St Croix Catfishing Report Update – 7/12/09

What a beautiful night to be on the river. Calm to light breeze, cool evening temps, partly cloudy with a beautiful moon. I got a late start and didn’t get hooks in the water until 2100. The boat traffic was way down from Saturday night and conditions were perfect for a night of catfishing.

At 2215 I heard the thunk of that flat hitting the bullie and then the clicker starting screaming. I got the rod out of the holder, pointed it at the fish and engaged the reel and that fish just kept going and set itself on the circle hook. She was pretty spunky and put up a great fight. I’m using the 2 hook cat bait harness and I was glad I did – the main 8/0 circle hook missed her completely but the 5/0 stinger circle hook was firmly embedded in the side of her mouth.

She measured out at 46″ X 25″ and the Flathead Weight Conversion chart puts her at 41 lbs. She was big and beautiful and hungry.

She was pretty beat up from spawning and I’m sure she was a hungry post-spawn female which is a good sign. Success two nights in a row has me ready to go again. I think the big ones are back and I’m after them now.

Steve,You’ve been having a good year,another nice St.Croix cat for your album.

How did the twins do?

Another St Croix piggie! Nice job Steve!

25″? Boy does the spawn take a lot out of them. Even the color makes it look like they are completely drained. Nice fish.

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25″? Boy does the spawn take a lot out of them. Even the color makes it look like they are completely drained. Nice fish.

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I was thinking the same thing. She is still quite a whopper though.

Hi Pug – She was really thin and the fight took a lot out of her. You could tell from her color that she was not in the best of health or condition. I tried to get her back in the water as quick as I could because once she got in the boat she just laid there like a lump. I had to hold her upright in the water for a long time to revive her prior to letting her go. This was a really big fish and I’ll bet her girth was 30″ or better before the spawn. I sure could have used those extra 5 points for the KOTC board.

Nice work Steve!

Hey everyone, IDO newby here. Get out on the Croix pretty frequently, most of the time in my Dad’s Crestliner Phantom.

First off, Steve D! Those are some monster cats you have pics of on this forum!

Second, I have a question for you catfishing guys. Have you ever been stuck/stung by a catfish? My buddy got tagged pretty good by a small channel cat yesterday. The barb got lodged in his foot a good half inch! His foot swelled up, but otherwise he seems to be fine. Anything serious that can happen from that type of thing?

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Have you ever been stuck/stung by a catfish? My buddy got tagged pretty good by a small channel cat yesterday. The barb got lodged in his foot a good half inch! His foot swelled up, but otherwise he seems to be fine. Anything serious that can happen from that type of thing?

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I have been stung many times, worse I ever got was it got red and swelled up quite a bit. I have never had one stuck in me that far by any means, was he able to get it all out of his foot? I would just watch for signs of infection

I’m just about healed up from a pretty good small channel cat cut between my thumb and pointing finger. He got me just as I was getting him off the hook. Those fins are razor sharp and easy to ignore until they zap you. The little channels that still have spots are the worst. If you just have small pokes like from a bullhead “Stingeze” works pretty good at taking the sting out of the cut. You can find it at Walmart or just about any drugstore. I found some recently at Menards. I keep some in my cat box and some in my fishing vest that I use when catching bullheads.

Thanks for the wisdom guys, I’ll tell him he can sleep easy again!

So how low is the water going to go this year Steve? Up north its all ready to the lowest point I have ever seen it. Nice fish.

I’ve caught a lot of catfish on the Rock River and the Mississippi and have never been barbed or cut, You need to learn how to hold them. “the little channels that still have spots” yeh, ok I now know your experience level.

Hi Mike – I was going to float down from Somerset Landing to Stillwater and changed my mind with the low water. The lack of rain in the forecast is not good for water levels. I’m seeing a lot of algae crud floating now too so the backwaters must really be shallow and cooking. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen it this low. Fishing has been good though – I haven’t even been on the big water south of Stillwater all summer.