Guys and Gals, I was sitting here trying to keep my summer blue cat depression at bay and started looking at giant blue cats that have been caught in the past, basically just dreaming and wishing, when I made the realization that we've gotta get it together! The majority of record blue's that have been caught in the past couple of decades have almost all been caught between May and July!! Now, I'm aware that almost every one of them have been caught in a major river (that's your cue Catfish Tim! I know you're going to hit the big river at the end of this month!) but you can't tell me that there isn't a hungry toad lurking around in one of our favorite local fishing holes! This article from Chad Ferguson tells the story: https://www.catfishedge.com/world-record-catfish/

We gotta up the game for Texas! Lets all get off our butts, trade in our depression for some real anticipation, deal with some heat and get out there and grab a spot in the record books!


Wait....am I still dreaming?!.....

Geno! You are spot on brother! You can catch monster blues all year round. I had a good outing last weekend and I'm anticipating another good one this weekend. Maybe two. The grandkids invasion starts Sunday afternoon. I'm fishing tomorrow and Sunday and again Tuesday and Thursday I think. Watch for some good blue cat porn posts from me in the next several days.

Getcha some everybody!

You are right Geno... I have been thinking about this a lot the last couple of weeks. With the water levels super low at Cedar Creek, it is definitely going to change my summer game up some - make it harder since I cant get the big boat out... but I am not quitting.

Going to hit Tim up soon, and see how a pro does it on that new boat! But I am also going to rig up something on my 16' flat bottom - duck boat. Have to be a little more careful with wind and wake boats, etc. but it can and will be done. Actually looking forward to the challenge (I think)... LOL

Go get'em! Tight lines all!

Ken

I guess I am being Mr Negative here but I don't see anyone pulling out any 20 pound plus fish at the moment, and I put that down to the spawn and partly the heat.

Bobbing around in 100F heat to pull out fun size fish just doesn't appeal to me, but I guess the bigger fish have got to start biting sooner or later as they gotta eat!

Winter excursions when it's below freezing are more than worth it when the big monsters are feeding. Summer heat would be worth it if those big ones were biting of course. But when I see CFT, Gato and even the famous Catfish Dave pulling in dinks I am thinking nope.

Ok, flame me now!!

Okay BCB, you asked for it...These were all caught in July...

I'm out till Halloween, at the earliest. LOL. On a more serious note, if we don't get some back end hurricane rain, we won't have to worry about it. Two more months of this and some lakes won't even be accessible.

Nice fish!

Thought I would post in this thread as I went out yesterday on Lavon, and actually had a nice trip despite the heat.

No monsters, but the bite was on and big take downs from a bunch of fish up to just under 10 pounds. I left before daybreak at 82F and returned to the boat ramp before 11am, and it had just reached 92F so not too bad at all.

Man, it was good to get some time on the water and soak some baits without the crazy heat or the crazy boats!

I'll take it.

Man I know about the crazy boats, really absurd at some of the boats, one put water over the bow of my boat just a few days ago while I was on the trolling motor, I could have easily put the jig I was fishing with in their boat, we had this whole cove of the lake and they just had to get that close to me, just unreal the way these people are.

Then the heat, man the heat is on and I know everyone here knows that. Night fishing is good for the first and foremost problem, those crazy boats lol. I can deal with the heat well enough, but I am getting older now and my problem is no one is going to like how I deal with some of these crazy boaters. That day mentioned above when those kids, let's call them as to what they are, they got close enough to roll ankle deep water over the bow of a 21' Triton bassboat, well I can say honestly, I had ideas like, they could have made good chum for my newly found blue cat hole, now I must lol here in my defense, but that is ridiculous how close they got to me for their wake to literally break over the bow of my boat. Well anyway I have already got irritated again just typing about it.

The whole reason I wanted to post here on this topic is two things, one being awesome, is I found a blue cat hole, and I mean a real dandy. This is on lake Allen Henry. It's about 10' low right now, but this hole is good, and I never caught anything else but blue cat and so far 1 large drum.

Then there is the other thing I caught, well actually I snagged it. There for a little bit I really thought I had one of those fish you land, take a pic or two of and slip back in the lake. I would pull in 10' and it took it back, 00the shakes were all there too. It was awesome till I was not doing any better than the 10' each time. I knew then I had me someone's trot-line and I knew I had a fish. Not good

Now, I am not going to take any body's fish from them, but I just wanted my fish and my tackle back and I could move over about feet which I had been thinking about anyway, heck it was like black dark thirty, you guy know, really nice and dark and calm outside. You could hear everything out also, it's really neat out on the water like that, especially after 4 or so hours ago I just had water over the bow lol...

Pulled anchor and pulled my boat over to get my tackle back and had plans to move about 50' east of where I was.
Yes as it was, I did cast my setup right across this trot-line as I have many times while bass fishing with jigs and such, but have I never pulled one up like this one. I got my fish off and released, untangled my mono leader and I then noticed It had not been ran in months guys, all grown up with the green moss all over this line, still had hooks as I could see two and yet it had fish on it.

I get my tackle back easy enough with no wind blowing or crazy boaters, and yet the fact I knew this line had not been ran as it should have, then the fish I knew was there on it, I had to see, so I am wiping all the mossy [censored] off the main line in the direction I knew there was a fish, heck they other direction felt dead tight. I get to the first hook wipe all the slime off it and move on down the line. All indications it was a nice fish also, that line was staying deep from where I had a hold of it. I know how all this sounds guys, but I ain't the person that runs anybody else's lines to take there fish... I have not used trot-line's since I was a kid with my dad, that was his thing, heck I had more fun catching the bait for him than using the trot-line.

Anyway it was about the second or third hook I had work my way down to, and I saw the first of more than a few cats that had been hooked on this line long enough they were literally just melting away in the water. Just made me sick and angry all at once. I took off that mess and cleaned up the leader and moved on down the line, next hook the same thing what was a nice fish had been hooked for so long that it did die and then start to deteriorate until I figure it was next bait! Now that is really disgusting to me and at many levels.

I keep working my way down this line cleaning all the slime off and for darn sure taking what dead fish or piece of, dead fish off, there was several that had already died but had been dead quite some time, not enough time that I couldn't tell that this fish was blue cats, really pissed at this point, I don't fish trot-line's anymore but I get why some of us do. But you are supposed to be responsible for the running of them at least every 4 to 5 days in my opinion, I won't get into that and tell everyone what I really think about the time line...

I work my way down the line now with every intention of getting the rest of these dead fish off and I at that point was going to take the live one off as well, wrong as it was, that live fish was getting its freedom. Well it ends up I turned three fish loose, all blue cats. One of the 3 was a really nice fish. It was a nice, yet struggling fish. Had its mouth all torn up from fighting the line, this fisherman did what he thought to be the right thing and released it.

I really think the fish would be OK, certainly enough chum in the area that I removed off this guys line that use to be nice cats also, this nice big blue cat could eat, heck I figure that they had been eating the dead fish that was hooked before them and so on. I know that line had not been tended to in a long time guys. That one blue cat was at least 15 pounds heck that fish was over 24" long, but it was really skinny, not like what we catch at all, and I bet that fish was 15 pounds are more. I never pulled the fish out of the water, just unhooked and released it after a brief check of both sides of the cat.

Now I have never been so angry that I actually wanted to cut and take this entire trot-line out of the lake, I didn't but I do know exactly where it is and plan to get the Game warden involved if they have time. It just made me sick to think how that kind of stuff affects all the trophy fish we all would like to catch. Here on Allen Henry, your allowed 2 blues over 20". I am ok with that I guess, but for those I catch I will shoot a couple of pix and release, in hopes that the next time we meet that fish is bigger. Heck the fish I keep are the spotted bass they put in this lake. Those fish should have never been stocked in here, now those little monsters eat all the bait for every other species of fish that are in this lake.

The spotted bass in this part of the country is another long story of yet again just my opinion and I will spare you guys of that. I just needed to rant and rave about this last outing I had, I basically dumbed my bucket all over this thread, some good and some bad.

The other thing I want to share here is a good thing in my opinion and that is this live bait I have been using lately, I have always used perch, those and any shad I can get a cast net on if I can find a place to catch them and the crawfish the main stay, got to love those crawfish. They are hard to get here, where I grew up was at Possum Kingdom lake and literally right out the back door, I have many little creeks and shallow areas I can go and get the crawfish and the shad and the perch have been my favorite bait if I am not using artifical baits. I just only have caught a few of the crawfish out here in the desert part of Texas that I live in now.

Now, this new live bait to me is the Black-Salties, you guys use these yet? They are freak'n frisky and hardy and even in the heat like what we have had. The fish seem to love them as well. I have only been out three times with these and think they are going to become a really good bait myself. They remind me of a croaker somewhat. I guess I live under my rock and seldom come out to see what everyone is doing. I have never heard of these lol.

I do dream of someday getting a trolling motor with the spot lock feature, I have heard and seen those lol. Limited budget on my end nowadays kind of make things like those TM's in the distance for me, heck the one I have works prefect like it should, so I still use this old dinosaur lol.

You guys that like to fish with live bait, really need to try the Black-Salties. They have a really heavy greasy slime and the smell to them that just shouts fish bait.

I have tried black salties about 2 dozen times. I have yet to ever even get a hit on one. They are hardy, and next to impossible to kill, but outfished by bluegill and shad every time. Love to be able to say they've worked for me, as they're easy to get. But just not the case for me.

Perch here to and shad the best, they are hard to keep alive for very long. The darn perch have been impossible to get and the only ones this year have been the ones I catch. The bait shop here that has any sort of live bait can't get perch this year and showed me the Black-Salties and I have had good catches on them despite no rain with any kind of run-off in the lake. We really need that.

The other thing I have is a green LED light I hang out the back of the boat, wait for all the action, I cast the Black-Salties right outside the edge of the light. I ever get perch or can cast net up any shad I will use them as well. At this point I have 3 dozen of the Black-Salties ready at the house. I finally got my new water pressure guage in and plan to put it in tomorrow, but Friday I am planning another dark thirty trip. I don't fish much for bass while it's so busy on the lake with all the crazies on the water. They just Don't have any common courtesy for anyone, and get way to close to other vessels on the lake for me, once school starts, it's all good.

You night fishing guys should get you a green LED light to try as well. They use very little battery. Mine is Moonshine brand and has been really great, I have even stuck it 15' deep a few times, not being sure if it was water proof at that depth. It's been a nice package with its own bag which is great for me and all I carry in my boat lol.

Rowdy,

Nice post, and I feel your pain and aggravation with both the boats and trot lines.

Not sure we can do much on the boats/jet skis. Watch out for them, take pictures of boat numbers and call game warden if it warrants it. But as much as I hate the wake boats, etc. the lake is there to be shared with all. Want everyone to have fun.

Trot lines - I have ran them, grew up with them in the rivers in Alabama. Nothing against them, IF they are managed and taken care of. I will admit that I have cut two trot lines on Cedar Creek in the last two years. Both of them were very old, and not being managed. One had some rusty hooks and was just abandoned. Second had been in place a long time, but actually had the hooks pulled off. However neither had any ID(legally required) on it, and was obvious it had been in place unattended for a long time. Was just something to get caught in a prop or hung up while fishing like I did. In fairness, I have also gotten hung on a legally marked and what looked to be taken care of trot line, and I left it alone. I try to stay away from them when I see them, if possible.

It all comes down to being good stewards of the land. Taking care of what we enjoy and being responsible. If someone is doing things legally, even if I do not always agree, then so be it. IF not, a different story.

Stay safe and tight lines all. Stay hydrated.

Ken

One summer on Lake Livingston during the dog days we were scanning around the main lake river channel for striper. There are a few large trees along the way were loaded with suspended schools of blue cats with one or two huge marks per tree. especially trees with a cluster of branches near the 20'-25' depth. We spot locked over the tree with oversized gizzard shad cut bait like you would winter drift with. I there was a big mark, you would get a bit within 5 or 10 min just about every time if you put the bait on her head. We did this with clients for several weeks and it was very consistent. Made a great filler as the striper fishing was tough. I never tried to replicate it on another lake and abandoned it as soon as the striper fishing turned back on, but it was definitely a pattern. I'll bet it would work during the summer on any lake with a deep channel and suspended timber.

Chris, I have caught some nice 4 - 5 pound blues suspended at PK last fall in the 20' water of the Brazos River right where comes in the lake. Didn't even have a big rain on the water shed either. The really neat thing was we were catching them on deep diving crank baits that I added a worm weight to help get them down.

We were marking fish as you mentioned and we been looking for strippers and just new that we found them, with the wind blowing all the bait across mouth of the cove there and against the deep side bank of the river, I knew they were there. Little did I know they were blues. They are a different breed of cat for sure lol, pun intended. We were in brush that was deep, never caught anything thing else and quit soon as we lost all the deep divers I had. Was really great fun.

KEG

You are so right as all of us need to be good stewards of our lakes and ocean's, and man is this failing. I do as much as I know how to be. Now I haven't thought about the cell phone camera, that a great idea, thanx

As always Ken, you're a class act! Great words to live by man! If anyone on here doesn't know Ken, all they have to do is meet his son! That'll tell you all you need to know about him! Hope to see you one day soon. When it cools down (and fills back up!), I'd love to come down to CC and fish with you guys.