Belle Plaine Catfish Contest

[Rick]

Hubcat and Ed,
you guys are right on.

Those majestic Flats/Channels deserve all the respect we can show them.

[Perch Jerker]

Flashman, Fishhead, & Rick,

It was good to meet you and see a new stretch of the river which is much different from where I usually fish on the MN.

Thanks to fishhead I caught my first flathead. It was a 47lb fish. Oh wait, I'm a decimal point off, that should read 4.7lb flathead Thanks again for starting us off in the right place.

Flashman & I fished the river and moved around if we didn't catch something in about 45min. We caught 2 flathead (small) and 4 channels up to 10lbs. What was really wierd was that the 10lb channel had no eyes (not that they would do much good in the muddy water). Both eyes were completely healed over also.

Moving around on the river at idle speed was interesting in a number of ways like fog, darkness, and general lack of the rivers mapping (we had to throw the motor in reverse a few times when an 'obstruction' blocked our path).

Also, Dark30 & Dragonmaster, don't feel bad about missing fish. We also did our share of that

It was good to meet you guys lets do it again.

Thanks,
PJ

[Guest]

Hey PJ and Flashman it was good to meet you guys and I do want to get on the river with you guys some night.
One thing about missing fish is that Rick and I were missing a lot of fish too and it wasn't until we took off our circle hooks and put on Kahle and O Shaugnessy style hooks that we did start hooking up.After changing hooks we missed very few.I like the circle hooks for channels but I think I am going to stick to the old faithfull hooks when you are letting fish run with the bait.

[Perch Jerker]

I'm going to have to agree with you on this fishhead. The contest was the first time I tried circle hooks and I wasn't impressed. I was going to fish on Sat PM (it was even a go up until 6pm) but the weather was a little too much. However, before I slept from noon till 5:30pm I had already switched over all my hooks to the good old standby design.

I also rigged one as a 'quick strike' rig with a treble hook similar to what I use for Pike/Muskies. I have a heavy snap swivel at the end of my line. To that I attatch the loop end of a 5" snell with a 7/0 treble on it. Attatched to the eye of the treble is a short (1/4") piece of line also looped through the eye of a saftey pin.

I take the sucker/chub and pull a line through it's nostrels and tie a small loop like a ring through a bulls nose (small rubber bands can also be used but tend to break easier). I then take my heavy snap swivel and hook the minnow on it's nose ring. Then hook the loop of the snell on the snap swivel and close it. Then 'pin' the minnow somewhere on it's back so that the snell line is slack (very important) and the treble is just hanging on it's side.

I have used sucker minnows all day and they are still very frisky the next day when I harness them up again (in WI 3 lines are allowed per person and I usually run 2 suckers off the back with 2 people casting). Be sure that there is slack line on the snell. When the bait is led around by it's nose ring it will last for a long time, however if the line is pulling on the saftey pin the minnow will be 'not so good'.

I'm going to leave the rod in the rod holder with no freespool. Hopefully when they take a engulf the bait, they will hook themselves as well. I'll let you know how it works.

PJ

[fiskyknut]

Ahh, the old circle hook debate....No circle hooks in my boats ever, tried 'em....Don't like 'em. I don't care how you fish them, setting the hook, or letting the rod/fish do it, bobberfishing, it don't matter....you hook way fewer fish. I'll stick to those good old Kahles, they get fish in the corner of the mouth RELIABLEY, and more often than any circle hooks. If you want to catch more fish than you're buddies get 'em to try a circle hook!!!

Fisky

[Flashman]

Perch Jerker,

What time are you going out tonight again? It's just killing me that I could go out with you if I didn't have to move my fish tank. Anyway new info, place I'm moving into just had the carpets cleaned and I probably won't be able to set the tank up on them yet. could be fishing tonight after all.

Ed

[Perch Jerker]

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