fow and the second was found under a bait ball in 20fow.
Being a Wednesday evening followed by a work day we were off the water at 9pm, prime time, come on weekend

As for the boat traffic on pool 8, we seen the sheriff boat and maybe 4 other cruisers and that was it. They must have had a good hatch on your waters Steve

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They must have had a good hatch on your waters Steve

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They use snow plows.

Nice fish Mike!

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But how will you know when I will show up???

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I’ll go by the blood curdling screeches of women and children as you make your way on the river.

They’ll be screeching…for joy

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They’ll be screeching…for joy

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I knew I left the door open on that one.

Who is Joy? Is she related to Ms.Delight?

I thinks she works at the purple palace

Steve is just the innovator when it comes to thinking outside the box on new cattin’ techniques. That rattle bobber trick sounds like its putting fish in the boat.

Anyways… I’ve been doing a bit of thinking on the dragging technique and wondering how I could apply it (or IF) to live bait and flathead cats. Seams like as the summer moves on and water levels and current drop, the cats spread out, yet we still fish them spot on the spot from an anchored position.

Now I’m thinking outside the box here and the technique has not been attempted but what I’m thinking is SLOW trolling some areas to cover water sort of handline style but with a rod, so 3-waying. Sorry about the walleye references but they are effective in the river. Handline weights are heavier than we ever use for live baiting cats but you could put a lively bullhead on a 2-4′ leader behind a handline shank and slowly move your way around the river. I could think of quite a few areas on the Minnesota where it would allow you to cover the area rather than wonder if you are anchored or casting to the right place.

I’ve been doing more thinking than fishing lately but I think this “May” work.

Thoughts?

I was just thinking of trolling for cats on Tuesday when we were out. I think it is doable under certain conditions in certain spots. I think one could just throw like 10-16 oz of weight on and go with a 12 inch leader as usual, then drag it around like you are lindy riggin.

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Thoughts?

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I think it sounds like a new and exciting way to lose tackle if done on the MN river, but perhaps on the Croix or Miss it might work…and it does sound like work.

The day I start “hand lining” for cats, is the day I take up Bass fishing.

There’s a reason I like Cattin and it has nothing to do with hanging over the edge of the boat bouncing 2lb weights off the bottom while trying to concentrate on the GPS trail and then cranking them in with a winch.

There’s a post in the Mississippi Cat Forum about drifting with live bait for flats.

There’s a fella on the Ohio that was talking about this 3-5 years ago. I tried it on the Croix. Didn’t work too well….mostly because I couldn’t wait that long for a bite and started drifting with cut bait.

I’ll see if I can find it.