I've been incredibly busy with work and family stuff, and I haven't had a chance to do any multi-day sessions since June.

I had originally planned to spend this last week down in Austin reliving my fantastic trip from last year, but circumstances kept that from happening, so I had to stay fairly local. After speaking to Jason, I decided to try out his Fishing Platform for a few days, and was excited to learn that he'd be staying there while I was there.

We rolled in late Tuesday Night and took our time getting down to the dock. I set up 3 rods, then we broke out the Captain and then we relaxed under the stars. I had forgotten just how cool it was to lay back and look Up. After a while, we retird to our cots and sleeping bags to rest up for the next day.

That morning, I began to catch a few Catfish- They started small, but got bigger. Lunch Time rolled around and I ent downstairs to whip up some sammiches. While down there, Jason yelled down that I had a run and asked if I wanted to get it. Since I had had nothing buts cats, I told him to get it. Well, of course it had to be a 16# Carp.

Catfish Hell continued for me all day long, and I had decided to harvest a few for dinner, so I kept a few fish in the 6# range. Late in the day, some Old Timers came down to see Jason and his dad. They were impressed with my stringer and went upstairs to see the deck. While they were up there, I untangled my stringer, grabbed my knife, and got ready to filet these bad boys. Once I had the first fish on the table, knife in hand, I looked at it and realized something... I had TOTALLY forgotten how to filet a catfish!! It had been about 25 years since I had done this, and the whole process had completely escaped me. I then grabbed my phone and Googled "How to Filet a Catfish"... I had gone from Redneck to City Slicker in 2.3 seconds. One of the Old Timers came downstairs and saw that I hadn't made any progress on the fish. He asked if I was going to do it any particular way, and I told him that I didn't know what I was doing. He then went up to his truck , grabbed his electric knife and zipped through the 4 fish I had there- He had done this a time or two. Jason had to leave to go to weigh Jase's Grasser(Awesome Fish!!), a I grilled my cats.

Jason got back in time to re-bait, spod up, and re-Captainize our Cokes. We had really expected a busy night, but it remained uneventful outside of our slumber. Thursday brought MORE catfish for me, and this time I was ready to filet them myself. Although I only had a semi-sharp manual knife, I made fairly quick work of the 3 more that I had kept to feed the family.

That last night, we still got more rest than we wanted, but I suppose that was just how it was meant for us. Overall, I caught about 35 Catfish- 25 or so were in the 3-6# range, then some over(up to 9#), and some under. The only Carp was the one that I let Jason catch on my rod(In 3 trips, I still have 0 Carp and Buffalo), but I got alot of much needed rest, and re-learned how to filet a catfish.

Thanks again, Jason- We'll need to do it again soon.

Chad

You have the catfish crown mate, you will get quicker with the knife!
Good to hear you are out and about though and the carp at Fork do come eventually!

Oh Yeah... Baits I tried:

Tutti Boilies, Tutti Maize, Banana Boilies, Maize boiled with Hemp.Tiger Nuts, Strawberry Boilies, Strawberry Maize, Spicy Boilies, TIGER NUTS Boiled with Maize/Hemp, Chocolate Boilies, Range Cubes, Tutti Flavored Fake Maize, Banana Popus, Strawberry Popups, Pineapple Popups.

The Carp came on a Big Bad Chad rig: 2 Tutti Boilies flanked by 6 kernals of Tutti Maize.

To say I threw EVERYTHING at 'em would be an understatement.

I was mostly using Tres Flores baits, but I can't say it was the best conditions to try them out. I can't wait to get them down to Austin.

Chad

Nice report. Those cats can be a real pain in the butt!

you have to mak those catfish pay for eating carp bait.

my personal favorite way of making them pay????

catfish curry.

keep more catfish, eventually you'll run em out!!!

I figured that if I threw some carcasses in the water, they would get the hint. Apparently they got the hint, but not until after I left...lol

Chad