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+--- Thread: Wildcat Weekend (/showthread.php?tid=1070358)
Wildcat Weekend - SkunkedAgain - 04-22-2019
[#008000]In case you haven't been watching the cat contest, this last weekend seen lots of bumping around, with a new biggest fish in the contest at 32" for Jigfisher... [#0000ff]Signups are still open, if you want to join in the fun, just let me know and I'll sign you up... No fee, it's like free and a lot of fun... [#ff0000]If you don't think you can catch that big of fish, sign up anyway and compete against your previous best record... I'm never very competitive, but I do like to try beating my previous best scores... So far I'm at my second highest score since I started the contests five or six years ago... so it can be fun competing against your best... four inches to go to tie last year for me... [/#ff0000][/#0000ff][/#008000]
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[#6000bf]Last weekend was really fun for me, I took Friday off work and went out on my toon and it took me a while to find the fish, but when I did it was a blast, first fish was a score bumper for me and while I was taking care of it, I had my worm rod take off and when I went to set that hook it snapped the line like it was light leader instead of the 20 lb test that it was... for the next hour and a half I had probably 8 other fish on the line, landed two about 24-25" fish and the rest spit it out or let go after getting my heart rate going for a few seconds each... After helping my wife for the mid day section I returned at 7:45 and fished till dark and got 2 others at 27" and three or four others around the 25" size, but they sure seemed a lot bigger since they are so fat right now... Fishing is getting towards its best of the year in my opinion, but you know me, I can't catch them during the summer... Anyway if you like cats, watch for the next warm spell and then go give them a shot, nothing like a cat when you set the hook in the shallower water and it starts to tear up the area like a gator on the line... Fun fish to catch and love to watch the splashing... Later J[/#6000bf]
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Re: [SkunkedAgain] Wildcat Weekend - wiperhunter2 - 04-24-2019
Sounds like you had a great weekend Jeff and the big cats are really tuning on up your way. Do you catch walleyes very often while fishing for cats or are you fishing too shallow for that to happen?
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Re: [wiperhunter2] Wildcat Weekend - SkunkedAgain - 04-24-2019
Hey Curt, the walleye up this way are kind of rare catches and I have to luck into them and it's usually only one or two a year and they are always a surprise while I'm fishing for something else... All of my eyes have come from the river channel so far, so where I'm fishing now in the shallower sloughs I don't expect to catch an eye, but it's always possible... I know the DWR gill netting surveys showed walleye out in the sloughs, but I've never lucked into one out there yet...
I did get an 18" LMB last year in the shallows, but it was a surprise as well.. Mostly just carp and channel cats following them around waiting for them to spawn... I think that's why the channels go shallow this time of year, is to clean up carp eggs. I found a pod of maybe 8-10 carp rooting around Friday and as soon as my lines pulled through that area I had hits on both lines and they were both channel cats... Doesn't always happen, but it was working good last Friday... I love it when I can troll and catch big fish. It's so much fun when that pole about pulls out of your hands as they thrash and tear things up... Learning to catch the cats trolling has been one of my better accomplishments up here... I always used to think you had to soak bait to catch cats, but they are way more fun on the troll and less fish swallow the bait trolling, but they are harder to set a hook into when they take it on the move, I tend to pull the bait out of their mouth without sticking them, but even that is fun too.. I'll learn how to bait my hook better someday so the hook tip stays exposed better so a jerk will hook them. Not sure where the fine line is between plenty of bait and being able to hook the fish, but I'll keep practicing and hope to figure it out someday... Later J
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Re: [SkunkedAgain] Wildcat Weekend - gmwahl - 04-24-2019
Good job Jeff!! That is the report I've been waiting to hear for a while now. I just respooled my favorite cat rod and I'm ready for action. Sounds like I will need to try this weekend now.
Mike
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Re: [gmwahl] Wildcat Weekend - SkunkedAgain - 04-24-2019
Yup, don't know if it's the heating up of the water and spawning carp, or the blown out river from the heavy runoff, but the cats seem to be in the sloughs now and there were fairly good numbers of fish, where earlier it was maybe one a trip, I had about 8-10 hits on each of the two trips Friday... So I can't say the next trip will be as good, but I'll probably try it again this weekend with high hopes... Good luck... J
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Re: [SkunkedAgain] Wildcat Weekend - Piscophilic - 04-24-2019
I'd bet the blown out river is a big part. Even salmon seek out slower moving water on the fringes when the rivers run high. I'm glad your having fun up there. I'm catching fish, but only one in the last 10 or 15 felt like a bump fish and it got off. Like you said though, you never know what the next day or the next hit will bring. And they are all fun!
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Re: [SkunkedAgain] Wildcat Weekend - catchinon - 04-24-2019
So how many do we have signed up so far? I know we had just over 100 last year and 40-something actually posted fish.
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Re: [Piscophilic] Wildcat Weekend - SkunkedAgain - 04-24-2019
I think you are correct on the assumption, when the river was running regular I'd catch one or two fish on a good trip and that was all the hits... Now the river is really high and fast moving and looks like chocolate milk and the sloughs seemed to have fish thick.... So I think it's the river as well that controls the good high numbers of fish... but I'm just guessing as well.. But I'm hoping for good fishing till the runoff subsides... Later J
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Re: [catchinon] Wildcat Weekend - SkunkedAgain - 04-24-2019
Craig I think we are at 69 signed up so far. We may end up down in numbers this year. Later J
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