My Largest Blue Cat of 2013

[alrighty]

I enjoy fishing late winter and early spring.Not many people on the water and it just feels good to get outside.Last Saturday me and a couple of friends went out on the Tennessee River a few miles below the dam to try for some big blues.The water temp was 46 degrees and the water was clear.We had caught a cooler full of large skipjack herring at Cumberland City , Tn steamplant the previous day for bait.We use skipjack or fresh shad for bait.The skipjack are large between 12 and 18 inches long so we cut them up for bait.This fish was caught on a large skip head and just hammered the rod.We mostly use Abu Garcia 7000's with 80 pound braid for a main line and a mono 40 pound leader with anywhere from three to eight ounces of weight.I use the gamma circle hooks in 8/0 or 9/0.
The fish weighed 48 pounds and is my largest to date.We CPR "catch photograph & release" all fish over 10 pounds.We ended up with about 20 cats a mix of blues and channels but nothing else over 15 pounds.

[Lefty SRH]

Nice, sounds like fun. Personally I would have had a ball on just the skip jack alone! They are A LOT of fun on light tackle and generally put on a nice show. They remind me of the Ladyfish (saltwater) I consider them a freshwater miniture Tarpon.

[bruce drake]

Pretty little cat for the Cumberland....OK, that was to pull your leg. Nice Fish!

[alrighty]

Nice, sounds like fun. Personally I would have had a ball on just the skip jack alone! They are A LOT of fun on light tackle and generally put on a nice show. They remind me of the Ladyfish (saltwater) I consider them a freshwater miniture Tarpon.

Funny you mention that , we call them Tennessee Tarpon at Cumberland City.We have caught some going three pounds.Last Friday my friend kept breaking off his six pound test line.The problem tying three jigs to your line the standard overhand knot on the loops will break your line.I was using eight pound test and had no problems.

[alrighty]

Pretty little cat for the Cumberland....OK, that was to pull your leg. Nice Fish!

Thank you , this is my biggest to date but it is small compared to some I have seen.I have seen pics of some reaching 90 pounds.70 pound fish are not that uncommon.This one was caught on the Tennessee River though less than a 1/2 mile from the Cumberland at Grand Rivers , Ky.

[bruce drake]

An overhand knot cuts 60% of the tensile strength of the line. Run a Trilene Knot or anything else. Your buddy's 6lb test was running at 2lbs at those knots.

[Charlie Two Tracks]

Nice cat! I'm ready to go out but the ice isn't gone yet. Soon

[Lefty SRH]

An overhand knot cuts 60% of the tensile strength of the line. Run a Trilene Knot or anything else. Your buddy's 6lb test was running at 2lbs at those knots.

I've had great luck with the Palimar knot for many many years.

[Lefty SRH]

Funny you mention that , we call them Tennessee Tarpon at Cumberland City.We have caught some going three pounds.Last Friday my friend kept breaking off his six pound test line.The problem tying three jigs to your line the standard overhand knot on the loops will break your line.I was using eight pound test and had no problems.

We have a rig down here thats designed to catch LOTS of skip-jack in one cast. Its six tiny little jigs with 1 weighted (1/16-1/4 oz.) jig at the end. I can't imagine having a couple 3 pounders on that jig at once......LOL. We generally use the skips down here for bottom LIVE fishing for BIG Stripe Bass. The BIG problem is keeping the skips alive long enough to use them as bait. They are NOT a hearty fish, they die REAL easy. I caught one and by the time I got him off the hook and in the bucket, made a few more casts, he was DEAD!
DAMN they are a lot of fun the catch though. I've done enough fishing in my short time on this earth to know that having fun with the fish is what its all about!

[alrighty]

We have a rig down here thats designed to catch LOTS of skip-jack in one cast. Its six tiny little jigs with 1 weighted (1/16-1/4 oz.) jig at the end. I can't imagine having a couple 3 pounders on that jig at once......LOL. We generally use the skips down here for bottom LIVE fishing for BIG Stripe Bass. The BIG problem is keeping the skips alive long enough to use them as bait. They are NOT a hearty fish, they die REAL easy. I caught one and by the time I got him off the hook and in the bucket, made a few more casts, he was DEAD!
DAMN they are a lot of fun the catch though. I've done enough fishing in my short time on this earth to know that having fun with the fish is what its all about!

Sometimes we will use a sabiki rig , it has 5 or 6 flies tied on a 3-5 foot leader and you clip a sinker on the bottom.For Stripers or Rockfish we use live shad ,they too are hard to keep alive but much easier than skips.I like using the plastic swimbaits with a 3/4 or 1 ounce jig head.We tied to locate them last Saturday when we started but we found no baitfish on the depthfinder.No baitfish so we didn't waste any time fishing for them.They can be a blast as well.

[Lefty SRH]

That sounds like the exact rig I was refering too. They are more like flies like you said rather than jigs. MAN, you make me wanna go fishing now....LOL

[tomme boy]

Ice out cats are a Iowa tradition. Really easy to do. Right after ice out, or any open water that is shallow. 1'-3' that is on the wind blown side. Walk the bank and find the nastiest dead shad you can. Cut it up and tie it on to a hook and cast it out. Don't set the rod down, you will loose it. Should be another couple of weeks and I will be getting some.

[alrighty]

Ice out cats are a Iowa tradition. Really easy to do. Right after ice out, or any open water that is shallow. 1'-3' that is on the wind blown side. Walk the bank and find the nastiest dead shad you can. Cut it up and tie it on to a hook and cast it out. Don't set the rod down, you will loose it. Should be another couple of weeks and I will be getting some.

When we have an extended cold front come through we get a shad kill.The shad die off from the rapid change in water temp.The cats we will be biting ,the problem is there is so much food.Every one you do catch will look like they swallowed a football!

[tomme boy]

Yep, it is hard to believe they will even bite as full as they are. I have a small place that has a feeder creek that feeds into the ole Miss. It dumps out into a shallow bay that always seems to open before the rest of the river. I have caught so may 4-8lb cats there it's not even funny. Boy you better hold onto your pole or you are going to loose it there.

[popper]

Surgeon's knot. There is a TV series on knot wars. Some really interesting fishing knots and yield strengths. I really like the one by the fellow in Flippin AR. It usually unties before breaking the line. I was using a 20# SW leader, hooked the city hall pond fountain elec. cable on the bottom. Had the cable out of the water before the knot let loose - just had to tie on another fly instead of replacing a lot of lost line.