Thought i would throw this out there for some comments, well finally catching a few fish in our acre and half stock pond
have pretty good trotline about 40 or so hooks, strung from one side to other, shallow side is foot of water to center of pond
is about 13' of water, 3 times this week, both sat, and sunday mornings pulled up dead cats, 7 to 9lb range.... one gills for
off colored to keep, buzzards were happy!....

We dont have a water thermometer to check pond temps, at lower depths wonder if its too warm or ? typically we bait lines just
before dark 9 ish or so, then check them at daylight about 6am..... or so..... 3 made the freezer this weekend other 3 feed
buzzards! and yes there is a small spring in this pond, we had several overflows of this pond in the month of may, since we only
about 19" of rain, thats just 10 miles northwest of Brenham TX.....

tips, solutions...... guess check line more frequent?....

hogflyer....

I doubt it's too warm. I bet your pond turned over with all this rain. A change in the thermocline will kill some fish.

Studies have shown that around 20% of catfish caught on trotline will die even in optimal conditions...other factors are added stress they receive while hooked up as well as how long they are on the line...turtle harassment as well as elevated temperature, stress kills! Check your lines often in a small pond.

Just out of curiosity, where can I find those studies about 20% of fish dieing on a trot line? That seems pretty high to me. I've run lines my whole life and very very rarely do I come across a dead catfish on a trot line.

Argue with science jmh004 ....I'm not on here to spread misinformation...fish will die long after you un hook them

Were all the dead ones deep or shallow on the trotline ? On the lake that I fish after thr middle of May any fish that you hook on a trotline will die if you are too deap when this starts we cut the middle weights and fish about 3 to 4 ft deep try this.

Calm down there buddy. Nobody was trying to argue. I was genuily curious about where it came from. One thing I found interesting was the 72 hours these fish were "kept to study" after they were hooked. How much stress did this cause to the fish?

I'm cool as as a cucumber. You have the wrong idea about me jmh004.. I simply repeated a study I read from TP&W. I was trying to help by sharing a real study on mortality rates of catfish caught on trotline..I'm not here to argue or question whether the study is valid. I'm here to get help and help others.

So I shouldn't ask questions about this "real" study just because it was done by the state? I guess that makes sense because the state never screws anything up right? I'm just willing to bet holding a fish for 72 hours causes more stress that it being hooked on a trot line.

One night I was bank fishing and had a few channels on the stringer. All at once, the fish started raising Cane, so I lifted the stringer to see what was going on. A harmless water snake about 4 feet long was trying to swallow one of the cats. I spooked the snake and thought no more about it until morning when I pulled the fish out of the water. Lo and behold, the fish the snake tried to take was dead. Anyone ever have this happen?

I've seen them go into perch traps before.

U are a confrontational person who doesn't like being wrong...I'm trying to help a fellow catfisherman out, not argue with a closed minded person who deals In ifs and buts...go try and bully someone else you big bad wolf! I'm a sheepdog and we ain't scared of wolves

So theres no chance this "study" could have flaws or questions? But I'm being closed minded? No chance holding a fish for 72 hours could be more dangerous to it than it being hooked? I'm really not trying to be confrontational just asking questions is all.