4 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Well that's a first.

Well, it looks like you got a really good hook set. ?

32 minutes ago, Fishlegs said:

Well, it looks like you got a really good hook set. ?

I was flipping thick water willows and felt a hard bite, I hammered him with that 7' 3" heavy rod, 50lb braid, and 5/0 flipping hook. Couldn't believe it when that's what I yanked out of the grass.

Got this warmouth on a senko. He was as healthy as they get.There’s not many of them in my home lake.

Got this crappie and some bass today! Lost a 3 pound smallie in Ludington and a 3 pound largemouth in this lake, but the ~15 fish I caught today sorta made up for it. 

With work being ridiculously busy, as well as moving to our now house last month, I haven’t had time to even think about getting out on the boat for a fish. Today I finally got out with the kid for a while. We headed out on Georgian Bay to try some downrigging for salmon/trout. Got this guy right off the bat, then lost a big rainbow right at the net. After that it slowed down a bit so we headed in towards the shoals closer to shore, and I caught a bunch of smallmouth while the kid snorkelled around the boat watching them hit my drop shot. Sure was nice to finally get out on the water again. 

Caught this beast on a jug line with a piece of sunfish that we caught the day before.

2 hours ago, Black Hawk Basser said:

Caught this beast on a jug line with a piece of sunfish that we caught the day before.

Wow. A real man lippin’ a catfish…

6 minutes ago, N Florida Mike said:

Wow. A real man lippin’ a catfish…

Haha!  My thumb hates me for doing that. He thrashed hard and scraped it up pretty good.  I didn't want to let it wallow around and slime up my boat!

11 minutes ago, Black Hawk Basser said:

Haha!  My thumb hates me for doing that. He thrashed hard and scraped it up pretty good.  I didn't want to let it wallow around and slime up my boat!

I tried to lip the first bullhead I caught and he bit down on my finger!

1 minute ago, TheBasslayer said:

I tried to lip the first bullhead I caught and he bit down on my finger!

LOL Me too!

Yes, catfish always seem to do that.  It was too girthy to get a handle on it around its body so that was the only way I could get a picture without putting it on the boat floor.  Here's my thumb today.

8 hours ago, TheBasslayer said:

I tried to lip the first bullhead I caught and he bit down on my finger!

Bullhead, channels, and blues are a no-no to grab by the mouth. Flatheads are fine to grab by the jaw. Those first 3 all have crushing bite force and their tooth pads come together instead of having the underbite a flathead does, so they crunch down on your fingers with those sandpaper teeth with vice grip strength and start rolling and thrashing. Big blues will break your wrist doing just that. I know a lot of guys will grab big blues by the mouth, but you better have a glove on if you want to keep any skin on your hand. 

6 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Bullhead, channels, and blues are a no-no to grab by the mouth. Flatheads are fine to grab by the jaw. Those first 3 all have crushing bite force and their tooth pads come together instead of having the underbite a flathead does, so they crunch down on your fingers with those sandpaper teeth with vice grip strength and start rolling and thrashing. Big blues will break your wrist doing just that. I know a lot of guys will grab big blues by the mouth, but you better have a glove on if you want to keep any skin on your hand. 

I get the last laugh on the whiskered fish though, I remove ALL their skin and deep fry them 

8 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

I get the last laugh on the whiskered fish though, I remove ALL their skin and deep fry them 

Yep. I really enjoy making sure a catfish never bites anyone after I catch it.

https://ftw.usatoday.com/2021/07/angler-sets-record-with-blue-catfish-that-looked-like-a-baby-whale

2 hours ago, lo n slo said:

https://ftw.usatoday.com/2021/07/angler-sets-record-with-blue-catfish-that-looked-like-a-baby-whale

Oh dear . Now there’s one I’m not going at with a fillet knife 

34 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

Oh dear . Now there’s one I’m not going at with a fillet knife 

Machete seems a little better.

i think that it’s incredible that they were able to keep it alive for all that time and then release the giant cat back into the river. well done guy’s!

14 hours ago, HaydenS said:

Machete seems a little better.

You mean chainsaw

7 hours ago, Bluegillslayer said:

You mean chainsaw

There are many ways to skin a cat... 

 

Could get some big fillets from it.

The amount of toxins in a fish that size ?

 

Big catfish are one of the worst fish about collecting lots of toxins in them because they live for a long time, spend a lot of time near the bottom, and they eat lots of small fish that either are filter feeders or also feed from the bottom and collect the heavy metals and toxins themselves. It's suggested to not eat more than one serving per week from the rivers here, and only 1 serving per month of bottom feeding fish due to mercury and PCB's in the water. Bass are also once per week statewide. 

He's on a roll lately!  13" yellow bass - 3" longer than required for a Iowa Master Angler award.

My son actually caught both.

So glad to have a fishing bud again. Haven’t had that in 11 years.

This summer, it seems I've caught more catfish acting like largemouth than ever.

 

I was tossing an unweighted 3" Pit Boss along the edges of some big riprap with a BFS outfit and caught this one yesterday.  They sure are great fighters... I thought this one was twice its size until I got a look at it.

 

 

My two biggest fish of the the day were both cats; this one, and one caught next to a big root ball.

4 minutes ago, desmobob said:

This summer, it seems I've caught more catfish acting like largemouth than ever.

 

I was tossing an unweighted 3" Pit Boss along the edges of some big riprap with a BFS outfit and caught this one yesterday.  They sure are great fighters... I thought this one was twice its size until I got a look at it.

 

 

My two biggest fish of the the day were both cats; this one, and one caught next to a big root ball.

I’ve got Hush puppies