Bass Fishing Bycatches

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Johnny A
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Re: Bass Fishing Bycatches

Post by Johnny A » Tue Mar 31, 2020 3:52 pm

toddmc wrote:
Tue Mar 31, 2020 1:05 pm
Johnny A wrote:
Tue Mar 31, 2020 5:52 am
hoohoorjoo wrote:
Sat Aug 31, 2019 9:07 pm
Nice fish. I've caught lots of cats over the years while bass fishing with plastic worms, cranks and spinnerbaits.
I caught a channel cat on a 4” power worm one cast after I’d caught a largemouth bass off a dock. My second channel cat was caught when I was fishing an EG One’s Bug popper.
Channel cats are aggressive feeders. I catch them on all kinds of moving lures. Many of the golf course lakes that I fish are loaded with them. They do laps around the lake all night looking for bait. They love to patrol concrete erosion barriers that are completely around many of the lakes. I have had many nights with several channel cats while fishing for bass.
I’m more familiar with bullheads. Cut bait, throw it out, sit back and pontificate!

Polkfish1
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Re: Bass Fishing Bycatches

Post by Polkfish1 » Tue Mar 31, 2020 5:12 pm

I spent a 3-4 years targeting channel cats. I fish for everything that swims and they’re fun to catch. I’d pre-catch live bait and good sized mud minnows were always the ticket. Super aggressive feeders. I’ll get one all too rarely on a moving bait bass fishing also. Wish I could more regularly target them with artificials.

toddmc
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Re: Bass Fishing Bycatches

Post by toddmc » Wed Apr 01, 2020 4:47 pm

Polkfish1 wrote:
Tue Mar 31, 2020 5:12 pm
I spent a 3-4 years targeting channel cats. I fish for everything that swims and they’re fun to catch. I’d pre-catch live bait and good sized mud minnows were always the ticket. Super aggressive feeders. I’ll get one all too rarely on a moving bait bass fishing also. Wish I could more regularly target them with artificials.
Almost all of the channel cats that I have caught on reaction baits at night have been in 3 feet or less. The rough pour erosion barriers in golf course lakes often have some sort of undercut at the bottom of the barrier. The waves crash into the bottom lip over the years causing erosion. Most of these barriers only go out a few feet. The channel cats will patrol the edge of the barriers trying to root out craws and baitfish that hang around the undercut for protection. The cats don't have very good vision. So you can walk around the lake with them in the gin clear waters that most of my lakes have. It's fun to see them get excited when they root something out. The cats love to push whatever they find up onto the concrete erosion barrier because it makes it easier to catch the prey. The bass will do the same. Most anglers fail to fish shallow enough on a lot of golf course lakes. It's important to make sure that you don't have the moon or a light behind you because the bass have much better vision than we do at night. The cats seem to patrol most heavily during the better periods on the Astro Tables. I have fished so many thousands of hours at night over the decades that it is pretty easy to predict when I will run into a few channel cats.

Mike son
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Re: Bass Fishing Bycatches

Post by Mike son » Mon Apr 13, 2020 8:05 am

Keep running into crappie burning a lipless over grass in the small ponds and lakes still open around here. Ended up catching my pb at a hair over 15" yesterday evening.

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hungry_cow
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Re: Bass Fishing Bycatches

Post by hungry_cow » Sun Apr 19, 2020 1:39 am

I catch big channel cats every so often, every year snag a couple giant carp. Last year I had two 15 lb carp eat my lures, one ate a pink squarebill, the other ate a chatterbait. One time got a goose. Caught a pair of handcuffs.

The oddest thing that happened to me twice just fishing with worms is I got two fish on a single hook. When I reeled in my line the line went through the mouth and out the gill of a bluegill then behind that had a bullhead hooked on the mouth. Had this happen twice! Someone the bluegill must have tried to eat it and missed and the worm and hook went out the gills instead of into the stomach and then a bullhead came along and ate it and actually got hooked allowing me to land two fish on a single hook! I would have never believed it if it didn't happen to me.

toddmc
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Re: Bass Fishing Bycatches

Post by toddmc » Sun Apr 19, 2020 11:29 am

Havasu 4-18-20.jpg
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How about this drag stripping 2.86 pound Lake Havasu freak bluegill on the NED rig? :D It may be a result of some distant Chernobyl fallout. :lol: I caught a catfish about 10 pounds on the NED also, but he swallowed the bait and slimed the line for a good 15 inches when he was rolling on the fight. I just cut him off rather than let him slime my hands and my carpet. It is nasty as hell when they slime your line! :sick: It was a good day nonetheless.

MountainMan 83
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Re: Bass Fishing Bycatches

Post by MountainMan 83 » Sun Apr 19, 2020 1:00 pm

toddmc wrote:
Sun Apr 19, 2020 11:29 am
Havasu 4-18-20.jpg
How about this drag stripping 2.86 pound Lake Havasu freak bluegill on the NED rig? :D It may be a result of some distant Chernobyl fallout. :lol: I caught a catfish about 10 pounds on the NED also, but he swallowed the bait and slimed the line for a good 15 inches when he was rolling on the fight. I just cut him off rather than let him slime my hands and my carpet. It is nasty as hell when they slime your line! :sick: It was a good day nonetheless.
Holy cow! That thing looks like a cartoon character. Nice catch!

Polkfish1
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Re: Bass Fishing Bycatches

Post by Polkfish1 » Sun Apr 19, 2020 5:45 pm

toddmc wrote:
Sun Apr 19, 2020 11:29 am
Havasu 4-18-20.jpg
How about this drag stripping 2.86 pound Lake Havasu freak bluegill on the NED rig? :D It may be a result of some distant Chernobyl fallout. :lol: I caught a catfish about 10 pounds on the NED also, but he swallowed the bait and slimed the line for a good 15 inches when he was rolling on the fight. I just cut him off rather than let him slime my hands and my carpet. It is nasty as hell when they slime your line! :sick: It was a good day nonetheless.
Wow! It has back fat. :lol:

toddmc
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Re: Bass Fishing Bycatches

Post by toddmc » Sun Apr 19, 2020 9:21 pm

Lake Havasu has the world record redear sunfish at 5.8 pounds. I've caught those over three pounds. Supposedly, the redear are able to eat the quaggas that have become so prevalent on Havasu. The cove that I caught this fish in had a ton of quaggas last year, but I didn't see any yesterday. I've always known redear for the red on the outside of the black dot on it's gills. I looked up the pictures of the record and it didn't have real pronounced red on the outside of the black dot. This must actually be a redear sunfish. It's belly was full of something hard. I've had redear over three pounds hit a full-size Texas rigged tube in Lake Havasu Marina in the middle of the boating lanes. They often look like black footballs on their beds, but they had pronounced red on the outside of the black dot.

Jeffbro999
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Re: Bass Fishing Bycatches

Post by Jeffbro999 » Mon Apr 20, 2020 8:45 am

Nice one Todd! They call them Shellcrackers around here, and definitely don’t get that big!

goldrod
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Re: Bass Fishing Bycatches

Post by goldrod » Mon Apr 20, 2020 9:04 am

This guy thought he was the biggest fish in the pond
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mthao105
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Re: Bass Fishing Bycatches

Post by mthao105 » Tue Aug 04, 2020 6:13 pm

I've caught a carp on a bone popper before. Probably thought it was a piece of bread that the kids in the neighborhood always throw for the ducks.

Cristo
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Re: Bass Fishing Bycatches

Post by Cristo » Sun Sep 27, 2020 7:52 am

This came up on a picture feed from the way back in 2013. Cranking that night at Saggie. Used the ole beloved X4 Cyclone, HHS Zonda with 8lb P-Line Floroclear and DT-10 OG craw. What a flipping battle, but what fish wouldn't when you tail hook them and as you can see by the expression in my eyes I was surprised by this carp :lol: :lol: :lol: :doh:
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toddmc
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Re: Bass Fishing Bycatches

Post by toddmc » Mon Jan 18, 2021 9:47 am

The strangest channel catfish catch happened to me this August at Clear Lake. I was fishing a drop shot in front of the famous gigantic mansion at the Riviera/Buckingham part of the lake. I casted my bare 1/0 Owner Downshot hook with 1/4 tungsten cylinder weight as far as I could after just catching a fish to remove the line twist. The cylinder weight hit the water sounding like a bullet because I had no worm on. My line took off as soon as my bait hit the water. I figured that I had snagged the fish, but the cat had my hook in its mouth. The commotion of my setup hitting the water must have set off the cat. Channel cats have hit my reaction baits instantly as my baits hit the water many times over the decades, but this was crazy. The fish was only about 8 pounds. They travel in schools on Clear Lake and I often see several boats in the same area catch them right after each other on bass lures. The kid fishing plastics on a dock to the left of me went bendo on a cat right after I released my fish.

hoohoorjoo
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Re: Bass Fishing Bycatches

Post by hoohoorjoo » Mon Jan 18, 2021 10:05 am

goldrod wrote:
Mon Apr 20, 2020 9:04 am
This guy thought he was the biggest fish in the pond
Those guys make me laugh when they try to eat a bass lure!
Try not to let your mind wander. It is much too small to be outside unsupervised.

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