Catisfied!

After a couple of sessions feeding floating trout pellets and bread to attract carp to the surface in the lake behind my house, I noticed that a lot of channel cats also take both pellets and bread off the top. Tonight I decided to feed the same surface fare, but only use it to attract channel cats into the area, then target them.

After tearing up a couple pieces of bread and throwing the pieces only a few feet off shore, suddenly the turtle mayhem started to be interrupted by the odd carp. Pretty quickly, the carp--I'd say a half dozen--were confidently snarfing up my bread mere feet away. Once they showed up in numbers, the dozen-or-so turtles quickly gave way. I could not resist lowering a breaded hook onto the surface, Sure enough, within seconds one of the voracious goldies grabbed my doughball, and the battle was on. After a nice fight, I landed a 3-4 pound common with one section of distorted scales on one side. Of course, that take and the frenzied fight that ensued in the immediate area pretty much spooked off the rest of the carp. Seemed like a good time to switch over to channel cats.

I selected a puddle chucker float and set it about a foot above a single #6 treble hook baited with punch bait--Sudden Impact to name names. Before too many casts, I had a sudden, violent take on the float and hooked a dinky channel cat. Fortunately, he flipped off the hook just as I was lifting him out of the water. OK by me--those whiskery critters have sharp spines on their dorsal and pectoral fins and gill openings. Long story short: over about the next hour (roughly 8 to 9 PM), I landed nine channel cats, all between 1-2 pounds and the largest of about 5. I did not weigh any of them, but I did snap a quick pic of the largest. I was hoping to get to double digits tonight, but, for the last fifteen minutes or so, no takes except a large slider--of course I can't go fishing without banking one of the hard-shelled folk!

I was able to fish after dark again with the help of one of those "Starlights" the little glowing float inserts made by Drennan that enable one to see the float well in utter darkness.

All in all, a very catisfying evening!