If it is legal, then do it...forget what others may think of you or about what you do. Give it a try, if you like it and have a source to move the fish, then do it!

Think is similar to the Catch & Release of catfish, keeping them of legal size regardless of their weight, juglines, trotlines, limb lines, rod & reel, etc....some just have to complain.

Again, if it's legal, do it!

As a wise-man has written above - "If you catch fish that don't fit in your box ... get a bigger box ... they all are box fish" Absolutely!! Let the trotlines, juglines, rod & reel catfishing folks all do well in their quest!

You should reconsider your own argument if we are going to come down on trotliners and comercial fisherman, then why not on guides. Trotliners are allowed 25 fish per day just like everyone else and comercial fisherman are limited to 25 or 50 in some cases, but the real fish killers are guides who are only limited by the number of people they take out, they get 25 fish per person. It helps to think about that.

matt

what is wrong with a guy trying to make a few bucks, by catching catfish?

Too bad there's not a market for Carp....If there was I'd sponsor him!

Good points fellas. I was thinking about canyon no one hardly fishes it much and i figure if you took some cats out that would make other stuff better cause that lake is poorly managed as far as im conserned.

I bought a commercial license a couple years ago and a permit for commercial fishing for my boat just so I could use orange colored jugs. It seems this was around $40. However, if you plan on selling the fish, you need additional permits. Although lake and river catfish are much better than the farm raised ones, I doubt if anyone with the 25 daily limit can make a living catfishing. Now, if you live on the lake, you can sell them out of your house with no additional permits. I say this because the permits to sell to establishments is something like $600, so unless you manage to find someone to buy all your fish plus you are able to catch your limit almost daily, your expenses will be more than your profits. I think this is done to stop commercial fishing in the lakes since the lakes are generally stocked at taxpayers expense.

At 25 per day you'd have to sell them for about 8 bucks a pound to make any money... I like the pond raised idea, grow them to the right size and net them out. Your pond, your fish, no limits.

You might be better at this than I am but I think I'd starve to death if fishing was my day job... :-) I guess I could catch enough to eat every day but I'd be living in a tent on the side of the river somewhere.

If you took a lake like Canyon you would probably go out of business in short order.

That may be one of the reasons as you say as hardly anyone fishes it.

Some lakes are more fertile than others and produce more fish, such as a lake like Calaveras.

Canyon is a good lake, but it will never be a great lake for any species, as it's limited to what it's waters can produce, and management would be try and make it what it will never be would be expensive, and not practical with what you have to work with.

Catfish farming is the only way you can totally control what goes into your business and what you take out of it, and a fishing guide gets paid by putting the customer on fish, and not how many limits he can catch.

That doesn't sound to bad, a tent by the river. Better than living... in a van... DOWN BY THE RIVER.

I would hate to see comercial fishermen taking 20pound + fish out of the lakes everyday.

divingcat- I have been using orange, green, red, noodles for the past 6 years and never had a problem with the law. I dont use jugs often though.

I agree with that for sure. At least the guides has a catch and release in place for all cats over 10 lbs. so others will have a chance to catch them also.

Yes, rather than depending on state stocked catfish, you might consider becoming a catfish guide if you are good at it. A very good catfish guide can earn a good living and not deplete lakes of catfish.

I stopped catfishing for several years and have had to eat the stuff from the grocery store and dang, its not the same. I just wonder how much a pound a person could get for fresh lake catfish.

I guess that is 25 per person in the boat, right?