[fishhard]

he was about 22 inches

 

[trouthunter]

Went up to the heavily hyped adams county fair grounds ponds with uncle about 9:00PM and right when we got out of the van we said almost in unison "You got the worms....I thought you had brought some.... ??? We had both forgot...has that ever happend to you? My uncle had bought some sort of stink bait from the Bass Pro Shop on south sheridan that the manager said was a good bait, so we decided to try the stink bait and if we did not get any bites in an hour then we would go to walmart and buy some worms. Both agreed we went on down to the right of the bridge between the two lakes on a small sand bar that was protruding into the lake. First cast I threw it where I had seen some movement in the water and as I was baiting my other pole  .....wham a 20 inch cat....my first channel cat ever!!!!

It was real steady all night a bite on every cast almost but we could not master the art of setting the hook on these cats. We were using #2 Eagle Claw Baitholder hooks. We ended up with 3 about 20 inches and 2 about 15 inches before running out of stink bait....We did not have the scale so I did not weigh them.  I am guessing about 2 pounds each...My uncle was guessing about 4 I do not know since they where my first catfish ever, now if they where trout I would have had a better guess.

I would give Adams County Fairgrounds a thumbs-up if you like catfish. Now I will get to eat catfish for the first time...Anyone have a good recipe?

 

[hooknline]

Trout hunter so did u actually drive in the main entrance? What time did u get there and what time did u leave? Nice job by the way.

 

[slayerfish]

Fillet them and dunk in beaten egg then cover them with Progresso Italian Breadcrumbs. Fry 'em up in olive oil! To die for ,dude!

 

[Guest]

im gonna go up there tonight ...im not very good a filleting fish how do you gut a catfish . they have those spines and the bone below around there neck

 

[slayerfish]

All it takes is practice! On a cat I start at the tail and keeping the knife along the backbone,slice towards the head and when you run into the big bones behind the head,syart cutting upwards on about a 45 degree angle and out thru the skin.Boneless fillets!

 

[Guest]

im gonna try it tonight . how important is a sharp fillet knife

 

[slayerfish]

ITS PROLLY THE MOST IMPORTANT PART.

 

[born2fsh]

Can you fish this pond all night? Any special regs?

 

[gotmusky?]

I was up at the ponds too last night from about 11op.m. to 2:30 p.m. Sat around telling ghost stories with my bro and girlfriend and caught nothing. Were using circle hooks and worms and had at least six good bites but nothing was getting hooked. The first bite I had one on but he came off. Didn't feel very big though maybe around 10 inches. Maybe I should try some of that stinkbait.

Trouthunter, I seen your van there, that must of been you across the way. Glad to see you did so well.

 

[hooknline]

Gotmuskie where did u fish at? Im thinking that inside the main entrance is where everyone is doing better at. Gonna try that next time. Next time i wont forget the OFF spray either.

 

[Guest]

This is the hotspot. Hittin' it up tonight!

 

[afishman]

IF ANYONE SEES A RED F-150 THATS ME SAY HI. WILL BE WEARING MY BILL MURRAY HAT

 

[trouthunter]

Trout hunter so did u actually drive in the main entrance? What time did u get there and what time did u leave? Nice job by the way.

Actually that was my second time there last time was about 8 years ago and back then I was fishing in the day for trout. You can fish the Adams County Fairgrounds lakes all night however I did not notice the sign that said Closed at 10:00PM for the parking lot within the fairgrounds. So after about an hour of fishing I heard a siren along with a spotlight flashing. I went up and Ranger said lake was open all night but had to park in the parking lot east of the Fairgrounds entrance.  I did not want to leave since we where getting alot of good bites and I had already caught one.. however I did not want to get locked in the fairgrounds so I reeled in my rod and left my Uncle to all the Cats while I moved the car. It is a pretty good hike from the parking lot to the bridge in between both lakes but I enjoyed it nice night cool breeze reminiscing about my first cat, and hoping to see our bucket filled with catfish when I returned to the spot where my uncle was still fishing. Got back to the spot anticipating a few more cats and nothing....My uncle said he had alot of bites but was frustrated not being able to set the hook.

One more thing. You had asked about setting the hook when the cats are biting.. Well you can take and bend the hook a bit out. When the cats run with your bait it'll hook while the bait slides to the end of their mouth.
steve

Thanks Steve...I will try that next time...I am definitely going to catfish again sometime. We tried everything even holding our poles in our hand. All the bites where very subtle it seemed like they where digging  for the bait and moving the hook or weight around. Even when poles where in our hands we still missed a bunch. We will try your suggestion next time steve hopefully with better results..

FYI: Also we say many other catfish rolling in the shallows. It really got my blood pumping when we saw a cat that looked as long was my arm and a head as fat as a Football. I could not guess how much it weighed however after seeing it real close a couple of times we guessed it at about 32 inches and it may have not been the same one but many big hogs. Just a side note I did hook onto something big it seemed big or either in some thick weeds or behind a branch because after about 10 minutes of fighting with it whatever it was threw my hook. The fish also took off with a loud defiant splash of the water. I thought it was a big carp however my uncle was being more positive thinking it was once of those big cats...I guess you will have to go and find out for yourself. Whatever it was it put a serious bend to my pole and strain on my reel.

I was up at the ponds too last night from about 11op.m. to 2:30 p.m. ...Trouthunter, I seen your van there, that must of been you across the way. Glad to see you did so well.

Yes that was us. Where you in that smaller black compact car? You left right before we did. Try up by the bridge with worms and stinkbait we had bites almost every cast. We did not use worms however I would suggest them because that stinkbait kept on failing off after every bite and sometimes at the cast. It just seems like worms would work a little better at staying on and maybe convince the cat to swallow. We did catch one small cat that I could not count he was only 8 inches so I was thinking maybe we were getting all those bites from small ones. Then the very next cast another small tug (bite) and I set the hook.  I was thinking it just was another 8 incher or smaller because the tug was even lighter than the 8 incher I had just caught. As I was reeling in I noticed the drag humming a little and then I pulled it in. It was another 20 incher. This was my first time going catfishing and after many years TroutHunting I am used to the harder hits and not the small nibbles. We never really got used to the way they where biting I guess it will take some time to master those catfish bites and how to set the hooks.  Again any suggestions I would greatly appreciate.

Below is a map to where we were at good fishing, tight lines, and humming reels to you all who go up there, hope you catch one of those big ones we saw.

 

[kokaneeking]

that sandbar is awesome last year i caught a 8 pound channel on powerbait, my brother had been fishing that spot alot for years and has had some nice cats, one day i saw a guy with two of the biggest catfish ive ever seen , they had to be 20 pounds each they were huge, i asked him what he caught um on and he said crawdad tails, he also said he was throwing his pole out awise, he had a monster weight, the funny thing after is he made his wife carry um

 

[Guest]

Was there last night between 8:30 and 10pm with Steve. We were fishing on the sandbar. It was a little too windy last night. Steve and I had a couple of small bites. I caught a small cat on worms before we packed up and left. Used Berkley Liver Stink bait, had couple of hits on that. Bait doesn't stay on the hook very well. All and all, it could've been a better night, especially if it wasn't windy. I guess better luck next time, huh Steve?

Steve got a picture of the catfish. Maybe he'll post it.

Tony

 

[trouthunter]

WOOT.. The first catfish is always the best!  Hope they taste good.  Do you know what the stink bait was called?  I havent found any that seem to work on the cats here in colorado yet.

I did a quick search on the net and I found the bait we used here it is, Good fishing:

 

[afishman]

i was there last night.i didnt notice the sign either so i moved over to south side a little after 10:00 .stayed till 12:30 got on really good bite. my line just snapped. i was using chicken livers and night crawlers.

 

[gotmusky?]

I went again last night with my buddy fishinfoo and we arrived about 9:00p.m. Fished right down from the east parking lot a little to the west. Had fout poles out between the two of us. I was using worms with smeely jelly on one pole and blood stink bait on the other. My friend was using chicken liver stinkbait and worms on his poles. After about 20 minutes one of my poles bent over hard and struggled to get it out. Big freaking fish on and thought for sure it was a 10lb cat. Fought that mofo for about five minutes. Thought it was going to spool me a few times. While I was in the middle of bringing this fish in, my other pole with the stinkbait had a hit. Fishinfoo grab it and reeled in a nice pan size 14 inch cat. I finally got my fish to shore and noticed it was just a stupid carp. The biggest one I have ever caught though. He must have been close to 30 inces and ten pounds.
Fifteen minutes later, i had another big bite on a worm again a knew it was a cat by the way it was fighting. Brought him in pretty quick and he was a nice 20 incher. Called up our other buddy Fishhard thinking it was going to be a great night but he brought the skunk with him. No more fish since he arrived but still had some nibbles all night. Fishinfoo had a HUGE hit using a little stinker filled with some dynamite but yanked the hook out of the fishes mouth. That might have been a five pounder. We stayed out until about 3:00 a.m. and had some fun event though we didn't catch what we expected too after seeing troutHunter's report.

TroutHunter, yeah that was us the other night in the black honda civic. Thanks for the report and showing us what bait you used. We were using some other type of stinkbait but will surely try the King Kat.

 

[lillupsd]

Gotmuskie, we were west of you after tried east. We talked few seconds before we set up on the east. Used pork liver with stink dough (home made), and night crawler. I got 2 hits and landed a 22 in and 20in, my friend got a smaller one on worms. Couple bites but no fish, the bait was taken out of the hook. Left about 2 am. Still 5 cars there when we were leaving.