2023 catfishing

[LC3]

Thanks for the report and great job catching. Blue cats make great fish tacos.

[paxmule]

Thanks, never had them that way. I've always been a fan of fried breaded chunks. Midwest style.

[paxmule]

Pretty phenomenal day today. Water was 77 degrees, nice and cool out. The offshore hurricane and the full moon had the water very high at high tide. I was seeing jellyfish. I had some very fresh bunker and my first fish was a blue cat at 26 lbs. 2nd fish was my first legal sized striper. First striper of that size I've ever caught up river that far. 27 inches. Snapped a pic and released alive. Over the next few hours I burned through all my fresh bait and tore into my frozen stuff which did not bring as many fish. At the end of the day I had 21 catfish. The one at 26 lbs, 1 at 21 lbs, and 2 at 20 lbs. Of the rest, more were between 15 and 20 than were below 10. It's great to have a day with those numbers of large fish.

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[dsaavedra]

Congrats on the 27" striper, that's a fantastic size fish this time of year.

[SpaceCadet]

Congrats!! Was good meeting you at the ramp and on the water today. I just had the one big one (20-ish) early and a bunch of small ones - not nearly as many as you got though. All the hours you put in on the river are clearly paying off!

[paxmule]

The striper was luck for sure. That spot I was in, I wasn't originally headed there, I took off and navigated the fog for a while using navionics, but didn't wanna be a sitting duck for another boat so I moved back out of it, saw fish on the finder and gave it a shot. It paid off. Good meeting you too.

[Slackdaddy]

Pretty phenomenal day today. Water was 77 degrees, nice and cool out. The offshore hurricane and the full moon had the water very high at high tide. I was seeing jellyfish. I had some very fresh bunker and my first fish was a blue cat at 26 lbs. 2nd fish was my first legal sized striper. First striper of that size I've ever caught up river that far. 27 inches. Snapped a pic and released alive. Over the next few hours I burned through all my fresh bait and tore into my frozen stuff which did not bring as many fish. At the end of the day I had 21 catfish. The one at 26 lbs, 1 at 21 lbs, and 2 at 20 lbs. Of the rest, more were between 15 and 20 than were below 10. It's great to have a day with those numbers of large fish.

Around LM again?

[paxmule]

Yes, I mainly fished the area south of the boat ramp

[paxmule]

Took the daughter out in the boat today. Not a whole lot of action in big fish. 11 dinks and a 13lb. The kid was entertained enough with dunking her stuffed animal in a bucket of river water and catching sticks with the landing net

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[Jigsup]

Nothing wrong with that!

[paxmule]

Tried out the Rappahanock river at Hopyard landing for a change of pace a few days ago. Only caught 3 dinks but it was a good change of scenery. Next time i'm gonna try the same river a little farther downstream. I've seen reports of some real monsters coming out of there. It's only a 15 minute longer drive for me. Gives my virginia fishing license some use. Very good clear water quality over there as well.

[paxmule]

Epic evening on the patuxent today. Water was 63 degrees. Put in at 145pm. Moderate northeast wind on an incoming tide had the water choppy but manageable. I set up on an outside bend along a treeline and got some relief from the wind enough to stay anchored up straight. Put out 3 rods with fresh bunker and as I was stringing up a 4th, 2 rods went down hard and started pulling drag. Fought the first one against the current for 10 minutes and netted a beast, then did the same thing again with the other one. The 2 weighed 30 and 30.5. After that I stayed in the same spot and caught fish after fish after fish. Couldn't keep all 4 rods out for long. Ended up with 34 total. The 2 30s, a 22, a couple 20s, several in the upper teens, several hovering around 10. A few dinks but not many. 1 bullhead. Packed up at sunset and rolled out happy. Could have kept catching as the action never did stop but I have to work early.

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[paxmule]

Got out to the Patuxent at 730AM today, 70 degree air which later turned to 83. 63.5 degree water, outgoing tide. Brought along 3 large gizzard shad for bait which lasted me all day. 14 catfish and a 23 inch striper was the count. The catfish were mostly good quality big fish. Biggest 2 were 31 and 30 lbs. Others were 25, 22, 17. Most others were around 10. The striper hit a shad chunk off bottom in 30 feet. The biggest cat hit my suspended rod and made the drag sing with the rod tip in the water. Most fish were caught within 100 yards of the boat ramp and were biting well in outgoing tide and just slightly less action when it started coming back in. 20231029_134300.jpg 20231029_085729.jpg 20231029_125118.jpg 20231029_123350.jpg

[paxmule]

Today was slower than the last few trips. Got to the river at 730, 42 degrees, later ending up at 70. Water was 55. Incoming tide the first 2.5 hours. The best action was in the first 10 minutes. Got doubled up with 2 fish at 14 and 15 lbs. The rest of the day I was doing a lot of moving to different spots, picking up one or 2 fish per hour in each spot. Ended up with 9 fish and the first 2 were the biggest. Several had mud on them. I think the sudden water temp drop had the fish down in the mud. Was seeing fish stacked up in places but not many were active. Should pick back up again for at least a couple weeks after a few days I would say.

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[paxmule]

Today I took the drive to carters wharf on the rappahanock river in VA. Got there around 8AM. Nice ramp but what a tiny parking lot. Ramp isn't very steep. Would have been nicer but I couldn't get my tiny trailer back far enough to float my boat. When pushing it off, it dropped from the roller and busted a taillight and a guide pole. Oh well, easy fix. Water was 58 degrees, light north wind, incoming tide. Fished the whole tide staying within a couple miles of the ramp. Lots of good holes and ledges there and it's a huge outside bend. Very scenic with the cliffs and fall foliage. Action started quickly. First a few small blues and then a 21 lbr. Action died for a bit and I thought of moving but then the big takedown happened. Rod doubled over and I fought a 38 lbr to the boat. What a tank he was. In a couple other spots I did well with a few more over 20 and several in the teens. Lost count of the fish. 10 or 12 I think. With the water cooling off I downsized my hooks to 8/0 and smaller cuts of shad were the bait all day. When the tide started turning I headed home.

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