Like most of us I sat in front of a fire and watched El Gato and Action Jaxon brave the cold on Sunday. I have to say I really enjoyed that. Watching your buddy fish and chatting with the North Texas catfish brotherhood was a good way to spend a cold winters day. But... It did not scratch the itch the same way reeling in a toad yourself does.

So today being a school holiday, I grabbed my grandson Jerry and headed for the lake around 10:00 after I got a little work done early this morning. We gassed up the boat and headed out to get some bait. Found bait in 30 plus feet and got some good ones. Headed for the SE corner and was marking fish thick in about 36 feet of water.

Zero wind and a clear blue sky but the fish looked like they were active. They were. We thought about getting some eaters for dinner but we caught one 2 pounds and one 3. The rest were 20 and up. Surface temp in the marina was 46 when we set out, it was 53 when we got back. Deep water was right at 51 degrees on the surface.

Big heads and big fillets were the order of the day, caught one good fish and one about 7 pounds on smaller pieces of cut shad but the rest came on the big stuff.

Talked to TX Ken, seemed he was having trouble with burping a fish. He got it sorted out and I had the same issue with a couple of ours. Ken, your solution worked for us as well. The bait knife sheath did the trick.

We started soaking baits at 11:15 and pulled up about 2:20. We ended up with a 2, 3, 27, 23, 20, 26, and 7. A very good haul for a short afternoon trip. And proud of Jerry getting his new personal best at 23 pounds! Jer, gotta say, you are still 5 pounds behind your little brother...

Anyway, no huge fish but the twenty somethings were out in full force. Can't think of a better way to spend the afternoon than fishing with my grandson.

GB & TL Y'all...

Those Blues look good and healthy.

All released to fight another day...

Nice work Tim! Wish I could have fished today. I was on a huge pile of monsters yesterday but the cold front had em not wanting to bite too good. I figured today and tomorrow they would turn on good! Had a great time yesterday on the livestream! Couldn’t believe all the big time catfish anglers that were tuning in to watch me fish a freakin cold front! I had a hard time keeping up with all the comments! Thsnks for tuning in buddy!

Great job, Tim!



Skeetmaster and I also headed out to Lavon today in my boat, leaving the boat ramp an hour earlier than Tim. We knew the bait and fish would be deep, and ended up spotting a ton of bait in 35 feet of water.

Great, except we couldn't net them, despite Geno's huge heavy net and my homemade taped net. Nothing.

We ended up using old shad bait which looked in great shape, but not a bite to be had in 4 hours. We passed Tim on the way back in (I had a pm appointment) and even though we sucked today, noted that we had fished the exact line Tim was fishing, so we got that right!

Lessons for today:

BOB (you idiot), BUY A DARNED TAPED NET IF YOU WANT TO CATCH BAIT IN DEEP WATER!!! (*click*purchased)



Cat'n are hard!!!

Bobbing around in a boat not catching is still way better than a ton of other things.



Great to finally meet Geno, Skeetmaster, and hoping we can do it again soon (with better luck next time).

Tim, you are a catfish magnet my man. Bob and I had no luck today. That's really what he and I need. Luck. Skill is still eluding us at this point. We might as well have been out there chasing birds with a stick. We pulled boards in the same spot as you and didn't sniff a bite. We didn't have fresh bait though so, pretty sure that was our main malfunction. Neither of us have a taped net and this time of year, I think that's pretty important.

We did, however, have a great time and almost solved some of the worlds problems! Blue Cat Bob, you are one of the good guys. Thank you for offering me a spot on your boat today. I owe a thank you to a number of guys on here that have offered me the same. Tim, Chris, Ken, Matt and at least 4 or 5 others have offered. The catfish brotherhood is real! I really appreciate you guys.

Anyway, Tim, I love it when you post. It's always good to get a report from you because you give us all the important info and back it up with great pics. Thank you and I can't wait to see more!

Tim you are on fire. Great job bud. Glad yall have a great day and got a new PB. Nothing better that spending some QT with the grandson and putting a PB in the boat. Life long memories.

I need to get this back pain under control so I can go fishing.

Has anyone noticed how easy folks like Tim and Chris make it look???

Well newsflash, it ain’t!!!!

I would swear but the site would censor it anyways!

Hah!

Thanks Fellas! Geno, I've been telling Bob, you need to have that deep water net and you need fresh bait. And you need some bream for variety. Some days they just don't want shad. Seems like the colder it gets the less they like shad...

Nice work Tim! Love the smile on a kids face!

I appreciate the help yesterday... like the old game show "phone a friend" when in trouble.

I will post some more later tonight... just jumped on here quick while listening to an online meeting at work... dont tell.

I went out early, found some good bait deep, and found fish after looking for a while (3rd stop - hour of scanning), in 36-42 feet. Water was 46 in the cove and 51.4 out on main lake. NO wind... had to power troll. Only had a few hours to fish, but got into them good for a little while, but no toads. Caught couple smaller eaters on one small center bait, everything else on big baits. Ended up with a 6, 10, 17 and 20. The 20 just would not burp... held in water, rocked on my knee, laid in floor of boat, held in net, etc... finally called Tim and he told me to use my finger... yes, my hand now looks like I have a rash... could not get hand deep enough. Did not have any tubing, but plastic knife sheath finally let it burp. I marked some really big fish, but got what I got. The 20 was covered in mud, in about 42'.

Left them biting to get some work done. Will try to post some pictures tonight.

Bob, I think it was Jackie Kennedy that told me frozen shad are like fishing with popsicles "look good until they thaw"! Just don' work. That was a early lesson for me last year... Buffalo and carp, chicken breast all still work after frozen, but not shad.


Chris, I went back and watched some of your video's over the weekend... about died laughing at Jackson with the knife! Sure Momma was proud of that - if she saw it. LOL

Tight lines all!

Ken

Every time I turn my back Jaxon is getting into something Ken! Lmao!! I can’t help but to laugh about the knife though! Not because I think it’s funny that he was waving it in the air but because I laugh at guys that get so worried about it. I let him chop up bait when he gets board and he’s been using a bait knife for 3 yrs just about every week. I realize he is farther along than most kids his age and I treat him as such. He can cut bait, throw a cast net, and catch 40+ lb fish while most kids his age can’t catch a 5 lbr.