Here is a few photos of a nice Blue Catfish I caught on the Mississippi just below the Melvin Price Lock and Dam (north of St. Louis and the confluence point of the Missouri River). Had a pretty slow start, but once it hit, caught several other (including the photo of the Drum- which surprised me).
My mother came out and I thought she was not going to see us catch a fish. She was packing up to go back when it hit. I am glad she had a chance to see it happen.
Man, he fought hard. I was fishing with 30# test. It reminded me of when we were catching Trigger Fish out in the Atlantic.
It seems whenever a barge goes through the lock, that is the time when the fish turn on. I bet it has something to do with the water that is being released and the small bait fish that get caught up in the flow.
I also caught a much smaller blue that I released. I tried to be a good steward and release it gentle-like in the water. When I did, I totally busted my ass on the rocks- almost went face forward into the drink! Next time, I am going to toss it in.
Side Note: Actually broke an Ugly Stik on a snag- never had that happen before! took it back to Wal Mart and they replaced it- note to self: no matter what the commercial says, you CAN break an Ugly Stik!
Fish ON!
MLT
The main lake at Sherwood is still chock full of large Red-Ear Sunfish and Bluegills. Fished about 10' off shore with the standard: Slip bobbers and nightcrawlers. Action was a little slow at first, and is slower than summer- but was still able to get a nice stringer of above average sized pan fish. Largest Bluegill was 11", largest Red Ear was about 13". Great Day!
Had a lot of action at the river on this day. Charlie came out with me and we set some rods on Gizzard Shad and on Nightcrawlers. The bait store I like to frequent was out of the Herring (which is like candy to Blue Cats), so we had to go with the Gizzard.
Here is a few photos of a nice Blue Catfish I caught on the Mississippi just below the Melvin Price Lock and Dam (north of St. Louis and the confluence point of the Missouri River). Had a pretty slow start, but once it hit, caught several other (including the photo of the Drum- which surprised me).
Here are some great photos of the Melvin Price Lock and Dam near Alton, IL. This is a great place to fish- I forgot how much fun it was just to set some lines out and see what you can do. I got a new Ugly Stick 9' catfish rod, along with a new Tidewater reel, loaded with 30# Shakespeare red cajun line. What a great outfit! I cannot wait to take it to the Outer Banks next year to surf fish. I think that is one of the things I love most about fishing the big rivers- it reminds me in some ways of fishing the ocean. The rigs are the same, and the bait fishing concepts are the same as well.
Hit the lake about 8:00 a.m.- started off a little slow at some of the "go-to" spots. Probably has to do with the water in the lake being high. On that note, this is a lake that looked like it was dead this time last year- it has come back nicely! Looks like they found the leak area and the lake is really starting to hold water well.
Lake 35 was a little more productive than it has been in the last couple of weeks. Still getting some nice bites on Zoom Plastic Lizards with the Carolina Rig system. I noticed that the bass are moving into more of a traditional summer pattern. The larger bass was "laying in the salad" when he hit on the red 8" culprit worm, texas rigged. Barely felt the bite, thought it may have been a snag. Caught him in about 8' of water about 10' out from shore.
