Slip Float Ice Breaker

For the last month or so (ever since I heard about a 20-pound channel cat being caught out of our lake…), I’ve had a renewed desire to try and catch a trophy channel cat (12 pounds in Virginia).  I’ve tried a half-dozen times, fishing punch bait under a sensitive float.  I’ve caught numbers (eleven in one of my sessions), but the quality hasn’t been there—my largest this summer was around four pounds.

After reading an article by trophy channel cat hunter Daris McKinnon and watching some YouTube videos of folks catching big channel cats using slip float rigs and chicken livers, I’ve been really anxious to try for some bigger cats using this technique.  Daris shared in his article a great technique for hooking chicken livers (notoriously slimy, flimsy, and difficult to keep on a hook) using Surgilast, an elastic wound dressing.  You cut a piece 3” or so, hook it three times through one end, insert the chicken liver, then hook the other end of the Surgilast three times as well to secure the liver inside a nice stretchy cloth sack.

Having received my Surgilast a week or so ago and having picked up a tub of chicken livers at Food Lion a couple of days ago, all I was lacking was the requisite slip floats.  I ordered some nice ones from Amazon a couple of days ago, but they weren’t due to arrive for several more days, so at 6 PM I quickly ran up to Walmart to see if they had any.  Fortunately, they did have a few left in a clearance bin.  I got two nice Thill slip floats for $0.50 each (plus a weighted split Styrofoam one just for good measure).

Back home, I gathered my tackle bag, Ugly Stik, net, and chicken livers and headed out to a spot I’ve tried once without success, but wanted to try again.  It’s a point near a large open area where three arms of our neighborhood lake all converge.  As far as I know, this is the deepest part of our neighborhood lake at around 6-7 feet deep.  My hope was to lure some larger channel cats out of this deeper area.

Long story short: I fished from around 7 PM until close to 11 PM.  I mostly fished around 5’ deep, but I also tried casting to showing fish chasing baitfish near the surface, fishing only about 2’ deep.  I caught two small bullheads, and one large one—I’d say around a pound-and-a-half, with a fat tummy.  No channel cats for the second time fishing this spot.  I guess next time I’ll go back to the little point I’ve been favoring of late—although they were small, at least there seem to be good numbers of channel cats present, and, where there are little ones, there are probably larger ones too.

I did see carp cruising and feeding in the margins, and a lot of bait fish (and larger fish chasing them).  Also got to see several muskrats cruise by in the darkness.  A neighborhood cat stood 15’ behind me and checked me out for a while.

I’ve still got some learning to do about exactly how and when to set the hook when slip bobber fishing for channel cats.  I had a lot of dips and bobs that I think were turtles.  All three of the catfish took the float under and ran with it.  Sometimes a turtle will pull the float under, only for it to re-emerge again in a second.   As a result, when my float disappeared, I started counting “1000, 2000” before tightening up and setting the hook.  By doing so, I kept my rig in position without prematurely jerking it and spooking whatever is around.  I have a feeling that when a big cat takes the bait, they will grab it and run, so it will not be hard to tell. 

It was nice to try a new technique—slip bobbers.  These are a nice way to be able to float fish pretty much at whatever depth (within reason) you’d like without trying to cast an overly lengthy rig.  They have a little more weight than the puddle chuckers I’ve been using for carp, plus they can support the larger chicken liver bait without sinking under its weight.  I also enjoyed trying out the Surgilast—it works like a charm—a quick and easy way to keep chicken livers secured to the hook.  Lastly, it was very enjoyable, on a Friday night, to fish a bit longer evening session without feeling that I needed to come in pretty soon after dark.  I’ve been wanting to fish a longer evening session all summer long, and it was nice to finally do so.

I will continue to try out and refine my slip bobber and chicken liver (or cut bait) techniques.  Maybe sometime this fall I’ll even land that elusive trophy channel cat!

PS  On the walk back to the car, I once again narrowly averted walking into and/or through a wood spider’s web.  Since it was so late, this web was complete—a perfect orb with its maker perched smack-dab in the middle, waiting for a hapless flying victim to chance into its sticky trap!  This web was about two feet in diameter, fairly small as wood spider webs go.  Fortunately, the trusty head torch showed it up before I walked into it (plus I hold both my fishing rod and net out in front of me so as to intercept any web before I walk through it face-first!).  Home again, home again, jiggity jig!