Fishing Journal Entry 2

On 7/3/16 my nephew and I made our way down to the river with one goal in mind and that was to get some catfish for the smoker for the 4th of July. I figured once we got there since it was still early for catfishing why not take a detour and walk another trail. So we did and thankfully found another decent fishing spot. After a couple hours of hiking with fishing equipment and chairs, we eventually found ourselves on the sandy beach at the Mississippi River Gorge.


On the day before the 4th of July, the beach was completely empty with not a soul in sight.
Seeing as most folks were probably outta town or spending time at home getting ready for the 4th it didn't surprise me. So we decided to set up our chairs and cast our lines out to see what's biting. Long story short nothing took our bait and we didn't stick around not much longer than 30mins. So then we packed up and headed out to our main fishing spot. We've found that fishing above the ford dam can be quite productive at a few spots at certain times of the day. For bait, we brought nightcrawlers, rotten chicken liver, and sonny's channel cat bait. And yes I said rotten chicken liver and yes it does work. When catfishing it's always best to bring a few different types of baits. One night nothing worked but nightcrawlers fished off the bottom with a Carolina rig.

So finally we got to the spot and notice the river's water level was a lot lower than it was the prior week and parts of the shore that we under water then were now exposed. I was happy to see that because it gave us more room to move around and not be restricted by overhanging trees and such. So, as usual, we don't target cats until sundown and that's because the big ones are more active after sundown.

The first cats started biting at around 9pm and so did the mosquitoes, unfortunately. This time, we were prepared and brought out the bug spray which greatly extended our fishing time. My nephew fished with his Zebco Slingshot combo reel that I spooled up with 12lbs mono and a sliding sinker rig. And I fished with my baby a 7`0ft Shakespeare Tiger rod spooled up with 50lb Spiderwire braid and a sliding sinker rig. The first fish was caught on the Zebco Slingshot with a 5/0 circle hook and sonny's dip bait. I'm not a big fan of the Zebco Slingshot reel but the rod itself is worthy of landing any catfish under 15lbs. Luckily for us, this catfish only weighed 2 or 3lbs so it wasn't too hard to land it. Not long after I got a bite on my line also with a 5/0 circle hook and sonny's dip bait.

This time, as I'm stringing up the first fish my nephew grabs my rod and starts reeling in and immediately we see a huge boil then a splash. And he fought that fish till his arm literally began to hurt and he looked at me as if to say he needed help but I kept instructing him to keep on reeling in. As the fish came close to shore I grabed the line and pulled it in. And we both began to thank God for blessing us with this catch. A 7lb channel catfish was not only caught but it never hooked as I examined it on the shore I saw it was actually tangled up in the braided line.

I could not believe it and I knew it was time for us to go since we ran outta dip bait. After a bad run in with a huge snapping turtle attacking my fish on a stringer, i decided to pack up and go before we had our catch ripped apart and ruined. So we did and made it out just in time to catch a ride home. Trying to walk home with an extra 9lbs of weight would have sucked so although the fish were biting we had to go.