I'm "All In" with my 3rd KOTC Channel

[SteveD]

After watching that video of Chris Hanson catching that big flathead I had to go fishing tonight. I need to get one more channel to get my three on the board so I can concentrate on flatheads.

That ugly weather slowed me down a bit but as soon as it passed over my house I was in the boat and heading upstream. The weather cleared nicely and there was no wind at all in the backwater I set up in. I had hooks in the water at 2015. I put out two cut bait rods baited with cut bullhead.

The St Croix is really coming down now - she was 678.3' (675.5' is normal pool elevation). Water temp was 64 degrees. The river is pretty well back within its banks. My highwater backwaters are getting shallow but there is still a good current flow and there is a lot of bait activity all through the backwaters. The piece of water I am fishing is only 6 feet deep but it has current and bait which is what the channels are looking for.

For the first half hour I was getting the Tick - Tick - Tick of something messing with my cut bait. At 2105 I had a hook up and I skied the fish to the surface and found about an 18" walleye. My second walleye this week on cut bullhead. I had him half way to the boat and the other rod doubled over in the rod holder. Channel cat on!

I've got a double going here. I'm standing there with a walleye in my left hand and a channel cat in my right hand. I stuck the walleye rod in a rod holder and handled my channel cat. Not a real big fish but a good enough fish for my 3rd KOTC Channel Cat Entry (26" X 14.5" = 40.5). I got the walleye in and released quickly then shot some photos of my channel cat for the KOTC entry.

I rebaited and put the rods back out but the fog started to roll in and I didn't want to get fogged in for the night. I hung on until 2145 but nothing was biting and decided to head in and beat the fog. It was a slow run back with several short stretches of thick fog - It was clear up to the stars but looking straight ahead you were almost blind in some spots.

Well, I've got three KOTC channel cat entries for a total of 145 (I'm 1.0 behind the leader Jon Simmons). I should be able to upgrade that 26" entry to stay competitive in the channel cat field. Time to go after flatheads -

Looks like some of you guys already have some good flats on the board. With the St Croix high water over we'll see if we can find some of those big St Croix flats. Time to chase flats - here we come, boys.

Here's my 3rd channel entry, after that big 34" fish on Thursday this thing felt like nothing:

[Larry FlatCaster]

Sweet!!!! Nice fish Mate!

Time to start chopping at at the Flats!

[still floats guy]

Steve,

I like the way you tell the stories. I'm going to try my best Steve impersonation story next time I have a KOTC entry.

[Shack]

Good deal Steve D.

I hit the Croix with some buddies last night. Sure was a pretty night, minus the pea soup fog . We hit the water just after sun down and where very limited as where we could go. Big goose egg. We stayed close to launch , but wanted to explore. We opted not to test the Lake Master chip (I think that is what he had) for accuracy and explore uncharted waters like we had planned on the way down.

Ya, the water is down to normal levels right now

Ah, well next time.

This weekends weather: 2

Shackbash: 0