Joined Lee at the north marina this morning for "whatever bites". Turned out to be an "NBC" day (Nothing But Cats). Sokay by me though. They are fun and good eats.
Pirate and Cookie drove up for a chat just before we launched. They set up out on the north point of the boat channel entrance and Cookie had just caught her first fish as I cruised by on my way out. Lee caught a few cats but had to leave early to tend to a cat puncture wound. He posted his own report.
Air temp at 7 am launch was about 70...rising to just over 80 at noon departure. Water temp was 78 to 80. Just right for kitties but not so much for most of the other species.
Only a few fishing boats launched this morning...although some play boats and jet skis were getting wet as I left. Couldn't see what success they might have been having, A couple of them stayed over along the north dike a lot. The three guys in nice Trophy boat came in as I was ramping and said they had only one bite..a nice cat. I filleted it for them at the fish cleaning station later.
I started out with stuff for non-cat pursuits...like crawler rigs, Gulp Minnows on jig heads, etc. Got a couple of silly cats on the crawlers but nary a sniff on anything else. After an hour or so of fooling around I broke out the LHBE minnows and whirly fligs and went a cattin'. Found a zone out in over 12 feet of water that had some active kitties and they came out to play. Fished two rods with different colored whirlies and caught fish on all the colors I tried. Never had any doubles but the singles came often enough to keep me in tugs.
Most of the cats were between 20 and 22 inches. One may have been a 2-footer. The last one I caught just before going back to the ramp was about 18 inches...the smallest of the day. I went through a "long dozen" bag of minnows (13-15) and caught a fish on just about every one. Plus the two I caught earlier on crawlers. I only kept 4 for the fillet board. All the fish hit hard and fought hard. Fun fun.
Pirate and Cookie drove up for a chat just before we launched. They set up out on the north point of the boat channel entrance and Cookie had just caught her first fish as I cruised by on my way out. Lee caught a few cats but had to leave early to tend to a cat puncture wound. He posted his own report.
Air temp at 7 am launch was about 70...rising to just over 80 at noon departure. Water temp was 78 to 80. Just right for kitties but not so much for most of the other species.
Only a few fishing boats launched this morning...although some play boats and jet skis were getting wet as I left. Couldn't see what success they might have been having, A couple of them stayed over along the north dike a lot. The three guys in nice Trophy boat came in as I was ramping and said they had only one bite..a nice cat. I filleted it for them at the fish cleaning station later.
I started out with stuff for non-cat pursuits...like crawler rigs, Gulp Minnows on jig heads, etc. Got a couple of silly cats on the crawlers but nary a sniff on anything else. After an hour or so of fooling around I broke out the LHBE minnows and whirly fligs and went a cattin'. Found a zone out in over 12 feet of water that had some active kitties and they came out to play. Fished two rods with different colored whirlies and caught fish on all the colors I tried. Never had any doubles but the singles came often enough to keep me in tugs.
Most of the cats were between 20 and 22 inches. One may have been a 2-footer. The last one I caught just before going back to the ramp was about 18 inches...the smallest of the day. I went through a "long dozen" bag of minnows (13-15) and caught a fish on just about every one. Plus the two I caught earlier on crawlers. I only kept 4 for the fillet board. All the fish hit hard and fought hard. Fun fun.