I'm headed up to Lake Tawakoni in the near future, and I hear there is going to be a catfish tournament (I believe) on the lake next weekend. It got me to wo0ndering ... along with some info on the organization putting on this particular event, would you guys mind steering toward your preferred players amidst the catfish tournament scene ... the organizations, their websites, and your takes on their formats and the like?

Your opinions and suggestions would mean a lot to me. There has got to be a good magazine story in this, as well as a great opportunity to enter an event just for grins and have a chance to fish the Black Salty in a competition.

I figure if there is a place to learn about whiskerfish tournaments, and learn from people who have experienced the best (and the worst), it's gotta be this forum. I'd really appreciate your suggestions ... Boz

This coming weekend is the Cabela's King Kat tournament Trail at Tawakoni -> http://kingkatusa.com/blog/
The other 3 main tournament trails are North Texas Trophy Cats, Central Texas Catfish Association, and South Texas Catfish Association. Their sites ->
http://www.southtexascatfish.org/index.html
http://www.texastrophycats.com/
http://www.centraltexascatfish.com/
I've only fished one trail, but they all seem to be well run.

If you want to do a story, your welcome to come out to our tournament on March 26, at Calaveras lake just south of San Antonio, or come out to our Wounded Warriors event on April 16th at the same lake. We'd be happy to have you out there.

Boz, Take a look at Jered Mounger (jmounger) or Terry Terry (Brother Terry).

Both are accomplished catfishermen and tournament anglers.

Take a look at jjason on this forum aka Jason Moore. he was 2010 co-angler of the year in the NTTC tournaments last year and his team won the TWOK NTTC tourney this past Saturday. 5 fish 194 pound stringer.

The Cabela's King Cat Tournament is a top level competition and will attract the best catfish anglers from Texas and beyond. The North Texas Trophy Cat Central Texas Catfish Association, and South Texas Catfish Association are mid level tournaments and attract the top amateur teams and many catfish guides from their respective regions. A NTTC tournament was held last week and you can view the results here:

http://texasfishingforum.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/5893106/1

Additionally, we organize several local amateur tournaments among TFF members. The results if a recent amateur TFF Catfish Tournament can be seen here:

http://texasfishingforum.com/forums/ubbt...lts#Post5870941

Catfish tournaments are almost always in a team format. Five fish are usually weighed due to the difficulty of fitting big fish in livewells.

In tournaments and weekend fishing alike there has been a lot of emphasis among catfish anglers to practice CPR (catch-photograph-release) of all catfish that weigh more than 10#s.

Catfishing is alive and well and we have seen some top striped bass guides posting pics of big blues recently. Some additional interesting topics are the emergence of specialty catfish tackle (proangler rods) and the curent and future state of blue catfish stockings. Tawakoni is king...this maybe because if the stockings it received in the late 80s. Some of us catfish anglers are concerned that the blue catfish may come up on the short end of the stick when it comes to impending budget cuts.

TFF never ceases to amaze me, and I mean that in the best way possible. I never figured, in my early days of outdoor writing during the mid-to-late 1970s, that I would someday have the opportunity to interact with in-the-know sources like you guys.

TFF members are the best. I've seen some forums in the past where you could not have gotten the time of day if your life depended upon it. I really appreciate y'all, and the time you took to fill me in. Next, I'll follow up on all of this.
If you see some guy out there in the months to come, puttering around in a Tracker 185XT with a 50-horse Merc while trying to figure out what the hell he's doing and where he's going, that'll be me:-)

Thanks to you, though, I won't be entirely clueless. Catfish tournaments sound like a blast, and the only way to know for sure is to fish one. I hope to catch you guys one day while "conducting story research" (what I call it when I tell my wife I'm gonna head out for three or four days). "Field-Testing" used to work, until I had already "tested" the Salty a half-dozen times on the same fish.

Thanks again for your kindness ... I'll be in touch.

Tight lines ...

Boz

Boz,

I'd be happy to have you come up here and show you the ropes of catching some catfish using Black Salty's if I could persuade you to get me in some salt

Truth is I would do it anyway but getting in the salt would just sweeten the deal!