ZING!!!

POW!!!

YOINK!!!

BOOM!!!

CROOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAKKKKK!!!!!

Fishing is fishing and sometimes you go out there and simply put in work. I use the term “work” lightly as any day on the water is a blessing, but there are definitely those days where you hunt and hunt and hunt with little, if anything at all, to show for it at day’s end. Well think of one of those days, do a mental 180 degree turn with that thought and you’ll have a pretty precise picture of what I was blessed with today! Just an amazing afternoon of fishing with a good buddy that really just made my week!!!

I got a few calls earlier in the week from my good friend Eddie letting me know that I need to go fishing with him. If you watch the stocking videos or have had you’re picture taken at either of the Lakes’ edge, then you know Eddie. The guy is classic. Always a smile on his face, always happy to chat, and always stoked on fishing. Just a really cool cat and I’m always stoked when I get to share the water with him…especially when he says, “Dude, our spots are GOING OFF!” Well…‘nuff said! Let’s go have some fun!!!

The party began at about 3pm and on the agenda was attacking a few of the spots that have been consistently producing for us over the past few weeks. These spots are buried in the structure meaning that they are a float tuber’s paradise. Looking at these spots for the first time, you’d without a doubt think, “No way, those guys aren’t going to catch anything but logs and seagrass.” But you’d be dead wrong. I’m not kidding you when I say that if you want to get bit, GO TO THE TREES! The fish are absolutely bundled up like kids around a campfire in every nook and cranny of the timber. Not 5 yards away from the structure, not along the sandy portions of the west shoreline, IN the trees! And what’s more, add a bit of inflowing water in the timber and it becomes this…

…of the catfish world! Fish on top of fish on top of fish and they all want to eat. Here is a map of the dining halls we found…

The stars mark where we rung the dinner bell. Each of these spots was wide open with us leaving the fish biting just for a change of scenery. Note that each star spills a little bit onto the shore. That was done completely on purpose to really highlight the importance of working the structure along the shoreline. It truly is important if you want to really get on the fish.

We threw the nightcrawler/marshmallow combo until we ran out of that…then we threw the mealworm/marshmallow combo until we ran out of that! Absolutely insane and it doesn’t get any better…Well I guess it does…if you’re Eddie!…

We had split up a bit in the tight timber and at about 5 pm, I hear the infamous hoots and hollers of my buddy.

“BIG ONE!!!! I GOT BIG ONE!!!!! HAHAHAHAHA!!!”

I can’t see the fish as we are literally that buried in the woods so Eddie sends me this via text…

He wasn’t lying. What a beautiful fish and huge kudos to Eddie for keeping that thing out of the woodwork. Weighed out to be 4.5 pounds of beautiful channel cat goodness! Awesome work!!

The action continued from there until I literally ran out of bait and had to leave them biting long before the sun went down. Other than Eddie’s beauty, fish were about 2-3 pounds in average weight and 10-20 pounds in average HEART! Unbelievable how hard the cats can pull. With the Ci4 loaded down with 10 pound power pro, the drag still sang all afternoon! What a day, what a life, WHAT A BLESSING!!!

Those of you heading out there, really do concentrate ALL of your efforts in the structure. Fan cast the edges of the treeline and directly into the submerged structure until you find them. If you’re not getting bit after 10 minutes, MOVE! Things really should start happening that fast. You shouldn’t be constantly going back and forth across the entire lake, but try one nook, if that doesn’t produce, move on to the next one. Once you find them, you’ll know it! In each of the spots listed above, I was slammed on the first cast after about a 30 second soak and you should be too! Stick with the worm (of any variety)/marshmallow combo as it’s cheap and easy and they have been eating it amazingly well. Plus, it’s always nice to not have to go home smelling like a 3 week old decaying carcass…for both me and the mrs.!!!

As always, a sincere thanks guys and gals for taking a read…now LET’S GET OUT THERE AND KILL SOME FISH!!!