My partner Jim Moseley and I hauled the Crestliner down to KS last week to fish the King Kat Classic, which is their championship. What a nice, big lake to catch catfish on.
We prefished Milford Tues, Wed, and Thur, trying to find where the big uns might hang out. Found lots of good places in deeper water that we would try. We tried by the dam, in the middle of the lake, and up by the causeway. During prefishing, we found our fish in deeper water, but found more blues up by the causeway in only 20′. It just didn’t look like an area where we thought bigger blues might be, so it turned out that we fished that area for only a few hours, and never returned. We caught lots and lots of fish using blood, but none over 5lbs.
Tournament day 1 rolled around right after a big nasty storm Thursday night. We rolled out of bed to cool temps and continuing rain. We launched at Milford after boat check in and ran right across the lake to our spot, which was only about 1 1/2 miles from the ramp. Turned out that was the only area we fished as we were hoping to pull better fish out of there. Plus, we were afraid to leave. Our strategy was to fish the area hard and try to weed through the smaller fish for some weighers, and hopefully a big blue might happen by. So on Day 1 we fished it hard, and I caught our two biggest fish of the week. By ‘big’, I mean 6lb 12oz and 5lbs 8ozs! We got three other fish and headed in. We weighed enough for 23rd place, which was surprising. But lots of other guys had rough days. Day two comes, and we fished the same area, same technique, and apparently caught the same fish. Day 1 we weighed 25.35lbs of fish. Day 2? 25.30. Even weirder? We went from 23rd place to….23rd place of 114 teams, final. Very strange. We finished 8lbs and 12 places out of cash.
We ended up camped next to the Day 1 leaders, and they ended up taking 2nd place and a brand new boat home. Big fish of the tourny was their 34.75lb blue, but 108 lbs won it from some nice guys from OK. They caught their bigger fish in only 2 FOW. Only thing we could think of was that it had to be early in the morning.
I apologize for having no pictures- we were so busy most all of the time running 6 rods (a 3rd rod permit in KS is only $5) that we didn’t take the time to take any.
It was a great experience with lots of nice people to visit with. I even learned a few new things, which is always good. Next year’s classic is out in KY, so we’ll see what next year brings.
Thanks for sharing B!
I’ve always wanted to know what it was like to fish in a big cat tourney.
Just wondering, were there any locals fishing it?
Thanks Brian!
Funny you ask. There were some locals fishing it, and I know one team did real well, as they placed in the top 10. But we were fishing day 2 and this boat was drifting by and the guys weren’t doing ANYthing. Just kickin back and relaxing. We got to talking and asked where they were from, and they said “right here. Only caught 3 fish all day.” We couldn’t believe it. This was around 1:30, too. So that made us feel real good. I bet in two days we caught around 70 fish.
Brian did you accidentally catch any real fish .I mean trash fish while you were there.Walleye ,wipers.
We caught one drum on blood…does that count?
Actually, we were thinking about doing some fun fishing for other species, but to be honest, we just never really felt comfortable enough with all our spots, so we just kept on catfishin the whole time. I would like to make it back down there sometime to check out other stuff though. Looks like a good lake for that when the water’s not so hot.
Thanks for the report. Sounds like you guys had fun. What techniques and equipment did you guys use? What did the top team catch their fish on? Did you try anything besides blood? Just curious for my own learning more about catching cats.
Thanks, Bill
Thanks Bill!
You know, we didn’t really try anything other than blood. We ran blood 5 out of 6 rods, with the other one sporting some cutbait on the bottom and suspended, just in case we might hit a home run on that rod. It’s my ‘winch rod’ too (a heavy King Kat casting rod with a 6500 Ambassadeur reel, it’ll winch em in!), so it’s ready for a big fish! We fished mainly on the bottom in 30 FOW, but once in a while we’d catch one suspended. We fished the same area also to make the scent trail really attract the cats. We were hoping the wind would draw a few more in, and maybe it did, but no big ones.
The blood kinda sits and bounces along the bottom, so it’s real important to go slow. We only used about 1/4oz of weight in 30′.
I was never a believer in the Whuppin Sticks from Cabela’s, but a couple Sat nights ago we went to Elwood and got that 15 pounder, and I was real impressed with how it handled. Especially because the fish was kinda horsed in. I was sold, and bought one the next couple of days at Cabela’s, and caught a lot of fish on it in the tourny. They work well with blood because they have a lot of give and are easier on the blood. They are a lot of fun to catch cats on because they have so much give, but are so durable.
As for the winning team….I’m not completely sure, but I’m betting they were using cut bait of some sort, probably skipjack. I’m waiting for interviews and videos to be posted on ‘another website’.
Here’s a little bit more information on what the winners did to catch their fish.
1st place team:Roger and Jack were fishing in the backwaters of the lake catching their fish in 2-3 feet of water. The team had brought in a 32 pound plus fish on day 1 of the event putting them in second place for the first day. On day 2 their 30 pound plus fish gave them the edge to dominate the field in the classic. Their big fish on day 2 nearly escaped the team when it wrapped around a 4 foot long limb. Working together they managed to bring in the fish along with the limb in the process.
2nd place team:In second place was the 3 person family team of Joel, Megan and Dylan McWilliams of Oakley, IL with a total weight of 83.05 pounds. The team was in first place on day 1 with a weight of 60.85 pounds which included a 34.75 pound blue cat. On day 2 the team could not find a big kicker fish to put them in first place. The McWilliams were fishing a flat out on a point using cut bait.
3rd place team: Ron and Michelle were fishing in 30-50 feet of water using cut brim. The team had caught 221 fish in their 3 days on the lake and jokingly said they had to stop fishing by 1:00pm because they were so tired from catching so many fish.
Sounds like the cats were biting pretty good.Our best day on labor Day weekend was 62 white bass, wipers,walleye and a couple cats but it was hot and calm.
I like my Whuppin sticks. How you do your blood presentation?
Great Report Mate!
Thanks for sharing!
Ya, those Whuppin Sticks work real well for blood. We just thread blood onto trebles and hang it over the side and let it drift along the bottom. Works pretty well.
Thanks Husker. Good luck with SC this weekend.
Great report Brian!
Great job in the tournament too. 
That tourney is the National Chmpionship of catfishing isn’t it?
Is there somewhere we can view the final results? I know another guy that fished it and want to see how he did.
Thanks again guys! Yup, it is the national championship of catfishing, Ben. You can see a write up and pics by clicking the Brotherhood of Catfishing HERE. You can also view a list at Cabela’s HERE.
The presentation made to Phil King and Tim Haynie was pretty cool, even though it was under unfortunate circumstances.