Catfish Adventure Below a Dam

Steve and myself made a trip to one of my favorite rivers on Friday the 13TH!!!. First we had to stop and buy goldfish at 2.75 a pop but these were Jumbos. We made it to the spot and the river was a little higher than normal. After a little thought I went back to the car and got my life vest. Steve already had his on and by the look of the rushing water I had better have one on also.   
We had to pretty much swim a channel with a backpack on, rods and bait buckets. Then wade though waist deep fast water. This was all to get out in the middle where the fish are. This Dam is 600 feet long so we had to get out 300 feet . Boy was that a workout. This spot is not for the weak and is very dangerous hence the life jackets.

Anyway action was very good with slightly rising water and a full moon. The water flow today was aprox 2300 cfm.    Steve caught several Blues before I even had my first hit but we were after Flatheads. Sometime later I heard Steve yelling and look over and he is fighting a big one. Then the line went slack. Crap, cut on a rock. A short while later I get a good hit and I got her head up and kept it up. Brief hard battle and I released her back to fight again. Most of our hits came by casting the goldfish right up against the base of the dam.   An awesome day on an awesome river with a good friend. Cant beat that.

Outfit I used- Shimano 6500 Baitrunner on a  7' Ugly Stik Tiger Rod , Bait Goldfish, Terminal tackle - 2 oz bank sinker swivel then a 6 inch leader using an 8 or 9/0 Hook. 

An Awesome day!

A good night of Catfishing Using Goldfish and Cutbait

Dan River VirginiA

June 7th 2014

I went  to one of my favorite rivers in search of some cats 6/7 430pm -430am 6/8.

 I arrived at my spot a little after 4 and  I was at my first hole 430 ish, 

 Bait today would be 12 bream I caught earlier and had on ice for cutbait. These would get the garlic bath. I also bought the last 8 goldfish a bait store had so these would be my flathead bait.

Gear and Outfits used- 
Abu 7000c on American spirit Nite Stik , 40 lb Cajun with 3 oz bank sinker and 9/0 j hook.
Shimano 6500 baitrunner on Ugly stik tiger rod loaded with 25 lb big cat. 2 oz sinker with 9/0 circle hook.
Abu 6500c on white ugly stik loaded with 30 lb big game. 2 oz bank sinker with 7/0 j hook on 3 way rig.6
Oh, I cant leave out the boat.  Sears 12' Jon with 55 lb thrust motor. Water too shallow for my gas motors.

I immediately started getting hits on cutbait(didn't used goldfish till 30 min before dark) from blues 5-10 lbs with the biggest at 10-11 lbs. Moved every hr to a different hole and caught fish on each hole and also lost several big ones, still nothing big.

^^^^This equals this \/ \/ \/

  
I also brought along a Banana (oh no he didn't!) because the forum post the other day had me laughing. I bring bananas a lot while fishing and it has never hurt my fishing.

anyway, aprox 245 I set up on my last hole. Apox 3 am I get a good run on the Abu 6500 set with a goldfish. I set the hook and the battle is on!!!....It was crazy for a few as I had to hold this strong fish and wind in 2 lines that were out. After 5 mins I bring in a good 35lb flathead to anchor the blues I caught today. Can you say Banana Smana??.

                                               ^^^^^ This equals this \/ \/ \/

I set the lines out again and get one more run at aprox 4 am. A small 5 lb flattie. I release her and head home. A nice night of fishing.

going to bed..........

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