Category Archives: Catfish

October 29, 2015 – Walnut Creek – Joe Pool Lake

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Low winds predicted before rain coming the next day.  Water at the lake was much higher than normal.  I had to park my car close to the dirt road near the kayak launch area.  I then had to wheel my yak about 30 yards to the lake.  I could not catch any shad near the launch, and the water was dirty.  Decided to paddle over to the fishing barge and try to catch some shad.  I found a ton sitting behind the barge, and even caught a little catfish in my cast net.  (put it back of course.)

I noticed my hummingbird was not on, so I powered it up.  It died a few seconds later.  Checked all cables and no go.  Battery was dead.  I did not recharge it after my last trip.  Dropped a jig at any visible stumps, but did not get a bite.  Dropped down some cut shad and got a few taps.  I thought it was a small bluegill, since I could not set the hook on it.  I just let it keep tapping, and then it jerked the rod and started pulling my yak.

Catfish??  Yep, catfish.  I didn’t have my catfish rod, so I cut the hook off a roadrunner and used that for weight.  I had some 1/0 circle hooks and attached the cut shad to that.  I caught twelve in just under an hour.  I kept six big ones and headed back to the launch.

Water was high and muddy.  It should be back at flood stage after this weekends rain.  I’ll probably have to put in at the swimming area to get back to the creek.  Pulled out the electric knife and filleted the cats when I got home.

April 30, 2015 – Lake Fork

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Wind forecast was low for Thursday, so I decided to go out to Lake Fork for the first time.  It’s a one hour and 20 minute drive, but what else did I have to do today?

I checked a shallow cove near the boat ramp, but did not find anything. Ran the hummingbird 598ci SI by the rocks near the 515 bridge, but didn’t see anything interesting.  Started to scan the bridge, but the waves were a little rough, even with low wind.  I started paddling away from the bridge, and noticed some brush in open water around 18 feet.

I dropped in a road runner and felt the familiar tap tap of a bluegill.  I tied up to a nearby branch and dropped down some worms.  I only got a bite once I dropped the worm all the way down to the bottom.  I caught bluegills, drum, yellow perch, greenies, rock bass and catfish all from this one spot.

No crappie or bass from this location.  I had something break my small #6 hook, I assume it was a large cat. I stayed on this spot for around two hours catching fish.







October 2, 2013 – Walnut Creek – Joe Pool Lake

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Wind was super high, so I decided to go over to the creek. Water was light brown and the water temp was 77 degrees, but it went up to 80 before I left. The first fish I caught was a small catfish on a silver crappie crank bait. The catfish’s mouth was stuck between two of the barbs on one of the treble hooks, so I was forced to hold it with my hands to remove the hooks. (See my previous posts about my luck handling catfish.)

I jigged a few stumps, but didn’t find any fish. I stopped by a tree in 6ft an pulled out a nice crappie. I thought surely I would be able to catch a few more, so I turned on my gopro and started hitting stumps and trees. Twenty minutes went by without a bite. So off went the gopro. Dirty water in the creek usually means slow fishing.

I caught a few more small crappie here and there.

I threw the spinner bait around a few stumps and got a nice 4 lb bass to hit. It didn’t hit until it was about 2 ft away from the yak. I only had a small amount of line out, so I grabbed it with my net.