I have seen the ‘night archers’ on Mendota take an occasional TROPHY CHANNEL CAT while shooting carp. I happens now and it will happen with more regularity if allowed.

L8R…Ken

Probably hooked a beaver Dan. Lots of those around ya know. And as shallow as it is there, you’re more likely to hook one of those guys. 3/16″ line in nothing for them to chew through and it would take a pretty dang big rock to stop one of them big boys from pulling that around.

L8R…Ken

You the man Steve…congrats.

L8R…Ken

Slip bobber work wonders in weeds. Try to set the depth just above the weeds and the cats will find your bait and You will know it. I was doing this just last night on a local reservoir. I have some of the Whisker Seeker Nightstrike lighted bobbers. And they worked great. Even caught a flat head last night. Would have never known I even had a bite but the lighted bobber moved directly at the boat. By the time I got all the slack out and could feel the fish, it was 10′ from the boat.

One thing about bobber fishing, don’t use circle hooks. The objective of the circle hook is to get enough pressure from the fish pulling to move the hook to the corner of the mouth and hook up. You don’t usually get enough pressure on the line to do this so when you try to set the hook, you end up just pulling the circle hook out of the fishes mouth. I love circle hooks, but not with bobbers.

Nice flattie Steve. I just retired myself. Maybe I could head your way sometime and if you have room in your pontoon, we could try for some flatties together. I’d be sure to head up during the week too. I am a true believer in letting the masses have the weekends as well…I usually have the river here to myself during the week.

I used to be that guy that thought you absolutely had to use live bait for flatties. But I have changed. I catch as many with cut baits and I do with live baits. It is hard to be live greenies or live shad though. But if it’s slow with live bait, a fresh cut, bloody fish chunk will get them activated I believe.

L8R…Ken

“Although it’s nice to get a big fish out of the way right at the start of a trip, it raises the bar so high that a decent 28 pound fish looks small.”

Funny you should make that statement Brian. A few of us that fish Mendota regularly have what we call the “Mendota Syndrome”. We catch so many large channel cats there…15 to 25 pounds…that when we catch a 12-15 pounder, we just toy with it at the boat and say “oh, it’s only a 12 pounder”. Now really, how many guys catch 12 pounders regularly? Someone could say we are disappointed with a 12 pounder but we aren’t. Took a first timer to Mendota and after a couple hours, he caught the “syndrome” himself…heard him saying “oh, it’s only a 12 pounder” just that soon.

That’s a nice looking string of flatties right there. I’ve gotten a 35, 24 and a few 10-12 pound flatties in the last two weeks. They are hungry right now. Have had many of my baits just smashed but not taken as well. Them flatties can be so frustrating at times but well worth the wait.

L8R…Ken

Got one the other day that was 42″x26″. Calculated 35.5 pounds. I’m gonna guess your (+/- 35″) was probable between 20 and 25 pounds. Get a girth measurement with that length and use this formula…(Girth x Girth) x length divided by 800. This is an IGA formula so it’s gonna be pretty close. Give answer in whole pounds. Nice flattie.

L8R…Ken

An update…had another tournament on Coralville Lake today. Nasty cold rainy weather but we managed to win this one too. We’re on a roll. Only weighed 34 pounds today though, what a difference. But it’s all relative. Fun is fun no matter what size it comes in.

Remember, Catfish is the new Bass. Pass it on.

L8R…Ken

I’m gonna do more flat head fishing this year and that rig looks like it might be a good one. Thanks for the tip Steve.

L8R…Ken

I can’t post pic’s anymore. Sorry guys, you’ll have to just us your imagination…or go to my FB page.

L8R…Ken

You fishing from a boat or shore? Makes a lot of difference. Channels are biting and have been for a month in Cedar Rapids. I fish from a boat so I have endless options. Right now, I’d use fresh cut bait…chubs or shad would be best. Find a current change…around a tree or rocks or at the mouth of a creek (Black Hawk Creek comes to mind). Good luck and keep looking, you’ll find them.

L8R…Ken

FishBlood&RiverMud wrote:

I’m the same way ken. Length means nothing IMO, but having never handled a blue I was curious.

Well, they are built just like a channel cat, so the next time you catch a 52 pound channel, measure it and you’ll probably be really close to the same size. Just kidding buddy…but I would really like to catch a 52 pound channel cat. I think channels fight better than a blue pound for pound. Plus that would be a record anywhere.

L8R…Ken

FishBlood&RiverMud wrote:

Did you length that fish Ken? Love that you can’t see the tail and it wraps around your shoulder. 46″?

I did not get a length. I’ve never really been in the habit of getting lengths…seems the weight was always a much better judge of size for me. I’ve seen some really long, yet light weight fish so a length is kinda misleading in my opinion. I do capture a length once in a while, just to get an idea of weight when I might not have a scale handy.

L8R…Ken

I’ve been using Whisker Seeker Tackle rods…both the 7-6 and the 9-6 rods. I really like them and the price is not outrageous. I have some ABU 6500’s and 7000’s but I switched a couple years ago to the Penn Squalls that I really like. They are very tough reels and cast a mile. The drag is pretty smooth…no complaints and cheaper than the ABU’s.

I also use the WST 7-6 spinning rods matched up with some Penn Fierce reels that I like for channel cats. They’ll do the job on blues and flatheads too though and I would use them on sturgeon…if I had sturgeon around here.

Good luck boys…the cats are biting right now…go git some!!!

L8R…Ken

Yeah, I’ve tried those ring worms before. Couldn’t keep those pesky walleyes off the hook though. Those things can be a real pain when you’re trying to catch cat fish. So I switched to cut bait and didn’t catch another walleye.

Went to Mendota yesterday. Caught 12 nice cats there. Biggest was 18 pounds, average was just under 12 pounds. Ice Out is definitely in full swing. I’ll be heading back to Mendota Monday, then it’s off the Erie for some of those pesky walleyes…I hope to get a 12 pounder there and a 20 pound cat at Mendota. Life is good.

Good luck you all…Ken

Next week I will be in Wisconsin, Iowa and Ohio fishing. Might hit somewhere in Illinois if I can squeeze it in. But like you say, so many fish, so much water and so little time. Just doing the best I can with what I’ve got Brian.

L8R…Ken

Ryan is a great guide and he knows that lake. We spent a day with him last year…way windy and only managed one over twenty pounds.

Looks like you guys had fun. That’s what it’s all about.

L8R…Ken

I think if you are fishing downstream, it shouldn’t matter which weight you use. On the other hand, if you are fishing across the current, the no roll would actually work better as it won’t ‘roll’…thus the name.

with reference to the sinker slides. I always use a three way swivel with a snap attached to one of the eyes. Hook the sinker…any sinker that has an eye…to the three way. It is stationary and yes a fish will feel the weight but I don’t believe a sturgeon, catfish or most other fish will even care about that. I simply do not want anything sliding on my line.

L8R…Ken

Seems like they can clamp down on something harder in cold water than in warm water. I think they may not be able to open their mouth as wide in cold water as well, thus the smaller baits seem to work better.

Sounds like you had some fun this winter though. I know I am looking forward to next year already, but the Ice Put Cats are calling right now. Time to answer that call.

L8R…Ken

slipperybob wrote:

Came back from horseshoe,

Caught one

Lost quite a few, when they got unhooked. Very light biters and appears to prefer inspecting the area above the lure. They were actually checking for a line tied to it. Sneaky fellers. Is this the result of learned behavior?

Looking for attached line…wow, that’s a new one on me. Maybe the line had some scent on it and they were checking that. I don’t think they were looking for you line as a defensive move though…they ain’t that smart. They can be pretty finicky biters at time though, that is for sure. Sounds like you did have some success. We found that you had to move around quite a bit. Those cats are nomadic and travel in schools. It can be hot and heavy when the school moved through, but if they ain’t there, it’s a ghost town.

L8R…Ken

Well, the Ice Cats venture for early 2016 is over. I had some success every time I went out this year for Ice Cats. Our best day was in the middle of February, we managed to put about 30 on the ice. It was at a local spot here in Cedar Rapids with a couple friends. Cold and windy that day, glad I bought an Eskimo insulated tent to sit in to get out of the wind and warm up.

Some of the things I learned this season. Our best presentation was dead sticking on or near the bottom. But we were successful with bait suspended up to 2 feet off the bottom as well as jigging for them. Jigging was by far the most fun…watching the Vex screen turn completely red around your bait, then a tap and it was on.

Not many nibblers. Seemed like if they were biting, they wanted it. Sometimes they would really slam it and others they would pick up the bait and run sideways…you could see the line moving sideways in the hole. If I ever had a bite but no hook up, I could drop the bait back down and jig the bait and the fish would return to bite again…at least I’m assuming it was the same fish.

We’d open a number of holes, drop our Vex in and if we marked any fish at all, we’d drop a line down. If we marked suspended bait, we’d drop our lines in. Sometimes in those situations, we’d get bit right away, sometimes not. But generally, if we marked fish, we’d hook up eventually.

As far as structure, the cats didn’t seem to care much about it. Although we did catch most of our biggest in the deeper water with a flat bottom. We did catch a lot where the bottom had a rise going from deep to shallow. Didn’t really have much luck in the shallows but more like the breaks. Brush sure didn’t seem to matter at all.

Bait was important. We started with fresh cut gills, and fathead minnows. We tried some frozen shad leftover from last fall that worked well too. Finally had out best luck with frozen shad guts. That proved to be out best producer. But all of the baits we used worked very well. One thing in common with all these baits were size…it seemed the smaller pieces worked better, or at least we got more hook ups with smaller baits.

We fished a couple local spots here and made a couple trips to Mendota. Did extremely well locally and well on Mendota. We only used cut gills and fatheads at Mendota, never tried shad guts. It did seem that fresher was better there though. Bloody baits were best. A medium sized bait worked well on Mendota but that may have been because the Ice Cats on Mendota were so much bigger. We got a couple over 20 pounds through the ice and I’d guess an average was around 12 pounds. Here in my local waters, 8 pounds was about the biggest with a lot in the 3-4 pound range…great eaters.

All in all, it was a very successful Ice Cats season. I learned a lot, caught a lot and had a lot of fun trying and experimenting. The ice is off the river here now so it’s time for Ice Out Cats. Gotta go catch some fresh shad and chubs for cut bait and hit the river.

Good luck to everyone and maybe you can get a few tips from this to use next year for Ice Cats in your area.

L8R…Ken

Yeah, a criminal record.

As far as I know, there aren’t any Blues in the Mississippi, or it’s tributaries, upstream from the dam at Keokuk, Iowa. You always hear someone say they caught a Blue, but it’s usually a male channel cat that is dark, dark grey to the point it appears to be blue. And their head is swollen so they don’t look like a usual channel cat.

In short, like Brian said, no blues in Minnesota.

L8R…Ken

Hit Mendota yesterday. 10-12″ of good clear ice. Got a couple hundred yards off shore and you could still see the bottom through the ice. Kinda spooky but it was good ice. Saw a lot of 4 wheelers and a snowmobile.

Started out pretty good…15 pounder on the ice not 10 minutes in but it slowed down after that. 5 of us ended up with 8 for the day. We actually got to see on on camera take a bait. Pretty cool. One of my partners had a pole pulled through the ice hole…he was bummed for quite a while. Then at the end of the day, put the camera down the hole and there it was, just laying on the bottom. A few more precise holes and he snagged his rod…the catch of the day.

Had a grat lunch about a mile out on the ice…brats cooked on my portable gas grill…man I like that thing…works great in the boat too.

All the cats we caught were 12-15 pounds. The males were really skinny but the femakes looked like they were fat with eggs and heathy.

I’ll put some pic’s up later. Gonna have to go again soon. If you’ve ever had the inclination to try Mendota through the ice, right now would be a good time to go. Good ice and they are bitting…albeit slow.

L8R…Ken

Oh year, fresh cut blue gills and fat heads were the bait that was working. Fresh out performed the frozen.

The quest for Ice Cats has begun. Went out yesterday, since there is finally enough ice to walk on (took a long time but it grew fast…found 8″ yesterday). I had some luck too. I only managed three but I call that a win. These weren’t accidental. Fished a backwater area on the Cedar River, I knew there were cats in there because I caught some in November. Water was 17′ deep. I was using cut shad for bait and from 1″ to 1′ off the bottom. Jigged one and caught two dead sticking with my Auto Hooker rigs. Here’s spme Pic’s:

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Just getting enough ice to start seriously thinking about trying it. Might have enough by this weekend to try. I’ll keep you all posted.

L8R…Ken

We be workin’ together now Brian. Thanks for your help.

L8R…Ken

Just an FYI…Iowa has a small group attempting the same as well. If Iowa and/or Wisconsin can further break this ice a little more, it would be a domino effect for bordering states to jump on the wagon…IMHO.

Good job Brian and others. You opened the door and we can all follow. Thanks for the hard work and efforts.

L8R…Ken

What chamberchamps say is what I have heard as well about Mendota. Just so deep that it takes a lot of cold weather to freeze it up. One of the last lakes to freeze over.

I really liked jigging last years cats through the ice. You’d watch the screen on your vex get all read, then that subtle little tick and you’re on. And yes, they do fight all the way up. It can be quite a chore to get that head up in the ice hole too, especially when the ice is over 12″ thick.

Come on Ice…I’m getting impatiant.

L8R…Ken

I used to make quite a few trips to the Miss for fall/winter ‘eyes and Sauger but I haven’t done that for a few years. MIght have to reconsider with this warm trend we are having. Good luck Brian…keep your lines tight.

L8R…Ken

Went out last night…in the boat. It was like ice fishing without ice. Cruised around until we marked fish on the bottom and suspended, set the anchor Lock and dropped our baits over the side. Vertical style. I took my customized Ice Cat rods that I put together…43″ long with Kalex61 reels. Used cut shad…very small pieces. We had 1/0 hooks and 3/8- 5/8 weights.

Tried 5-6 spots, caught fish at every stop. Biggest was around 5 pounds…not too big but on that Ice Cat rod, it was a blast. Ended up with 6 in the boat (all released of course). Had a few other bites but were short bites. I was not using circle hook but my partner was and he missed more ‘bites’ that I did.

I even tried one of my home made Automatic Fishermen out of the back of the boat…and it worked. It was dark and we heard a ‘twang’ from that rod, turned on our light and low and behold, the rod was bouncing. That just happened to be the biggest fish of the night.

I was very satisfied with our evening. All of our equipment worked as planned and we caught cat fish on December 10th…how many north of the Mason Dixson line can say that. I can’t wiat for ice now.

L8R…Ken