The hammering crappies vid is unreal.

Honestly, though, for the money I haven’t found anything better than this. You can buy three of them for the price of one Tiger. I finally had one succumb to years of abuse and weathering and bust in half on me this last season, but it’s more as a result of neglect (keeping them outside every winter) than the rod’s deficiency. It’s also lighter in weight than the E-glass options because it’s graphite composite.
American Spirit Nite Stick MH 7′ Spinning

I have one Tiger Lite heavy 1pc that I put in the rotation last year and it was definitely my lucky pole – I want to say every cat over 30 pounds came in on that pole. If not, it was close. I like it a lot but would like a bit more backbone, so maybe I’ll order the Tiger instead of the Tiger Lite this year. The part that concerns me on the Lite is that the guides seem flimsy, but it definitely held up to some very solid fights this past season.

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Where’s Aaron when a guy needs him?

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Painting my Barn!

Stone cat, willow cat, same fish different names.

I am surprised I did not hear about this before.

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“Willow cat” is a generic name for small catfish of several species sold as bait. They can be tadpole madtoms or fry of larger cats such as bullheads or channels. I think a lot of what gets sold as willowcats locally are black bullhead fry. There is no particular species with willowcat as a common name.

Stonecat refers specifically to madtoms, of which there are about 8 species in the Mississippi, most of which get no bigger than the ones pictured above.

Slender madtom, also known as slender stonecat.

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What I’ve found out a guy can do to make the bigger channels taste better is a couple things. Lets say its a 15 lb. channel. A fish that size will be have a fillet on both sides about 1 1/2 thick and it may taste a little strong. What I do is slice lengthwize so its now two fillets of 3/4″ thick, and do that on both sides of the fish. Then I simply soak them in saltwater for a couple days and it takes most of the strong fish taste out of the fillet, a good trick in late summer. Any thickness fillet that come from under a 10 pound fish and under, especially spring catfish after their systems have wintered over is especially good. If you do catch a bigger channel or flathead try slicing the thickness in half and soak it in saltwater, it cuts the oil in the flesh and does taste better but it is hard to beat any catfish under 5 pounds, especially the 2 pounders and under.

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If you have to go to lengths to remove the flavors from fish, you’re eating the wrong fish.

Two firsts of the year – 44 for me, 12 for Ced…

Last year by April 24th we’d already put a 51 pounder in the boat, but that was an entirely different April…

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No way in hell that is even close to 70 pounds. You silly walleye guys.

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+1 It’s in the 40s. It’s also not happy to be held by the gills.

Hard to believe but I actually caught a channel. My son’s friend got his on cut, mine was a bluegill eater.

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Dandies indeed! I like the one with the kid on the floor, awesome!

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Love it – reminds me of some early trips with my son:

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Sometimes I feel like the fish have had lackjaw too long.
Then after a few more skunks I have to reconsider

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I hear that. I’m having a lull this year – caught some nice ones early, but July and August have been full of little cats and skunks. I’ve been through it before though – it’s not keeping me off the water!

Simplest for me is a 1/32oz jighead with crawler. It’s also fun to use a Mini-mite tipped with a tiny bit of crawler – you’ll catch a few more smallies that way, which are also fun. In either case the gills hit hard and don’t end up swallowing it.

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Chris Tuckner Filleting a Perch

That is exactly how I do it.

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He’s leaving bones in the meat in those fillets. This is what I was asking about – those electrics go right through bones so you don’t have the same feel to fillet around them that you do with a regular fillet knife.

How do those blades do when they come up against tiny bones? The most important part of filleting fish is feeling for and cutting out the bones, which is really easy with a nice thin sharp fillet knife. Do the electrics ever just cut right through them?

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Steve might have just about the most comfy looking fishing setup ever. Nice upgrades!

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Exactly what I was thinking.

I could see doing that, it’s just that there are so many short-lived fish in the river around here that it seems a bit of a shame to kill a long-lived fish for table fare, no matter what body of water it comes from.

And in a river, 90% of the dead food a cat eats is drifting downstream – they’re habituated to eating that way.

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You guys use sinkers?

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Wouldn’t need them in low water typical of late July and August, but the water’s still way high.

Plants still respire at night, that’s where the O2 drain comes from.

One thing I would strongly suggest is oarlocks. Unbelievable how many boats these days just don’t have them, but you can get someone to weld you on some oarlocks pretty cheap. Store some cheap oars and forget about it until you need them. I’ve rowed back from the main channel many times in my life, running older equipment. It’s a long (5 mile) row, but it’s not the end of the world.

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I’m not sure if they are the same fish in both pics. The first pic looks like a flat and the second looks like a strange channel.

Is that what your thinking Matt?

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Same spot, I’m thinking same fish and a flat. The shape of the underside of the head is distinctly flathead in the first photo, and the second photo is just a weird angle, but it’s the same size fish and the broad back around the dorsal fin sure looks familiar…

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That is a monster channel. Do you have the GPS location?

Great pix Beeks!

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It would be if it was a channel.

Most posts where the weight is a guess I have to cringe and think to myself, “You wish!”

Not this one. That is a 50lb+ fish without a doubt. I still wish you’d had a scale because I’d love to know the weight, but it’s a monster. Congrats!

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White tailed Carp? what exactly is that?

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When hooked in the tail the bullhead will swim real hard to try and get away, instead of just laying on the bottom or under a rock like when you hook them in the mouth.

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Have you ever hooked bullheads in the mouth?

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Very few of us up here fish lakes for flats Robby.

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Which is relevant how?

I can see wanting more than a 5/0 kahle for big bullheads – the bait you’re using is different – but what in the world does lake vs. river have to do with your hook size discussion? If anything, you’ll want lighter gauge hooks in the river because the bait has current to contend with.

I personally use 7/0 kahles with bluegills of all sizes. I started out using 4/0 kahles and loved them, but that was when I used bullheads and hooked them in the mouth (which I still do if I use bullheads – seperate discussion). When I went to bluegills, I initially used the 4/0 kahles but went up to 7/0 when I started using bigger bluegills.

Size of bait is the primary consideration for size of hook. Robby uses goldfish most of the time if I remember correctly – about the size of a medium bluegill. 5/0 kahles are perfect for that bait and would be so in a river as well.

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Um… so which hand is using the remote?

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Once it’s adjusted for the load of the trip, it doesn’t need to be adjusted until the next outing when the boat may have more or less gear, gas ect.

It’s tough holding a light, steering and keeping a ready hand on the throttle at the same time!

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Okay – you’re talking about headlights, not a spotlight.

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I can see that for a tiller Matt. With a wheel boat, I need one extra hand.

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Um… so which hand is using the remote?

When running mine is fixed into my right hand and remotely controlled by my wrist. Works really well – no real remote system can be nearly as responsive.