Anybody fish Cally or Brau this week and have any luck?

Al

I've been going to Cally for the last several weeks and have not had much luck. I've tried many different spots, depths and baits. Only seem to be able to catch the smaller ones and some rat reds. It's just not like it was last year. I will be hitting Braunig this Sunday. Hopefully the two spots I like the most will produce some cats. My freezer is empty.

Good luck to all of those fishing this weekend.

Went to Cally this morning, rat reds and small kittys was all.

Going to the pot a little bit!

I've been catching nothing but small cats since early spring, and now I'm beginning to wonder if maybe that fish kill year before last is now showing it's effects?

If anyone remembers there were hundreds of nice mature cats floating and scattered all along the shoreline spring before last, and just maybe with the fishing pressure, and the die off that we may now see a void in the number of the larger mature fish.

There was a lenthy discussion that went on for a while back then, and it was determined that the die off was caused by stress from high temps, and the effects of the spawn.

Anyway!....Just my theory as why the lack of the bigger fish, but hey it sounds like maybe an explaination that could be true.

After all that many dead fish had to have somewhat of an impact, since it takes a while for those fish to reach the size of those large numbers that died.

Just something to ponder I guess!

I'm usually way off the mark, so get ready then because since I'm writing this we will now start to see those bigger cats being caught, and you all will then thank me!

over fished maybe?

it does have A LOT of fishing pressure on it

Again, this is just an opinion and everyone knows what those are worth, so having said that!

If anyone remembers all those big catfish floating all over the lake and all the big catfish lying on the shorelines on every bank on the lake, you would have to reasonalbly consider that there would be some damage to the fishery, and losing that large a number of big fish, well?

I saw literally hundreds that would go anywhere from two to eight+ pounds all over the lake, and that it would have an impact somewhere down the line, and I think that down the line is now!

Don't even know if this is the reason for the small fish, and not much we can do about it, even if it was, but let nature, and restocking take it's course, and the fishing pressure I don't believe caused it , but we can only hope that isn't the case, because it may take awhile for the bigger fish to come around!

Hoping Cliff will prove me wrong!

So, then you agree that the fish kill and the 100's of larger fish taken from the lake on a weekly basis may have something to do with the low numbers now?

I found the thread where I reported and received a reply from TPWD about the catfish kill back in April of 2006. Long thread...just keep readin' and scrollin' Most of my old links won't work any more.

http://texasfishingforum.com/forums/ubbt...nels#Post556123

I went this morning for about 4 hours,caught fish right away at every spot but one.I caught 33 fish in those four hours and all of them but three were small.The biggest being 2.5lbs.All fish were released.I have just started noticing the fish being smaller this spring,this winter I caught several good size cats with the best being 7.5lbs.I dont know what is going on,I would not see how I can catch better fish in the winter,and all of a sudden the bigger fish are gone.
I will say I am very selective in what I keep,I keep throwing them back hoping they will grow.I know there is enough food (shad) for them to eat,they are everwhere.

I've been out with Big Al on numerous occasions this spring and he has been putting us on some really good cats. We have been getting some smaller ones but we have been consistently pulling in 3-7 pound cats in a couple good spots on the lake. We have also been hitting up the Reds. Limiting out on most nights. He is the best FREE guide on the lake.

Who's that old geezer named Jimbo rantin and carrying on?

That was kind of funny to read all those old post, but we did catch some nice size cats back then.

Still can't buy into the post spawn stress response, on the reason for the fish kill because it was way too sudden, and involved just too many fish of all sizes that were effected, large fish, small fish, and everything in between, and all over the lake and such large numbers, so nope, I guess we will never know!

That had to have been one wild orgy! LOL!

Hopefully things will get back to normal soon!

Thanks Don!