Cats and ice

[Huntindave McCann]

Went fishing today and pulled three cats up thru the ice. I lost two others about the same size. Had one up to the hole twice before it got off just under the ice. I was fishing in twenty-five feet of water using two pound test line. It was fun having them peel line off the spool and head back down as I tried to bring them up.

 

[David Robinson]

Wow, that is not what I was expecting to see when I opened this post, LOL! Nice job.

 

[Dick Sargeant]

Dave are those channel cats ?

Good to eat ?

sarge

 

[Carl]

??

 

[TimJ]

Nice catch!
Catfish would be one of my favorites to catch through the ice but they are just so hard to consistently pattern. Use to have two lakes that I could get them on. On one they acted like walleyes and would suspend killing spoons and jigging rapalas in the late afternoon. On the other they were sluggish and barely sucked in tiny teardrops, one day it took me two 4-5 lbers on 1lb line to figure out all the fish on the flasher were catfish not gills. Switched over to 4 and that made it much easier.

Tim

 

[Huntindave McCann]

Dick,

Yep, those are channel cats. I was fishing a 400 acre man made lake. The Iowa DNR stocks channel cat in a lot of our man made lakes as a predator fish to keep the panfish population in check.

I now have a nice batch of fillets ready for the freezer and pan. They are quite tasty.

 

[Huntindave McCann]

Tim,

Most of these were on the bottom but I did see one (on my vexlar) about 5 feet off the bottom. Raised the jig w/waxworm up and Bam, another cat on the line.

I was using two pound line as the perch were my target species. It made them a LOT of fun to bring up because I couldn't horse them much at all. It was a blast having them strip line off the spinning reel. Good thing I wasn't using one of the old "pegged" ice rods I used to use many years ago.

 

[Carl]

Cool, we would occasionally catch bullheads when ice fishing back in PA. Always a pleasant surprise!

 

[Cody Williams]

Nice! That looks like a monster perch too, at least he would be a monster around here. Now that our duck season is over it's time to switch to ice fishing, your post is getting me fired up!

 

[Al Hansen]

Dave, that sure looks like you had fun. Hope it was balmy warm.
Al

 

[Huntindave McCann]

Al,

It wasn't bad, day started at 2F degrees and rose to 16F. No wind so I was quite comfortable inside my shelter.