We caught a 100 catfish at La Mirada Regional park!
I really haven't done any park catfishing this season to speak of! But just like in the God father movies, "they made me an offer I couldn't refuse!" I live only 5 minutes away from LM Regional park lake and know it like the back of my hand. So if they were going to have their kids catfish derby this year, I would try to pick up the scraps when they were done! They usually have it the middle of Sept, so for a couple of weeks I was looking for signs advertising the event. (I didn't find any) Then low and behold, 4 days before the derby I find a reference to it in the neighborhood website. They were kinda keeping it under wraps a bit! So the first thing is, try to find actually where they stock the catfish in the lake. The catfish will go to certain spots depending on what part of the lake their stocked. So on Friday before the derby I was trying to intercept the catfish truck and see where they stocked the catfish. At 10:00 am the catfish truck shows up and I spot him. I saw them stock 750 pounds of catfish on both ends of the lake. (very valuable information to know)
The derby runs from 8-11:00 am on Saturday. After 11:00 am it's open to everyone. They had a decent turnout but it wasn't packed and even less people fishing it after the derby. So I set up by the first air ratter in the South end hoping for the best. (nothing) A kid next to us said, someone caught 11 catfish in the derby right on the end where they stocked them. (real close to the bank too) Nobody was there, so if we got into them there, we could dominate the spot! They were there in force! It was a catfish a cast and we could only fish 2 rods for 3 people because we were getting so much action! We called it quits after 2 hours and landed over 40 catfish. The Riff Raff did break into our space and that was pretty annoying!
On Sunday that was another interesting day. I knew they had stocked them in 2 places and we only fished 1 end on Saturday. So on Sunday I went to the other end and their was nobody there. I figured they would be in 2 spots. So I tried them both and got not even a single bite! When about 8:00 am another small group shows up and fishes right between where I fished. Guess what????? They the catfish were there in force! (they had found them there the night before) Every cast for one of the people was a catfish. But they did have a little kid with them, so I knew they couldn't stay there all day! So I went home and got something to eat and re bait and went back. Sure enough their was only 1 person left and he was old! He would get hungry too and would have to leave soon! Lol You can see where this was going can't you??? Yes, I moved into the spot and knocked the crap out of them!
Monday rolls around after knocking the crap out of them for 2 day's. I'm smart enough to know that's over with and now you have to fish for them. So I got my good partner Racer X and we fished the middle of the lake this time. We ended up with 12 catfish that day and that was probably more then everybody else caught combined. The next few day's was the Law of Diminishing returns. I caught some catfish everyday but it was a struggle! (I had to use every trick I knew to catch any) After a week the first wave is done! But it was a very good week for everyone who fished with me, with well over a hundred catfish caught and released!
