Monday, September 13, 2010

Pull Cats

Ted and I tried our hand at gar again but we spotted very few fish. I had a few follows and had one on for a second but that was about it. I switched from the rope fly to a standard fly with a hook and started casting for bluegill and cats. I bagged a few small bluegill which were fun.

I was casting close to some structure just off the bank and my line went completely tight and I set the hook. It was a feisty fish that stayed down and was pulling hard. It turned out to be a nice little channel cat.

I think the channel cats always surprise me because I spent many hours when I was younger trying to get channels cats to bite on cut bait, stink bait, and a variety of other smelly concoctions. I never did catch a channel catfish while using bait. The closest I came was about ten years ago when I was fishing for channel cats at Utah Lake using shrimp. I had something take my bait and I set the hook. The fight was on and after a lengthy battle I had the fish near the shore. I saw his big forked tail a few times but he made a last second run and my knot failed and I lost it. Fast forward ten years and now I am here in Iowa catching channel cats on flies, go figure. I'll say it again, they pull hard! I can't imagine catching some of the big cats my friend Scott catches on the fly out in Omaha. While kicking my way in I made a few last casts near shore and nailed another cat that went about 13 inches. Despite no gar I still had a lot of fun with the pull cats.

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