Catfish Bait : A71 Amazing Information Search For The Trophy Channel Catfish! And Info On Shad Visit Our Website For Details!
February 20, 2010 by admin
Filed under Fishing Boats
Old School Catfish Fishing Family Secrets
Trophy channel catfish over the size of 10lbs are considered rare and quite a catch. Amazingly some the most impressive monsters have come from the red river of the north in the Manitoba Canada basin. If your thinking logically you would think the largest giants of the channel catfish species would come from the southern region of the channel cat’s habitat, but that is not so. Habitat location doesn’t seem to make a difference when we talk about these trophy catfish specimens. It absolutely amazing that a 58lb channel catfish holds the world record. The monster of a channel catfish was caught in 1964 by W.B. Whaley. His catch was well documented and never has been discredited. Now this fish did come from a reservoir called Lake Marion in South Carolina, but no large monsters even close to this size have been caught since.
If you are wondering why this fish grew so big we can speculate that three factors drove it’s growth, but this only pure speculation. During the late 1950’s and into the 1960’s there was serious flooding of river delta system in this area. This generated a very unusual growth and population of forage fish such as shad and skip jack herring that migrated into Lake Marion. This fish had an over abundance of food to eat for many years.. Also there was no competition from flat head catfish or blue catfish at that time. Since then both have been introduced to the area, and no monster channel catfish of even close to this size have been caught since. That is factor number two, competition for the food source from other game fish.
Normally channel catfish have a internal growth mechanism built into their metabolism that determines how large they will grow. Prime natural habitat for channel catfish would be in small to medium rivers that have a overabundance of bait fish and where they had very little competition from other predators such as blue catfish and flathead catfish, and other large game fish. Normally in theory ,if these habitat conditions are present no mater where the location is within the channel catfish’s habitat range there’s a good chance that very large channel catfish will be caught.
For example I live by a very large shallow lake in ohio that has had an over abundance of gizzard shad for years. The lake is exceptional for channel catfish and catches over 4lbs are a very common occurrence. Although they are uncommon there are catches of trophy size channel catfish over 10lbs every year. I personally have caught five 10lb plus catfish using various catfish baits and catfish live bait rigs. from this lake. My biggest be 12lbs + caught just this year in august. This lake is 10 miles long and 2 miles wide and there is an amazing amount of cover. It is fed by two creeks. There are no blue catfish in this lake and a very small population of flathead catfish. So there is little competition for the shad. They did however introduce walleye into the lake about 8 years ago so the verdict is out on what it will do to the growth of very large channel catfish. But I know in my gut there is a channel cat out there in the 20 to 30lb range. One of these days I will catch one of these monsters using my special catfish baits.
Well that concludes my article about Skip Jack Herring. Have a great day!
Click This Link for more details on: Shad
Click Here To See Old School Catfish Fishing Secrets From 12 Backcountry Catfishing Masters!
Live Bait: Article # 20 Special Details On Crappie Baits Details Here!
November 30, 2009 by admin
Filed under Fishing Boats
No Exit Popup Old School Crappie Fishing Course Link
Our article today is going to focus on some crappie live bait selections that are often over looked as crappie baits. Any combination of these crappie live baits can fill your crappie basket so read on for details. Most crappie fisherman never use these crappie baits because they probably never need too 80% of the time if they are fishing with crappie minnows such as fathead minnows. So why bother with these other types of live bait selections for crappies? Well there are times that crappies turn off of the standard crappie live bait selections and you need to try something different or go home empty handed. We will talk about two of the most common alternate crappie baits that work quite well.
Bluegill fry make an excellent live bait selection especially if you want to target crappies in ponds where the young fry that crappie feed on are from bluegill or sunfish hatch. I would recommend you check with your local department of natural resources because in some states using these fry as bait may be illegal. The best size fry to use to catch crappie are 1″ to 2″ in length. You can use a minnow Seine, cast net or minnow trap to catch these fry. You won’t find them at any bait shop. Actual bluegill and sunfish fry make up a big percentage of the crappies natural food source. Make sure when you fish bluegill fry you stay just a little bit farther away from the cover then if you were fishing standard crappie minnows. Bluegill or sunfish fry will tangle very easily in any standing cover. It will take a bit of practice because the bluegill fry may feel exactly like a actual crappie bite to you. So you will need to be able to figure out the difference quickly. But to be honest most of the crappie bits you will get using this live bait will be hard strikes.
One of the most under used crappie baits are small threadfin or small gizzard shad especally if you want to catch a creelful of crappie! The shad actually makes up from 50 to 90 percent of the crappies food source in some locations where there are large populations of shad. Amazingly shad is not often picked as a crappie fishing live bait selection. Probably the main reason is they are hard to keep alive in your bait bucket. But if you can catch them fresh and use them right away you will be surprise how many crappie will hit this bait and hit it hard! The two types of shad that are populated throughout the united states are the threadfin shad and the gizzard shad. You can use either of these shad in the 2 to 3 inch size range to catch crappie. The smaller size fish make excellent a excellent live bait selection. The best way to catch fresh shad is to use cast net. Go to areas such as bridges, power plants piers and rip rap where shad tend to school. The best way to keep shad alive is to use a bait container that floats in the water and has freshwater moving in and out of it. If you use a bait container on your boat it needs to be aerated. these fish like I said will die easily. You can hook shad through the lips or just below the dorsal fin. Shad work great where the water is very stained and traditional crappie minnows are not cutting it.
We hope the information in this article about catch crappie. Have a great day!
Click The Following Link To Get More Details On: live bait
Click Here To See Old School Crappie Fishing Secrets From 12 Backcountry Crappie Masters!
article # 1 Bait Fishing: Amazing Live Bait Fishing TipsClick Here!
October 31, 2009 by admin
Filed under Fishing Boats
Click Here To See Old School Crappie Fishing Secrets From 12 Backcountry Crappie Masters!
For anyone leaning about fishing, baiting a hook is a key part of that knowledge. For experienced fisherman there is a constant trial and error process that occurs, and what works is documented for future fishing trips. Seeking new bait fishing methods and techniques to improve your fish catch is very important. The real challenge to fishing with bait is keeping your baits looking natural to the area you are fishing. the closer you can match your bait fishing presentation to the natural food source of the fish you are targeting the more successful you will be.
We all love fishing with artificial lures, we check out all the latest artificial bait imitations, we purchase them just to say we have the latest and greatest in new artificial bait fishing lures or plastics. But when fishing gets really rough and artificials just are not getting it, Guess what ? we turn to the real thing live baits! Bait fishing naturals such as live baits which include crayfish, scuds,freshwater shrimp,saltwater shrimp,mud shrimp and ghost shrimp, also salamanders such as waterdogs,spring lizards, mudpuppies and leopard frogs. We also turn to fishing with live insects such as aquatic insects which include may flies, stone flies, caddis flies,crane flies, dragon flies. and dobson flies ( hellgrammites). And we cant forget terrestrial adult insect types such as crickets and grasshoppers as well as larva forms of catalpa worms, waxworms, goldenrod grubs, mousees, spikes, euro larvae, and meal worms. To be honest , it is estimated that 75 percent of all fish caught with a hook and a line are caught with live bait. We hope that our bait fishing information will help you when the fishing gets tough and you need to turn to natural baits.
There just hundreds of bait fish that work for freshwater fishing baits, and saltwater baits. You can use bait fish such as bluegills or sunfish, golden shiners, spottail shiner minnows, redbelly dace or rainbow minnows, fathead or tuffy or mudminnow, horney head or redtail chub, and freshwater shrimp baits. Some of the many saltwater bait fishing selections include herring, mackerel,smelt,mullet,mussels,saltwater shrimp, squid and tuna. All these bait fish both freshwater and saltwater are excellent selections for you bait fishing rigs.
Also we can’t for get the old reliable nightcrawlers as live bait. Nightcrawlers and other worm type such as the common nightcrawlers, european nightcrawlers, african Nightcrawlers, grunt worms, garden worms, red Wigglers,and leaf worms
Also There are just thousands of freshwater catfisherman so we thought we would mention a little bit about catfish baits. The catfish baits we have identified work for live bait presentations or dead cutbaits and prepared stink baits. These baits include nightcrawlers, suckers, chubs, shiners, goldfish, shad, skipjack herring, bluegills, catalpa worms, grasshoppers, leopard frogs, bullfrogs as cutbait, waterdogs, adult salamanders, crayfish, saltwater shrimp, clams, and blood baits. As you can see Catfish will will eat just about any natural bait presentation you put on your bait fishing rigs.
Most of the baits listed in our article can be caught or made by your self but sometimes these natural baits will be very hard to catch so finding reliable bait shop for for your bait fishing needs will be important. Also some of the baits listed are not normally sold in bait shops to learning to catch them yourself to use on your bait fishing rigs will be important.
Special! Click The Following Link To Access Detail Information On: Old School Catfish Fishing Family Secrets
