Went to the Bird Refuge again tonight and man’o man did i have a blast, and achive the biggest fish of my short fishing career! Got out there at 5 and fished part of the bear with no luck. then moved to the canal that comes off the bear, me and my friend each caught small cats. Decided to go all the way out to the Refuge Storage Building. Little did i know that i was in store with a lifetime memory. Through my minnow in by some carp and 3 seconds later BAM off goes my line with a expected carp. WRONG 
, 5 minutes into it i get it close to the surface to discover i have one big cat on the end of my line. 5 minutes later and a handful of laughs, we finally get him to the shore and have him safely on the road. Well anyways, he ended up being 26’’ long and 11 pounds 
my biggest fish yet. I caught 3 more smaller cats and my buddy cat 1 and lost a handle full. Days totall 5 cats caught and atleast 4 lost. Great day, even though it wasn’t the fastest we still had fun!
Nice fish! If you ever want to go hit the bear with someone, let me know. I’ve been going up there quite a bit this year.
there ya go man!!! now your really gonna be hooked… lol i spend every weekend out there… and once u get them figured out a 10 fish night in that size range is possible… good luck to ya!! any questions just shoot me a pm … id even be happy to show ya a few things.
Nice trip.
**Not attacking you, but I have to ask. What kind of scales did you use to weigh that fish…or did you just estimate? I have caught bajillions of cats that size (26") and kept records over the years. It is extremely unlikely that fish actually weighed more than about 7 or 8 pounds. And, it seemed to be normally proportioned. **
An 11 pound fish will generally be over 30 inches long. My biggest cat last year was 32 inches long and weighed just over 12 pounds…and she was fatter than the one in your picture. I am attaching a picture of that one.
Nice work. Keep at it. There are fish in there much bigger than that one.
once again i this is not an attack…lol but i definitly agree with the tubemaster, every cat i have caught over 10lbs is typically over that 30 inch mark…
but i must say that is a very very nice cat… i would give her a solid 7-8 lbs very healthy fish for sure!!
here is a crappy pic of a 14ish lber that went 33"long
So DDG did you ever hit up Birch creek for some tigers?
That is a nice cat, 26 inches probly a 7 lb fish. Great catch though, I need to borrow your scale!! Its ok to guesstimate but people who catch a lot of fish know what they weigh[;)] not to put you down, just might needa new scale.
It is hard to get a good scale without paying a few bucks, but well worth the investment
I’ll tell ya man, you UTAH guyz make it tuff to post pix and show some excitement… Give the man a break he just said he hasnt catfished long. and im sure he is on his fish “high” after catching his biggest yet. who cares if the fish is 7 or 11lbs just look at the pix and tell him great job…
You never told a little fish tale??? i’ve been reading your posts for some time now, come on…
ANYWHO good kittie man keep posting…
How about a little creditbility, or is that something we shouldn’t worry about either??? Sounds kinda like playing a game and not keeping score so that both teams can claim to be the winner. They looked like young guys learning how to fish so why not help them start out on the right path.[;)]
ok.
Nice fish and great pictures…Even if I had to stand on my head to see it..[;)][sly][sly]
What kind of minnow did you catch it on???
You look pretty darn happy in that 1st pic!
Congrats!
No 
they guy i was going to go with flaked out, he had to go get a car in salt lake. but i still want to go up there.
Large emerald shinners from sportsmens. I went out on monday night and was using carp guts and caught 3 cats and lost one or two.
Hey tube dude and all the others questioning the weight of my cat 
. I had my friend weigh himself on a electric scale and he weighed 160.? and than i handed him the cat by the gills and the scale went up to 171.? so it could be 9.? to 11 pounds. Oh well it don’t matter to me we can call it 7 pounds still don’t beat any of my previous fish. Still proud of it. Oh ya my feathers are a little ruffled by the way. Ok i’m over it [;)]
It’s a nice cat no matter what it weighed u are correct. Didn’t mean to ruffle any feathers, u probably know by now that you chose the wrong method to weigh a fish. Don’t get discouraged it won’t be long and you will be pulling in fish over 11 pounds your just getting started!! [fishin]
My comments were not made to ruffle your feathers. But your explanation of how the fish was weighed answers my question. You DID NOT use a good digital scale, so any results you got are likely to be highly inaccurate. Even a so-called “fisherman’s scales”…with the pull-down spring…can be off by a wide margin.
As I stated in my original post, I have caught and weighed hundreds of catfish in that general size range. There will be some variation in weights, based on the condition of the fish. Also, females (like yours) tend to weigh more than males of the same length, because males have larger heads but thinner bodies. But, your fish would have had to be much fatter to score over the 8 pound mark at that length.
**I seldom challenge any post on BFT in terms of length or weight, etc. I leave that to a few guys who seem to feel they have to keep everybody else straight. I am sorry if I offended you. **
Once again, congratulations on a nice fish and thanks for posting your report and pictures. I would only suggest that if you have a goal to keep getting bigger and bigger fish that you invest in a good set of scales so that you can get accurate weights and measurements. You don’t need to spend a lot of money for “certified” scales, but most digital anglers’ scales (battery powered) will do a much more accurate job than handing a fish to someone who is already standing on scales intended for weighing humans.
I learned about accuracy in weights a long time ago. When my newborn daughter was weighed on my “fishing scales”, she weighed almost 50 pounds. (Joke)
Tube Dude, all is well i just put ruffled feathers as a joke [;)] that’s my kinda humor haha. Ya i might just have to go buy a scale made for weighing fish. Thanks for the advice.
I gotta know why a HOME scale is highly inaccurate.
Okay have the same guy stand on it, then hand him a bag of sugar.
I find home scales pretty darn accurate.
At least weighing myself then going to the Dr. and getting the same reading.
Maybe it is time Tube Dude got rid of that old justice style scale, and stepped up to the new digital…JUST KIDDING OL’ MAN.
Maybe his cat ate rocks…or maybe it had more PCB’s in it…LOL
All kidding aside…RIGHT ON for a first. Tuff act to follow though[;)]