King of the Cats 2007 Team Whisker Wranglers

[Lowblazah]

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...as there are alternates waiting in the wings.

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dtro...if its not too late...add me to the alternatives list

Also how long do you wait before going to the subs? This guy hasn't checked in since may 8th. (almost 2 months ago)

[Dan Thiem]

No flats for me yet, but a good story from last night.

We were on the Mississippi down river from Winona. A friend of mine took me to a spot where the main channel is not far from where we fished but along the shore there is some 30 foot drop offs and ledges that come back up to about 7 feet then back to 17 feet. Really weird.

Well anyway, we got set up and lines in around 8:00 or so. Within ten minutes my circle hook pole with a 8" sucker minnow bent over hard and when I grabbed it it came off. Hook was empty.

Then nothing at all until 1:30 a.m. and my buddies clicker starts to slowly feed. Not a steady run but more of a pulse type. Then he cranks down on it and GAME ON!!! He wrassles with it fighting it from going out into the current or worse yet into the shoreline trees. Well, after about 2 or 3 minutes his line broke. That was with a bullhead and a circle hook.

Well after a half hour goes by all of the sudden my clicker screamed like the dickens. No slow pulse click here boy. She was loud! Scared me kind of. Really wild how fast it was feeding line. So I grabbed the rod and got ahold of the crank handle and tried to set the hook. After I engaged the reel handle drag started to feed out. I couldn't hardly lift the rod for a good hook set. This was on a bully and a 10/0 Gamie. I rememberd Brian K told me once if you set the hook and you come back with the bully still on the hook, ya didn't set the hook hard enough. Well, guess what. IT CAME OFF!!!! And the bully was still on my hook. Oh boy was I shaking. The bullhead was crushed. Almost squeezed or something. Unreal!

That was it for the night. We left to come home at 4:30 in the morning. I had my chance and blew it. Sorry team. I am still trying to learn this flathead stuff so hopefully I will get on the board with one soon.

[dps]

Dan... any fish that can double over a cat rod and pull out drag has more than enough tension to sink the dullest 10/0 hook(assuming the hook didnt turn back into the bait)! What you most likely had there was a "whisker hook".

Your time will come, keep up the faith!

[crazyice]

Regardless of what happened Dan, I am sure that it was still a nice rush for a while and whatever was on the business end of that run was probably huge!!!

[Shamu]

maybe I can help out with that.

[wastewaterguru]

I guess I was just added to the team.

Please feel free to harass me at will until I get some fish on the board.

Anyone want to go out tonight ???????

[Flaco651]

Now all the teams are in trouble now that WWG is in!

Hey WWG, thanks for the tow in the other week. I didn't realize it was you until after you dropped us off at the landing. Riverhogs motor is in the shop right now, for the second time. They claimed they fixed it and it started giving problems the first test run when he got it back. Might get my boat out there this weekend, we'll see what happens. See ya on the water.

[Dan Thiem]

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Anyone want to go out tonight ???????

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With a batting avg. like yours I would think we should be jumping at that chance. Rain check? Oh, and I'm glad to have you on our team. Welcome!

[hanson]

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With a batting avg. like yours I would think we should be jumping at that chance.

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One would think, eh? I spent last Fri & Sat nights fishing with WWG and we got the 'ole skunkeroo.

Thats the way she goes sometimes, err.. most of the time.

[wastewaterguru]

Yeah the skunks come with the territory. Those crazy flats just aren't as predictable as you'd like. I guess that's why I just keep putting in the hours on the river. Going out tonight to try some water I haven't been on in a while. The little boat I have may need a tow in someday soon so I am always glad to help out another angler.

Too bad I can't count a few of the fish I caught last week....

Gotta focus on throwing some channel cat bait once in a while since I tend to focus too much on the flats.

I have faith I'll catch a couple more quality fish before the end of the KOTC season.

Aanderud is joining me tonight. Wish me luck.

[Larry FlatCaster]

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With a batting avg. like yours I would think we should be jumping at that chance.

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One would think, eh? I spent last Fri & Sat nights fishing with WWG and we got the 'ole skunkeroo.

Thats the way she goes sometimes, err.. most of the time.

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You two got the skunkaroo... I managed a couple channels. just to keep the egg shine off me.

[hanson]

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You two got the skunkaroo... I managed a couple channels.

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I still consider that getting skunked.

Its like going walleye fishing and only catching a couple perch.

[Larry FlatCaster]

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You two got the skunkaroo... I managed a couple channels.

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I still consider that getting skunked.

Its like going walleye fishing and only catching a couple perch.

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Consider it what you want...... They were decent sized channels. And it got the net wet.... Though I would have liked to have gotten a flat. I missed my one or two runs... and still had some fun.

[DTro]

Well, a skunk in the boat is much better than a skunk on the couch, which describes my current location. I was up north recently and rented a PWC for a full day. Big Kawasaki 1200, man what a blast!

I think I spent a little too much time going 60mph and jumping wakes at the same time though. I ache in places I didn't think existed.

I'll get back on the horse here again shortly

[Dan Thiem]

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Aanderud is joining me tonight. Wish me luck.

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What about the dog? LOL and good luck!

[wastewaterguru]

No dog.....

But sadly there was a monkey with me last night.

Aanderud picked up a really nice channel over 10 pounds. That was his biggest of the year and I certainly don't think I helped the team by helping Brian replace his 0 on channels with that 48 pointer last night.

I know that now that I am on a team, I am going to get the skunkaroo.........

Dtro....was at that one good spot last night and was surprised at the traffic. One other boat when we got there and a third anchored between us. Just the one channel for us and we saw a small flat landed next to us.

I wasn't impressed with that spot.

[DTro]

yeah it's funny. Everyone thinks I fish the heck out of that spot, but I've only caught one decent fish there all year and only have fished there a limited amount. I think the water was too high during the time it should have been good. Now......I think it's too late.

There are some big channels roaming around there though....just ask Larry

[hanson]

LOL!! Something is 'off' this year for sure there.

I'll take my chances somewhere else where you don't have to fish next to boats. You shouldn't have to on the river. You have miles and miles of premo flathead spots that nobody is fishing and 3 boats fishing the same spot catching nothing. Doesn't make any sense to me?

[wastewaterguru]

I saw some good spots with potential on the way up river to there. That was my first time this year up that far and there are some sweet looking spots. Didn't hit anything last night which is a good thing. Sure was spooky coming back in the fog though.

[wastewaterguru]

Just have faith in me fellas. I haven't given up yet.

I am not able to get out quite as much as earlier this spring....due to kids activities and such.

But I promise that I will register both a flat and channel here in the next couple weeks....knock on wood.

[SteveD]

Hey WWG - Send me your contact information and maybe we can get together and chase some St Croix cats. The drifting bite is starting to pick up. I will be going out tonight - send your contact info to [email protected].

Hey Manny I will try to call you later to see if you can get out tonight.

Steve

[wastewaterguru]

Contact information sent.

I am going to fish the Minnesota tonight though.

Later.

[SteveD]

You guys didn't miss much, Ryan and I got skunked on the St Croix tonight. First it was too windy and right when I was ready to give it up the wind died down but then it went calm. We fished from 8:30 to 10:30 with no hits. We are right at the front end of the drifting season - the channel cat action should pick up as the shad schools show up. I'll let you guys know when the bite is on and we will get a trip lined up.

[Ralph Wiggum]

Skunked, but it was a good time anyways

[wastewaterguru]

On the positive side,

I went out with LFC on the Minnesota last night and managed 3 flats with about 6 or 8 missed runs on top of that.

Each one of the flats was at least a 5 point upgrade from the previous.

Biggest of the three was only like 14 pounds but I am no longer posting doughnuts.

I'll post the details when I get them from Larry.

Larry got a nice 22 pounder last night with 2 breakoffs and a couple missed hook sets as well.

I witnessed 2 of the hardest flathead hits I have ever seen last night. Larry's rod was hit so hard we both just about went into cardiac arrest. Unfortunately after a few minutes of fight, that was one of the breakoffs.

The other big hit was apparant because my bait had been crushed beyond belief. I had never seen a flat destroy a bait that bad. Eyeballs gone.....etc., etc.

Great night.....and we ran out of bullheads before 11 PM. The chubs seemed to be working good enough though.