Catching Mr. Whisker’s

This guest post by Harold D and entry in our non-fiction writing contest.

Well old Mr. Whisker’s has become a target of fishing in the last five years or so. When I started fishing for them forty or so years back, people would just look at you. Now if they see that you have a stringer full, a lot of people will ask you if you want all those fish. I guess back in the days people called them trash fish. I guess they called them that because most cat fish will eat anything that does not eat them first. But what they eat is what makes them grow; it’s what’s in the water that harms them.

Well let’s start this way here about Old Mr. Whisker’s. Cat fishing has gotten so big now that The Bass Pro Shops and Cabalas’ have gotten into the sponsor ship of some big tournaments in the last few years. Yelpers the cat fish tournaments are taking over the bass tournaments in the southern states and there is some big money in it too. Now that we have hit first base let’s move on to catching them.

The first thing we need to decide is where going to fish for them. There are cat fish in just about every state in the U.S. So when I said we need to decide where we were going to fish, was it going to be a lake, river, or a pond. There are several ways of fishing for cat fish. I myself would think trot lining would the most used way of catching them is. Then I would think limb lines would be next, and then the last choice is the rod and reel.

People use a lot of trot lines in lake fishing because there is a lot of open water and they can starch them out. The way a trot line works is you tie one end off and then run the line out to where you want it and then put your heavy weight on that end. After that you go back and start putting the hooks and bait on it. Depending what state you’re in, most trot lines can have twenty five to fifty hooks and spaced three feet apart. The preferred bait, that most fisherman use on their trot lines is cut bait. Cut bait is what is natural in the water where you’re at cut into chunck’s and then put on the hook.

River fishing is a whole new game because of the moving water. The water will be from fast moving to slow moving. Even the way the water moves in a river, there or still some trot line fishermen’s out there. It is a lot of work running a trot line in a river due to the moving water and it can be dangerous too. I have known several men that have gotten hooked and pulled over and drowned. The most fished way in a river is by limb lines or set lines. The limb line is a line tied to a limb over the water and a set line is tied to something stationary object. The limb line is the way to go due to the fact that the limb works like a rod. The fish works it until it cannot fight any more. Preferred bait for river fishing is a live three to four inches sunfish with a number 12 to 13/0 hook.

Then comes the rod in reel. This way is becoming very popular. You just can’t imagaine what it feels like with a twenty-five pounder on the other end of your rod. There are all types of rod in reels out there to fish with. The main thing is to get a rod in the group of med-heavy about eight to nine feet long with a good reel that will hold about two hundred yards of line.

Places to fish for old Mr. Whiskers is deep holes, eddies, brush piles, cliffs, and anywhere you might thing they are hiding. Remember cat fish are ambushers and they also or slow to bite too. Another good thing to do is to bait your hole that you want to fish. The best way to bait a hole is to sour some grain. The way I like to do it is sour my grain, take to the fishing hole use a five gallon weighted with holes punched into is and place into your fishing place and come back the next day and catch them fish.

Summary:

• Trot line and rod in reel hooks are mostly 4 to 5/0
• Trot line bait cut bait, liver, jumbo minnow’s, and whatever you want to bait with.
• Rod in reel fishing: you should have a med-heavy 8 to 9 feet rod with a good reel that will hold 200 yds of 30 lb test line. You can use just about anything for bait you want to.
• There are kinds of cat fish baits out there ,they range from cut bait, beef and chicken liver, all types of cheese baits, Winnies in strawberry jello with a little ansel oil, shrimp, and there is still a lot more.
• Remember that cat fishing is a slow go sometimes.
• Cat fish can be fixed fried, baked, or broiled. In the southern states the main meal is fried cat fish, hush puppies, Cole slaw, and good old sweet tea.

Happy fishing and eating,

This contest will end on April 22 2013  – prizes include:

• First Place winner will receive - A $500 dollar gift certificate courtesy of LPC Survival that is good for $500 off anything on their site. And  a Wonder Junior Deluxe hand-mill courtesy of Kitchen Kneads,
• Second Place winner will receive – Two cases of MRE’s courtesy of Camping Survival and a $150 gift certificate off of Hornady Ammo from LuckyGunner.
• Third Place winner will receive -  a one year subscription to Personal VPN service courtesy of unspyable.

Well what are you waiting for – email your entries today. But please read the rules that are listed below first… 

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