Catfish feeding fun

jinman · Aug 14, 2003

I have several hundred spoiled catfish that weigh around 5-10 lb. When I drive to my lake, they hear my diesel truck or tractor and start jumping out of the water from excitement. My girlfriend took this photo immediately after I threw the first scoop of catfish food into the pond. It is always instant chaos until every pellet of food is gone. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif We always joke that we think the catfish are trained, but the catfish must think they have us trained. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

MReeter · Aug 14, 2003

Very nice Lake...watching Catfish eat is entertaining...they look like a bunch of Hogs rolling in the water /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

markie61 · Aug 14, 2003

How do they taste?
I would imagine a 5-10lb fish would feed a family of four...
Mark

Bird · Aug 14, 2003

And besides all the catfish, it just looks like a pretty place.

jinman · Aug 14, 2003

MReeter: I'm always amazed at how determined some of these fish are to get every single pellet of food. If I back off so they can't see me, they will crawl in the mud up to the edge of the water for a pellet, and then flop around to get back into the deep water where they can swim.

Mark: I've never actually eaten any of the big catfish. They are just fun to catch and then I normally turn them loose. The 2 to 3 pound fish are very good eating.

Bird: Thanks, I sure do love my little peaceful country place. It was so cool yesterday that I turned off the air conditioning and opened up all the windows. Then I sat out on my porch watching a swarm of hummingbirds drain my feeder. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

bgott · Aug 14, 2003

I got paid to clean the rotten bait out of a commercial fishing boat in Madera Beach, FL. a few years back. If I remember right there was around 500 pounds of it. I threw it over the side and there were so many catfish fighting for those sardines that they were seriously rocking that 50 some- odd foot boat. I would have enjoyed the show except the 'dines were really ripe and I had to dump them out of plastic sacks which really slowed the process.

gotrocks · Aug 15, 2003

This forum is great. I enjoy looking at titles and then checking just what the author has to say.

That is a beautiful lake and the "fish are jumpin" is the "cotton high" ?

I had a bass in my little 3/4A pond called him DB for short, it's name was "Domesticated Bass". Like your catfish it would hear us walking up and come to meet us just like chickens. Throw a cricket or grasshopper in and gulp it's gone. DB would follow us all the way around the pond just waiting for another cricket or grasshopper. I finally was able to hold the critter just above the water and DB would come right up under it within 6 inches or less and wait for me to drop it. Never could get it to eat out of my hand.

Sad day found DB floating with another bass (est 2 lbs) stuck in his mouth, could not swallow and fins kept from spitting out. To far gone to try and weigh but DB was 24 inches long. Buried beside one of my pear trees. Amen!

I've got bream and bass, can't deside to add catfish.

There, another fish tail tale. Told the kids and grandkids when one gets off your hook, don't say it got away.... it's still right there in the backyard pond.

Bird · Aug 15, 2003

( found DB floating with another bass (est 2 lbs) stuck in his mouth, could not swallow and fins kept from spitting out )

I would never have expected a fish to try to swallow something it couldn't get down or back out if I hadn't seen it, about 25 years ago. My dad, my brothers, and I were crappie fishing from my boat in Lake Whitney and noticed a fish swimming slowly on the surface and we couldn't figure out why, so I maneuvered over by it with the trolling motor and one of my brothers dipped it up with the dip net. It was a largemouth bass, only 12 to 14" long, but nearly dead and had a bream stuck in its mouth. We removed the bream, also nearly dead, and put both of them in the live well, not expecting either of them to live. However, after an hour or so both fish appeared to have fully recovered and we released them both.

Docsknotinn · Aug 16, 2003

LOL, I guess his eyes were bigger than his stomach, Maybe he was a confused small mouth who wanted to be a Big Mouth Bass. lol The things ya see in life. Its always a good day when you get in a good laugh and a fishing story. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

jinman · Aug 16, 2003

"That is a beautiful lake andthe fish are jumpin is the cotton high?" 

Norris, that lake is actually about 20 acres and is a soil conservation lake built in 1941. There are four property owners who own all the land around the lake and the county maintains the dam. I have the two ponds they used as fish breeding ponds while the lake was built. You can see a Pond King floating dock in the background which belongs to my neighbor. I'm attaching a better picture of the lake that I took from an airplane. The pond in the background and the peninsula are mine. I have an all-weather gravel road along the top of the pond dams so I can drive right down to the lakefront. This picture was taken several years ago. I now have a new house in the upper right area. ...time for some new photos. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

rlk · Aug 16, 2003

My catfish are not as large as yours, but I sure do enjoy feeding and watching them. March of this year, I stocked my pond. The catfish, bass, bream and shell crackers were all fingerlings. The attached picture shows how much the catfish have grown since march, along with one of three frequent visitors we have when it is feeding time.
Bob

jinman · Aug 17, 2003

( My catfish are not as large as yours )

My older catfish are 3 years or older. I feed about 75 lb of food per week, so they have grown pretty big. I have plenty of curious/hungry turtles too. Sometimes it looks like an invasion of mini-submarines, all with their periscopes up. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
I've seen catfish whack the turtles with their tails just to make them move away from their food.

I have some neighbors who try to catch the catfish with worms or stink bait and don't have much luck. When I want to catch some fish, I just make a little pouch with catfish food in it and attach it to a treble hook. I throw it out and let it float on the water and almost instantly get a bite. The last fishing trip only lasted 8 minutes. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif My drink didn't even get warm. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Docsknotinn · Aug 17, 2003

Can you fish from your tractor ? Now theres a phot op !

jinman · Aug 17, 2003

Hmmm...New Holland Boomer Bass Boats... Kinda has a nice catchy name doesn't it? /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

gotrocks · Aug 17, 2003

Jim here is one more fish tale.
Several years (30+) one of the first catfish ponds opened in our area and you paid .50 per pound and could not throw any back after you caught them.

One morning at the coffe shop an old buddy related his experience the day before. Seems he had promised to take his grandson fishing. They got everything ready for a day of fishing & fun. Got to the lake helped grandson bait his hook and he cast it out, like you it was only a few minutes bam! a good strong strike, fight,fight, haul it in.. 10 pound catfish. He said he only had $5.00 on him so that ended the "day" of fishing. Had to pack up and go home.

I think I would have taken my grandson to the river or some other place but that was the end of his story.

So ends another tell, tail, tale. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

jinman · Aug 17, 2003

There is no such thing as a bad fish story... Keep 'em coming. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Docsknotinn · Aug 18, 2003

Jim, I cant find my Texas game and fish books at the moment. Where is Wise Co in Texas. I've been down your way a few times for deer season, and to the llano BBQ, drool ! I am haveing a blind delivered this comeing week from Mustang Fiberglass which is a Texas Co. Ok Here is my fish story for you. You might remember a couple of guys that had a show on ESPN2 called the "reel Guys" they started with 5 minute clips between shows and then had a full show, I think they also did one called hoot and flakes. They were from Texas. I took My wife fly fishing about 3 years ago to Camp Boanventure in Quebec for atlantic salmon and the Reel guys were there filming a couple of shows along with the folks from The Atlantic salmon Federation. There were some late scotch nites and cuban cigar fests with the reel guys and their film crew. I dont think we stopped laughing for three days. One of the best fishing trips we ever had. I used to travel a lot and fished just about every place I went. Heck I even took my wife bass fishing on the lake in front of Cinderellas castle on our honeymoon at Disney. lol. She caught a 20# snapping turtle. It put up a heck of a fight /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

jinman · Aug 18, 2003

Dave, Wise County is just north of Tarrant County where Fort Worth is. I'm so far north in Wise County that I have to drive into the next county just to get on the road to drive back across the county line to my house. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif I guess you could say I'm so far north in Texas that I can smell Oklahoma. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Another fish story: The carpet man who put in carpet and tile in my new house asked me if he could go fishing in my lake. I said okay and about dusk he went down with a light rod loaded with 6 lb test line and a tiny lime green plastic worm. About 10 minutes later I heard someone yelling and I drove down to the lake to find him trying to keep tension on his line, but not break it while a catfish ran left and right to the bank. The carpet guy said he had been fighting the fish for five minutes and he was afraid he was going to break his line before the fish got tired. Fifteen minutes later, the catfish finally gave up and he got him to the bank. I took a shovel and held the fish down while the carpet guy got a good grip on him and we hauled him up into his pickup bed. I weighed the fish and he was almost 14 lb. The 6 lb test line had held up because he had his drag set just right. After we landed the fish, the carpet guy just said two words, "I'm done!" ...and he was. He put up his fishing gear and left. He was one tired guy. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

Docsknotinn · Aug 18, 2003

I wanna come to your place with 30# test and a boogie board. LOL Reminds of when I was a kid there was a lot of transplanted King salmon in the great lakes. In the fall they would run up the streams and rivers to spawn. If you hooked into a 40 pounder You need to hold on ... literally ! They would actually make a wake going down stream. It must have been quite a sight from the bank for the bears and other critters. I have been down through your way sort of on the highway from Oklahoma city. I cut off the highway to avoid the DFW traffic and went down through Mineral wells. I Love Texas. In my next life I'm gonna live their. Do you ever get down to do any fishin in the gulf ?

jinman · Aug 18, 2003

( Do you ever get down to do any fishin in the gulf ? )
While I was in the US Navy, I fished on the east coast, west coast, and the Carribean, but never in the Gulf of Mexico. ...I gotta do something about that. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif