fished braunig this past saturday night, and did well, 15 channels up to 5lbs. nothin smaller than about 2lbs. under corks with shad along the rocks. tried to catch some reds, but they wouldn't bite although you could hear a couple of them break surface chasin some kinda bait everyonce in a while.

Thanks for the report Buerich! Don't hear much about Braunig lately. Not because there is anything wrong with the fishing, but just nobody reporting. Probably one of the best kept secrets around. I haven't fished it in a while, and I just now started hitting Calaveras again. I always had a hard time trying to decide which lake to try, but it's hard to switch when something is working. I know that Braunig used to be known mainly for it's size quality of catfish, and Calaveras was always a numbers lake. Don't know if that still holds true? The size of the lake was always a factor in the day. Back then you picked a number and fell in line to fish along the dam. One boat would pull out and another would take it's place, kinda like cars circling a parking lot. Best time to fish either lake is during the week or at night. Might have to give the old lake a try soon!

Well Buerich inspired me to return to Braunig (I haven't been there in 5 years).

Fished Monday night, started off near the back of th e lake around 6pm. Castnetted shad and started fishing the edge of the grass on the east side of the lake. Had some DK under a cork and when it hit the water, it never stopped. Hauled in a 4lb channel cat. Kinda slow after that for about 20 minutes then caught 5 more on cut shad in and around the grass. All fish were between 3 and 6 pounds, all channel cats. When the action slowed, moved over to the jetty and refreshed my shad supply (I keep them in a bag on ice). It's really easy to get a lot of shad at night along that jetty. I would catch 3 or 4 then move to the next place (dark areas between the light poles) and catch 4 or 5 more. I called it quits near midnight with 17, but on my way around the jetty, I decided to troll and pitch DK under a cork in the shadows. Caught 5 more before I got to the end of the jetty, all good size. 22 total, all in the 3-6 pound range. My hands are still dry and sore (wimp). It's not easy fighting two 5lb fish at once, then using the dipnet at the same time, but someone's gotta do it!

Ah the memories.......

we used to catch several cats outa calaveras around 20-25lbs. also many more smaller ones thought too. i've never caught a cat at braunig that was bigger than about 7lbs, although i don think i've caught too many smaller than 18in either. where i was night fishing was on the inside edge of the jetty closer to the point. usually a good spot for cats and reds. earlier this summer got a 7.5lbs bass on a free lined tilapia as well. i think we woulda caught more if we moved around more like kat man did. was funny, my mom hooked a fish that night that we broke off at the edge of the boat. bout an hour later we pulled up a good cat that had her leader and everything in his mouth. its funny to catch them again like that. where do you fish around grass kat man? you mean like the cat tails? i never really thought the weeds were good for catfish, but apparently i'm wrong.

Not the cattails. Just past the jetty, on the right, there is a weedline. It starts off as a slimy grass but a few hundred yards back and it becomes more of a brittle hydrilla type grass (although it doesn't feel like hydrilla at all). That grass has a weedline in about 8 feet of water that the fish cruise up and down chasing shad in and out of the grass. There are also pockets in the grass that you can see in the daytime. I dragged one fish out that I would have sworn was 10lbs or better, but it was a 5 pounder with about 8 pounds of grass on it

Like Calaveras, at night the cats act like bass act, in that they stage in abush points like shadows, dropoffs, stumps and such. If you find a shadow under a tree on a moonlit night, pitch a weightless shad to it, see what happens.