10/12 Muskingum River

Got out with the guys Saturday night for some Flathead fishing.  We set a new single night record for numbers.  21 Flatheads total with no giants but my buddy Ryan caught a nice 17# fish.  All fish were released after a few pics.

10/5 Muskingum River

Got my daughter shelby out for a night of flathead fishing.  We ended up with 11 Flats with Shelby catching big fish of our group with this healthy looking fish.  Fish were released after a few pics.

Jonous and Chucks Flathead Trip

Jonous and Chuck recently made the trip from Indiana to Ohio to do some Flathead Fishing with me.  We fished the river two days.  First night we struggled to find any good fish but Jonous did manage to catch here very first flathead.  During the night Chuck also caught quite a few Channels but the big fish eluded us.  Second night we fished a few different spots, with still no big fish.  As the sun was getting ready to come up we decided to run down river to a spot ive caught fish before.  It wasnt long till the Blackhorse rod doubled over and we knew it was a good fish.  It was Jonous turn and she did great fighting the fish to the boat.  The fish weighed 36#s and crushed her fish from the night before. 
The big Flat made the trip a success in all our eyes!  Looking forward to next trip with these guys for we had lots of fun!

8-24 Muskingum River

Took my young cousin Gavin out saturday night on a Flathead trip.  Got anchored up about 8:00 pm in the first spot.  Soon after dark I reeled in our first fish of the night, a nice 10# channelcat.  Our next spot was down river about a mile.  Shortly after anchoring up Gavin landed a 8# flathead.  About an hour went by and my rod hammered down.  I knew it was a big fish!  After a good battle I finally got him to the boat and gavin did a great job as netman.  This fish weighed 44.11#s.  After a few pics and release my other rod went down, Gavin got to rod and reeled in another good flat at 22#s.  The night was slow after that and we headed back to the ramp at 2:30am.  Another great trip!  With the cooling water temps the bite is really starting to heat up and only gonna get better.

New Personal Best Flathead

Caught my Personal Best Flathead last Sunday night on the Muskingum River.  Fish was caught at 3:30 am on a large live Redhorse sucker.  Fish was released back to the river after a few pics. Fish weighed 50#s even.

New Tournament Livewell

With fishing some bigger tourneys this year with larger fish I decided to build a bigger Livewell.  I started off with a truck tool box I got from a friend.  The inside dimensions is 58x16x12 which is plenty of room for a good limit of fish and fits up against my front deck perfect.  I then purchased a 800GPH Bilge pump some flex hose, a section of 3/4 Pvc, a ball valve and some mouting hardware.  I was going to build a Tank with filters and an oxygen infuser but this will do for now.  I ended up going with a simple spraybar set with a valve so im able to change water easier during the tourney or when empting it.  Heres some pics of my setup and if you have any questions feel free to ask.

Check out my videos on Youtube!  Please subscribe also so you can get updates. More videos coming soon!
https://www.youtube.com/user/smoothkip25?feature=guide

2013 Muskingum Valley Catfish Schedule

Date	Location	Start	End	Results
April 27	Buckeye Lake	7:00 PM	7:00 AM	TBA
May 18	Seneca Lake	7:00 PM	7:00 AM	TBA
June 22	Deer Creek Lake	7:00 PM	7:00 AM	TBA
July 13	Dillon Lake	7:00 PM	7:00 AM	TBA
August 17	Seneca Lake	7:00 PM	7:00 AM	TBA
Sept. 21	Salt Fork Lake (Iron Man)	8:00 AM 8:00 PM	4:00 PM 8:00 AM	TBA
Oct. 5	Ohio River (Gallipolis)	7:00 PM	7:00 AM	TBA

Videos From The James River Trip

James River 2-22 to 2-24

Just got back from my annual trip to the James river.  The conditions were tough with freezing rain and rain through out the trip.  LuckeyWade, Rollo and I made this years trip, which was a great group of hardcore catters willing to sit in these conditions.  First day was slow with a few decent fish caught. I ended up the day with a solid 40+ pound fish

Day two it Rained all day and another struggle to get on a few fish.  Rollo caught big fish of the day with a solid 52 pounder.  Luckeywade and I finished with a few fish around 30 pounds.  The rain def. made for a long day on the river.

 

Day three started with a bang, 10 minutes into our first anchor we stuck a big triple.  Three solid fish.  This has to be the highlight of our trip.  Very exciting scrambling around the boat trying to get all of them in the boat.  Shortly after the triple Luckeywade and I landed a good double.

 Capt. Hugh Self  always works hard to put us on good fish and makes for a great time. Already looking forward to our next trip. Gonna try to get down there again this year to hit the Fall bite.  BigThanks to Rollo and Luckeywade for another memorable trip!

Luckeywades PB Channel Cat

Randy got his Personal Best Channel Cat last night. Fishing was real slow with no flatheads but a great trip regardless. 11#s is a great fish for this river!

Night to remember (Muskingum 9/15)

What a great night of fishing, 6 flatheads and 4 channel cats. We never caught any monsters but was non stop action all night. The flatheads ranged from 10 to 18#s. Darrell got big fish of the night with an 18# at our last anchor spot. All our fish have been coming on soft slender baits. Hognose suckers have been the bait of choice. It was real nice having action after a slow summer.

Joeys trip

Took my friend Joey out the other night trying to get him his first flathead. Fishing is starting to warm up some after these cool nights and water temp starting to drop. We ended up with 4 fish and at the end of the night Joe finally got his flathead. A nice first at that, going 22#s.

Valerie catches her first Flathead

Got my wife on the river the other night for some catfishing. The bite was a little slow but she ended up catching her first flathead. I was really excited for her and she did real well reeling it in.

Saltfork Lake 5-3, 5-4

Fatcat and I hit the lake for 2 solid days of Catfishing. 1st day bait came easy and got setup early around 3:30, right of the bat we caught afew channels on the cut shad. At 5pm we got our first flathead run and Fatcat landed a nice 18.9# Flat on a small live gill this fish came out of 12 foot of water and was a great start to our trip. Throughout the first night we had a few more flathead runs but nothing committing. Heres pic of 18.9#

2nd Day bait was a little tougher but managed to get a few dozen Green Sunfish and The shad was still easy to get. We started the morning off drifting the lake and caught 15 or so Channelcats on a shallow flat. We got setup at around 6pm and by 7 had the first Flathead in the boat a solid 26#er I caught on a double hook rig with two live shad. 2 hours later i caught an 8# to 10# flat on a small green sunfish. From 11 to 2 it was non stop channelcats catching 1 every 15 minutes or so, all on live shad. Turned out to be a great two day trip with three Flatheads and around 30 channelcats. We have a tournament on this lake in 2 weeks hope these fish are still as active. Heres pic of 26#

Steve Carlson Memorial Raffle

I am holding a Raffle for the Family of a good friend and fellow fisherman Steve "Catace" Carlson.  My sponsors are donating some nice gear and Tackle.  Bottom Dwellers Tackle is giving 2 Alphamar 12s, Blackhorse Custom Rods is donating a Custom Catfishing Rod, Driftmaster Rod Holders is Giving a Rod Holder package, OS Nets has gave a Joy Cast Net and Catfish Freaks is giving a Abu Kalex 60 Reel and A American Spirit Rod.  The raffle is 10 dollars a chance and 100% of all money raised will go to Steves Wife and Children. Please anyone interested follow this link for more info http://catfishfreaks.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=catmem&action=display&thread=1154
  Steve was a great person, Husband and Father.  Thankyou all!

4-15-2012 Lake Report

The temp got into the mid 70s today and I knew the Channelcats would be up feeding on the shallow flats.  I found a new lake spot and got in early to clear a few spots to cast and land fish.  It wasnt long after I casted out I had action.  The first channel I caught I guessed to be over 10# pushing 11# He came of a piece of cut shad.

The second fish Came shortly after and took a Live Handsized Bluegill.  I weighed this one and she weighed 13#s  not a bad night in a new spot and im sure it will only continue to get better.

Shallow Water Shad

Its been a few weeks since ive been able to get any shad.  With the recent cold weather we have had the shad moved to deeper water.  Today got up into the low 60s so i figured id get out to try to find some.  It took one throw of the net to get more than enough for a trip or two and also gave some to some catfisherman at the lake.  Its exciting when bait comes this easy,  Hope i have a sucessful trip tonight!

Many Nights And Very Few Fish

Ive fished the last 8 days on and off with only two fish to show for.   Its a little early but ive been spending a lot of nights on the lake.  Usually this time of year the fishing is far better during the day but with my schedule the only time i can really get out is after dark.  First off the cold front we had last week almost shut the bite off completly, but i was there sitting waiting for that one lucky bite.  Two nights ago the front had moved through and I actually had some decent weather to sit out in.  The first night i had two runs and landed one channelcat.  The first fish got into a snag and got off and the second was a small channelcat.  He went around 6 pounds and came off cut shad.

Last night I got to get out again for a few hours and had two runs again.  The first run was a solid run but dropped the bait never to return.  The second run came about 10:00 and there was no stopping him, I turned the clicker off and fed him some line to be sure he had it in his mouth.  When i locked it down he about pulled the rod from my hands,  I knew he was commited so i set the hook.  After a short fight i landed this fish and weighed him at 11.3 pounds.  Ive caught many bigger fish from this lake but was kind of satisfying for the time of year.  Im taking a few days off to spend with the family but ill be back at it saturday night to try for an even bigger channelcat or a decent flathead.  Heres the pic of the 11.3# Channel

Late Winter Channelcats

Rollo and I hit the river again today for some channel cats. Water temp was 42 to 44 degrees while the air temp. was around 40, bite was real finicky again. With the rising water and the 25 to 30mph wind gusts, we had a hard time getting anchored up but made due. They werent far from where we found them last time but they def. have moved. Cut shad was bait of choice. Heres a vid of a nice channel I caught today.

Giant James River Bluecat Video 69# 48in long

James River Trip (New Personal Best Bluecat)

Fished the James River for three days with my good friend Catfishrollo and my dad.  This has to be the best trip to date.  We caught 25 fish with only three being under 20 pounds, we caught a bunch of fish in the 20s,30s and 40 pound range.  Rollo caught a solid 45 pound fish, Dad caught a big 50 pounder and I got a new personal best 69 pound Giant.  The amount of good fish we caught on this trip was unreal.  A big thank you goes out to Capt. Hugh Self for the great fish he put us on.  Me, Rollo and Dad had a great time and had lots of laughs, looking forward to the next trip with these guys. These pics are of the biggest of the trip.  My 69#,  Rollos 45# and Dads 50#

James River Here We Come

Its that time of year again to head to the James river.  Catfishrollo, My Dad and I are headed down early Monday morning for a three and a half day trip.  Like the last three years we will be fishing with Capt. Hugh Self.  We always have great sucess with Hugh and have a great time.  Last year we caught some good fish with Dad catching a 52.4# fish and Rollo Crushed his PB on last years trip catching a 70+ pound Giant.  Capt Hugh has been on the big ones this year so far and had a client catch one over a 100#s a month or two ago with numerous 70 pound fish being caught.  Cant wait to get on the water and try for my own James River Giant!  I will give a report, pics and vids when I return!

If you too would like to get a shot of a monster catfish make sure you give Capt Hugh a call and He will do his best to get you on some good ones!

www.hughscatfishing.com

Catfish Freaks Forum

Me and Rollo have a catfishing forum for the novice to the advanced catfisherman, we have free giveaways every month and tons of knowledgable catmen.  Feel free to join up and share your tips, tricks and experiences with all of us.  This fourm is a catch and release and or selective harvest forum and dont support any alternative methods.  If you love to catch big catfish and enjoy sharing your methods feel free to join up with us......smooth

www.catfishfreaks.proboards.com

Braid for the Cold water Channelcat bite

I wrote an article on catching channelcats in the winter a month or so ago and i suggested using light mono for catching them.  This is the way ive always done it in the past.  I have to say after this weeks fishing trip with Catfishrollo i am sold on using braid when the water is real cold and the bite is real light.  We only caught two fish but the sensitivity of the braid was unreal compared to the 14# monofilament i was using.  The bite was so extremely light i could barely feel it in the mono and at times you couldnt even visually see it in the rod tip.  Ive came to the conclusion that i will be switching to the 50# power pro braid for this type of fishing.  I appreciate being able to get out and fish with other avid catfisherman and feel greatful for the little tip i learned this last trip. I honestly believe you learn something every trip regardless if you are successful or not........smooth

Muskingum River 2-18-2012 (first trip of 2012)

Rollo and I hit the river today for some cold water channel cattin, the bite was real light.  Water temps were 37 degrees.  Rollo managed to hook up on two and i blanked.  Had a lot of bites but nothing wanted to commit.  Still nice getting on the river for the first trip of the year.

Abu Garcia Kalex 60 reels from Bottom Dwellers Tackle

Picked up 4 Kalex reels from Dave at Bottom Dwellers, also got power handles and a 1# spool of Hi-Seas 25# mono. I picked these reels up for Valerie and I for channel cattin. I was impressed with the quality for the price. The Kalex reels have a recessed reelseat for easier handling on the rod, Thumb bar spool release and a clicking drag indicator which is handy. I like the drag which seemed smooth and strong. I'm confided these reels will handle anything I throw at them. Great price, service and fast shipping as always from Bottom Dwellers. Can't wait to test them out.

Basic Differences Between Small Channelcats And Bluecats

  With the recent release of bluecats in a few Ohio lakes the past two years i thought it would be a good idea to post some information on distinguishing between the two species.  They do have many similarites but are easy to tell the difference.
  First the young channel catfish will have spots down the side of its body while a small blue catfish will not.

 Baby Channelcat (above)

Baby Bluecat (above)

Another way to tell to be 100% sure is by the anal Fin.

  The anal fin of a channelcat will have 25 to 29 Rays.(above)

The anal fin of a Bluecat will have 30 to 35 rays.(above)

(Please all) release the bluecats so they can grow and reach trophy potential.  With everyones efforts we could possibly see 20# Bluecats in a short 5 years, for these fish  feed all year long and grow to extreme sizes.  I hope to see in my lifetime a trophy fishery come from the release of these great sport fish......smooth

Bluecats released in Hoover Res.

8,300 Blue Catfish were recently released by the Ohio DNR into Hoover Res. and 30,000 more are to be released in the near future. The fish that were released were in the 6" to 8" range. In five years you should expect to see some fish close to 20 pounds. Last fall the ODNR stocked Dillon Lake with 13,000 and that project is said to be a bust due to the pass through into the rivers. Some reports of these fish already making it to the Ohio river. With Hoover being impounded there's no way of escape. The ODNR said they also plan to stock other Res. In the future.

Cold Water Channel Cats

As the water temps continue to drop into the 40s here in Ohio, doesn't mean that the catfishing has come to an end. There is still plenty of fishing to be done just have to know were to look.
When the water temps start to drop is when I start changing my techniques, first of all you have to know where to find the fish. I start by finding the wintering holes. A wintering hole doesn't have to be the deepest water in the stretch but with the most suitable conditions. Most of the places I find have little to no current and or a good current break. You find the right hole and the fish will be stacked up.
Next thing I think that is important is downsizing baits. During this time I usually will use a piece of cut bait not much bigger than a quarter. The best baits I've had success with is small chunks of Shad, Sucker or even Chubs. A lot of guys also have much luck with cut Minnows and Nightcrawler. I also will drop my hook size to the bait. I will run a size 5/0 to 6/0 hook, J style. I also like circle hooks but a lot of times at this time of year the fish are a little more sluggish and don't load the rod up enough for the hook to work properly.
Another thing I do is lighten my gear. I will use a light to med light action rod and say 10 pound line. At times the bite is so soft that with heavier gear you might not even feel the bite. Alot of times I will use my bass tackle the colder the water gets.
The last thing is patience! You might have to hit quite a few holes before you find the right one, but when you do find the right one, it can make for some non stop channel cat action.......Smooth

Tough year on the river

With another year almost in the books it has to be said that this was the worst year I've ever experienced! The spring was filled with high water and terrible weather. My first flathead didn't come till may 16th and it came from a local lake. I never broke the teens personally but put a few guys on there personal bests and accompanied a few others on decent fish. To me seeing a few of my buddies catch PBs made for a good year regardless of my results. Only thing I can say is that I did learn a few things this year! 1st off is that I can't rely on old spots for success, after all the high water alot of my honey holes have changed and didn't give up many good fish. 2nd my favorite go to bait (northern hognosed suckers) were scarce in my stretch of the river. This coming up spring I need to start over and scout a lot of new areas. I hit a few tourneys this year and did pretty well. I'm gonna give the tournaments a more serious try next year and even hit a handful of the Cabelas King Kat Tourneys.
At the beginning of the year I started a new catfishing forum with a good friend of mine and it's taken off quite nicely, better than I expected actually and it's continuing to grow with great positive members and have some great sponsors! I have alot going on starting the first of the year. I'm starting a catfish research project with a private company and going to continue growing my website and better my fishing skills and knowledge.

Muskingum River 10-15

Hit the river for a few hours last night with Fatcat, the weather was terrible with high winds and rain. We managed to catch only one Flathead last night and had a few others come off the hook. Bait was fresh shad, and all bites came from 8 to 10 foot of water.
Water temps are dropping hard but I think there's a few weeks left of decent fishing.

Muskingum River 9-28

Hit the river with Luckeywade last night fished from 8pm to 9am. We put three fish on the bank, two big channelcats and a nice 20# Flathead at 8 am this morning. Bites been slow the past week but were still hitting it hard!