Big Catfish and Little Catfish - Dan River Virginia

Big Catfish Little Catfish

July 15th my wife and I decided to do a little Catfishing.    Truth be told I decided and she chose to come along.  Normally bait on this river is very hard to come by so I either bring my own frozen cutbait, buy goldfish, or get both.   This time for some dumb reason I decided to buy 5 tubs of night crawlers and see what I could catch with just them.   My wife was like you/we are only going to catch little cats with crawlers!!
I assured her that IF a big Catfish came up on a big glob of crawlers that it was game on!

First, we had to get the boat in the water.

  First stop produced this massive cat!    Now don't laugh it was cool catching this little guy who got a 7/0 hook in his mouth.

Was she right about we were ony going to catch little ones????????

That stop also produced a decent longnose gar that you will have to see in the Video.

We moved a few more times with not much luck.   Our final stop had me put out all  3 rods.
All of the sudden and the spinner is smoking! after an Intense battle I finally subdued the beast by sticking my hand in her mouth and hoisting her aboard.   My wife tried to net her numerous times and with her being a rookie on the net I was getting worried that that would cause me to lose this giant so that is why I lipped her.

 I have included my you tube channel video of this catch but I will confess that this cat fought way better than the video suggest.  I had to cut out a lot of the fight due to the reel just being in front of the camera and this massive cat splashed water on the lens so you couldn't see some of the fight due to it being blury .

Game On!!!!!

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July 15th
Dan River right on the North Carolina Virginia Border
Boat-  Seras Gamefisher 1232
Motor- Mercury 2.5
Outfits-   Shimano 6500 Baitrunner Loaded with 25 lb Shur strike line on a 7' Ugly stik Tiger rod,  Abu Garcia 6500c loaded with 30lb Big game on a 7' Ugly Stik and a 7000c Abu loaded with 40 lb Red Cajun on an American Spirit Night Stik
Hook would be 7/0 Gamagatsu J and Circle hooks
Bait- Night crawlers on a 3 way rig

#danriver

#catfishing

#catfish

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..........

#catfishing

#danriver

#fishing

#danvillevirginia

Blues, Flatheads, Monster Brown Water Snakes and my new Squirrel (fishing) dog Pete

Thursday the 18th of April  I went to one of my favorites spots down east. This would be a special day even if I did not catch anything as I was taking my new Squirrel dog 'Pete" on a boat for the first time. Pete did extremely well which my wife said he wouldnt. Told ya so!...We started off trolling for Stripers and mananged a 12 incher right away but it was not going to be a good day for trolling as the oaks were putting off these tassle things that kept fouling the line. 
We then proceeeded to bream and bass fish and just like the other day the small bass were wearing out the Mepps Black Fury.The  Problem was not many bream were hitting it  and they were also not hitting crickets in the usual spots. We finally managed to catch a few for cut bait and since I had to leave at dark we motored to a spot to set out 2 lines. Right before this spot I look on this tree laying in the water and golly there is this one huge Brown water snake   Anyway we anchor up and I put a bream head on one and the next slice on the other rod. 5 minutes later one rod is bending like crazy!. I reel hard and get in a 15 lb flat head. No monster but I will take him. 1 hr later the other rod is bending and I reel in an 11 lb blue. No monster again but I am not complaining with catching fish.

Pete was loving every minute of this. A good day on the water. Mack

Caught quite a few small bass and a few bream on the Mepps Black Fury size 1.

Nice big ole Brown Water Snake!

15lb Flathead caught on Bream head

11lb Blue Cat caught on bream cutbait

A view of how I set my rods in the holder.

Pete on the way back to the ramp.

Shad Fishing Trip Turns in Bottom Fishing Trip - Contentnea Creek #catfish

Took my  friend Ron to a down east river 4-13-13 as he has been wanting me to take him there for over a year so finally we make it work out. Our goal and his wish was to fish for shad. We hit several good spots for shad and nothing. Not 1 hit. After speaking with several other anglers we decided the fish we either gone back down or upstream out of our reach. What would we fish for now? I didn't bring any crickets for bream and if no bream we could not catch bottom fish. We bass fished a while with no luck and came upon a place where little bitty minnows were running from my bait. I then dug out a Mepps #1 Black Fury and got quite a few hits on it from some nice bream but could not hook 1. How do you lose a fish on a treble? Ron caught a couple of bream from this spot but nothing this place is noted for. We floated down stream casting to every likely spot. I kept catching 12 inch bass on that little black fury. Ron hooked a big gar on a little bait and after a long battle he landed a nice 15 lb gar. I kept telling myself that a bass was gonna end up as cutbait but we finally managed to put a few more bream in the boat.

Ron needed to leave just before dark so that only gave is 30 -40 mins to bottom fish. Now Ron is an expert saltwater fisherman but this was new to him. We tied up to one of my holes and I put 2 rods out with cutbait. I told ron that I would tell him when to set the hook. Immediatly we were getting hits. 1st was a 8lb striper and then a 10 lb blue. Not a bad day for a busted trip. I think all 3 were his biggest freshwater fish.

Rod bottom fish were caught on- Abu 6500 with 30 lb line and 20 lb leader with a 2 oz zinker and a 7/0 circle hook

Bait - cut bream

Boat used -Coleman Scanoe with 2.5 Merc

Water temp- Toasty 70 degrees

I could not keep these small but fun bass off of the Mepps Black Fury

"Ron had a nice 15 minute battle with this Gar that was a tad over 15 lbs. I am holding it cause he didn't want too.    tag -  Gar Pictures North Carolina

"

Bottom Fishing with cut Bream got Ron this 8 lb Striper and the 10 lb blue

Mack

#contentneacreek

#catfish

#fishing

A young man, a scanoe and one Bad@$$ River. May 2010

My son wanted to go catch some fish on one of his last days during track out from school. I said where do you want to go?. He replied that he wanted to go to the neuse since that's the only place we catch fish. Ouch!..

So the Neuse River it was. we started the day with this little guy

A nice little yellow bellied slider


We then saw the biggest snapping turtle that I have ever seen but i could not get the camera out in time.

We then started catching bream, some up to 12 ozs but no big bull bream. All bream today caught on crickets aprox 1.5 ft under bobbers.

here's the avg bream we caught today


After bream fishing we then started out trying for some cats. We had some good hits but hooked only 2. Mine was a nice 7 lb blue that my son netted. This blue was caught on a flat that has been productive for me in the past. The bait was cut bream on a 4/0 hook. The reel is a 6500 Ambassadeur loaded with 30 lb line stuck on a white uglystik rod. This blue actually jumped out of the water when i set the hook. I have never seen a cat do that before!


Here is my son getting ready to crosseye a cat or a bait stealing gar!



Right at dark we left the flat and went to a "hole" which also has produced for me in the past. I told my son that we had to leave by 9:30 as we had a 2.5 hr ride home and I had to be at work early the next day. Right about when we were getting ready to leave, he popped up off his seat and set the hook and the fight was on! I did not even see the rod go down. After a short but awesome battle which almost ended up with my son in the river , he got this 22 lb flattie canoe side and I returned the favor by netting his fish. This was his PB flattie by 1 lb . (his biggest cat to date is a 30lb blue). This fish was caught on a live bream on a Carolina rig anchored by a 2 oz weight. The reel is a shimano 6500 bait runner with 25 lb test golden stren. This rig is easier for a 13 year old to cast than a baitcaster, and has plenty of power matched with a 7 ft tiger rod.


It was a great day on the water. Lots of owls heard and 1 bald eagle seen. We also saw 1 muskrat and 1 beaver . We usually see a few fox squirrels in one spot but they did not show their selves today. Mack

Catfishing out of a canoe for Big Cats

Catfishing out of one of my canoes is a passion of mine. It doesn't get any better than fighting a big cat right beside you in a canoe. Here is how i do it.

Choose a river noted for big cats.
Have the right bait.
Have the right tackle.
and the most important is patience.

Once I choose a river I then look for section that has a lot of bends. I don't like straight sections. I then usually try to arrive at the put in at lunch or early mid day. I do this to catch bait. The bait I usually want is live bream which we catch on crickets using ultralite  gear. These are put in a minnow bucket which hangs over the side. If i move to a new spot with my outboard(on square stern) or my trolling motor(on OT 158) I put the minnow bucket in a bucket in the canoe until I get to the new spot. Once I have as many as I think I need, I start fishing one of my holes I have picked out. Now, a hole to me is a spot so it can actually be a flat near an actual hole. I usually fish deep holes in the day and flats at night. My rig consist of a Carolina rig with usually a 2oz weight and a short leader. My main line is usually 30-40lb test and my leader is usually 10 lb
test smaller. My hook is usually a 4/0 -9/0. I either anchor or use a blakemore brushgripper to grab an over-hanging limb. I would rather do that than drop and anchor so as not to spook the fish. I then hook the bream in the tail. Sometimes I use cut bream soaked in garlic juice. Usually it doesn't take long for a hit.
















This Neuse flathead above was caught on a live bream....


This Contentnea Creek Flathead was also caught on a live bream. Usually they don't bite in midday but this fish was caught early in the year so the fish were more active in the "heat of the day".

















This Blue was caught at aprox 2 am. I was using cut bream soaked in garlic juice. I only had 2 hits that evening , 1 an 11 lb gar and this my PB 46lb blue. I was by myself in this picture so that's why I defiantly have my life jacket on. I am standing in my OT 158 with my right leg on the gunwale! A jonboat passing by stopped to see if i was catching anything just as I had got this beast in the canoe! If it wasn't for him I would have a crappy picture of the fish probably laying on the bottom of the canoe....















Here is my son with his best flathead and his best blue. They were caught 2 years apart, and both were caught on live bream. He did all the catching I just netted them.
This is a 30 lb blue.















Here is his 21 lb flattie. He beat this in 2010 with one 22 lbs then a 34 lber..see below















The best part of him landing this flattie was when I netted it,  he screamed  "thats what I'm talking about"
This kinda fishing is one of my favorites to do and you don't have to have a big boat. Mack

Here is a fish you may also catch while catfishing.  Bait stealers but good fights if you hook one.

Added: he has since beat his personal best cat with a 34 lb flattie caught in Aug  of '10

Here are pics of my usual rigs....First is my main go to rig.  Sinker with short leader. You do not want more than 8 in of leader and usually 4 - 6 inches as a bream will wrap you around a stik if it is close. You can go heavier on the sinker but I would not go lighter. Reel is an Abu 7000 loaded with 40 lb line and the rod is
an American Spirit 7' Nite Stik. This rod has a mixture of red and white in it and the tip glows.   This is a great rod and inexpensive rod too. They are very hard to find and actually tougher than Ugly stiks. I also have an Abu 6500 on a 7 ' white ugly Stik. A white rod is easier to see at night so I have started going from darker rods to lighter colored rods.  It is very hard to see a black rod at night. Some of my other reels are Shimano bantam 50's , Abu 5600c and some daiwa Millionaires. Just make sure it can handle 30 lb line and you will be fine.

Below is a pic of my slip rig. I use this occasionally and at night i glue or tape mini lite stiks to it. The rod is a 7' Ugly Stik Tiger Rod and the reel is a Shimano 6500 Baitrunner loaded with 30 lb test line. Sometimes I put a longer rod on this reel but usually the 7' er is best in the canoe. I also have the 4500 and 3500 baitrunners and they can be used also but the 3500 is limited to channel cat outings though I did catch an 18 lb blue cat out of the Dan River on the 3500 Baitrunner with 14lb line. I had meant to take the extra spool with 17 lb line but forgot it , and actually the 14 lb line did ok getting the 18lb blue in. Usually with the 3500 Baitrunner i use a 6ft ugly Stik and it works great in a canoe. I can also put that reel on a 7 ft or 8 ft Ugly Stiks that I have if I am bank fishing or carp fishing.

No matter what reel and rod combo I use , my leader is usually 10 lbs lighter than my main line.

There are some decent pictures of these rods in my article done in August 20010 Titled Neuse River Cats, Shellcrackers and Shooting stars

Here are the size of the lite stiks....

Good luck, Mack

    #catfish

#monstercatfish

July 09 catfishing trip

Took my son and wife to my favorite catfish river..... started fishing around 4pm.......we first fished for bait...at first all we could catch were big ole bull bream but then we started catching the size i like to use for bait .......at dark we started catfishing ....we caught 5 cats in 2 hrs......4 blues...1 -24 lbs 1 -15 lbs 1 -12lbs, 1-30 lb blue, and 1 - 10 lbs Flathead, at 10;30 the wife was getting scared of the alligators and so on so we left.......it was a good day as my son caught his 2 biggest cats.....we also saw lots of ducks , some deer moving through the swamps, we saw 3 fox squirrels and 2 gray squirrels, herons owls, and 1 hawk.......here are some pics....

a great day on the water!