Don't forget the net! (park catfishing)

[etucker1959]

I wrote a similar thread exactly 1 year ago today. It's just as relevant this year as last year. This is not DFG truck chasing kind of catfishing. Where you could get many but they weren't very big. (1-2lbs) These catfish are nice 3-5 pounders, so you won't catch very many every outing but the ones you will catch are very special. (please let them go, so others can enjoy them too) You will need a net because they are too big to bounce! lol

Well if the DFG doesn't stock them any more, where did they come from you might be thinking. They come from primarily 2 sources, they are left over fish from Kids derby's and County stockings. A perfect example of left over fish from Kids derby's is the Tri city derby. They stocked 2,000 lbs of catfish for the derby and they bite pretty decent the day of the derby. I went the next day along with 67 of my closets friends and saw 0 fish were caught the next morning. They didn't catch them all on derby day, so there is still a fair amount of them in there. The County stocks fish every month some where and yes they don't catch them all the first couple of day's. (so their still in there waiting for you to catch them)

To prove my point, I've gone 4 straight evenings this week and caught fish every time I went in 2 different ponds. (Nice ones too!) I would recommend fishing in the evenings right before dark and into the dark if your park permits it! There is also pretty good LMB in most of the ponds. Tonight I saw swirls right in front of me several times and they were either Carp or Bass but I'm pretty sure they were Bass. So tomorrow I'm bringing a Bass pole with me to see if I catch one.

A couple of quick story's. I know where this one 5 pounder lives. I've caught him twice already on different baits. He won't bite the same bait twice, so you have to trick him into biting something new. I went to Ranch 99 to buy some Skipjack and some super stink bait. (Sunny's) That catfish didn't know who he was dealing with!! (While E Coyote super genius) For one of the few times in my life, I was going to hold my pole while catfishing. (I knew he would hit that bait pretty fast) Sure enough he hit it in about 1 minute after being in the water. The bobber went down, I set the hook and a 5 pound catfish came flying out of the water like a LMB. He gave up pretty quick after that! He said, Eric you fooled my again, so I'll come quietly!! lol

The fish I caught tonight are recently planted. They fought so hard, you would have thought I hooked an Alligator with all the trashing they did. They didn't come quietly!!! So do a little research and give it a go! It's a nice way to spend a cool summer evening close and cheap!