Halloween Catfish

Here is our fishing trip video from Halloween. Wind was out of the East and we struggled to locate fish the first hour. Lost 2 toads and caught 15 eaters. I’m trying to post more graph pics in the videos and also try and explain more what we are doing. We’re on a 3 week dink streak but that is all about to change. Thanks for watching guys and don’t forget to hit subscribe and help us grow. We blew past 200 subscriptions pretty quick so I’m going to hold a drawing for subscribers December 1st. Will be giving away 8/0 offset octopus circle hooks and decals, Driftmaster rod holders, and an Abu Garcia C3 6500 Bluecat Special. Subscribe and leave me a comment on one of the videos of you want in on the drawing for the Abu, driftmasters, or circle hook packs with decals.

Way to Gato! This cold rain is gonna bring on some well anticipated changes. Keep them vids coming! Love it

Bravo!!!

That video is the best yet by far imo, and kudos for posting the depths and the graphs plus the explanation - very helpful for n00bs like moi..

I can see where your son gets the 'action' name from.

I see your rod rest set up and have gear envy, but all the stuff would probably sink my little tin boat - lol.

*subscribed*

Cool video Chris. How are you liking those Madkatz rods? What action did you get? How does the action compare to the WS?

What kind of rattles are you using?

Well done!

Thanks amigos! Fishing was tough but I like showing guys how we fish when conditions are less than ideal.

Loving these Mad Katz rods Matt! These MH are built for Trophy Fishing 100 lbrs and no doubt can handle any catfish in the lake. The MH action is a little stiffer than WS MH. I’m going to get a set of Medium action from Mad Katz real soon and will let you know what I think. These Mad Katz rods have taken the catfish industry by storm and when you get one in your hands you’ll know what all the hype is about. Toughest most well built rods I’ve seen. You won’t find 1 bad or negative comment about them anywhere. Hope to test em out on some 50lbrs this weekend! My buddy Jimmy has owned just about every rod you can imagine and Mad Katz are his instant favorite over all others! They are that good!

Awesome Chris. I have been looking at them. Maybe santa will bring me one. I was looking at either the medium or the med/lite. I don't like real still rods for lake fishing. The WS is heavy enough for my liking. We have hauled in cats up 69# on the Ugly stick catfish rods and the ProAngler mediums. Plus they are still fun when you catfish box fish.

Good luck this weekend. If I was not going to the deer lease then I would meet you out there. Lets make it happen this winter. Paxton really wants to meet Jaxon. He was mad when we didn't go the the get together you put on.

Thanks Matt…I hear the Med and ML are very similar. I’m getting the M because we don’t have a ton of Giants in my lake and I think the MH was built for big fish.

We’ll definitely get together this winter. My wife showed me our December schedule last night and it’s got a bunch of kids birthday party’s as well as my wife’s and Jaxon’s birthday so the schedule is gonna be tight for travel fishing. I will probably take off a day either on a Friday or a Monday and come fish down there a couple of days. Will look at the calendar again tonight and see what days I might be able to come fish and let ya know.

Sounds good bud. If December doesn't work we always got Jaunuary and Feburary, those are 2 of my favorite months to fish, probably because deer season is over. HAHA

My Mad Catz rods shipped today! I should have em in 3 or 4 days... Can't wait to try em out.

I also had some issues with reels lately. I had a catastrophic failure of one of my Lew's Speed Cast 600 reels last weekend. I was looking for a replacement, I have a slime cat reel and the jury is still out on it. It was prone to hanging up when I first got it but I think I have the kinks worked out of it now. I bought a Sougayilang Rover 600 size. Sougayilang Rover 600 It reminds me a lot of the Kast King Rovers, in fact the Slime Cat does too. I use my reels hard. As you guys know I am out there every weekend and then some. The limit seems to be about 2 years. After that I start having issues. Maybe I need to bite the bullet and get some Abu Garcia or some other higher end reels. My issue with Abu is you never know what your getting. They have cheap chinese [censored] like all the others now so why bother?

We'll see how these two new contestants do but I'm guessing they will last about as long as everything else has...

Tim I'm sure Chris has told you about the Shimano Tekotas. He probably brought a few when yall fished together. They are the best reel I have tried for big cats. I only have 1 but as my abu's wear out I will be changing over. They are pretty pricey but they are great. Michael Littlejohn has been using them for years and they stand up to the abuse they put them thru on the big cats and in the saltwater. They have a lot of power and a big handle for cranking in planer boards also.

My only complaint about them is they are heavy on the handle side so my rods tend to turn in the rod holders. I wish more rod companies would put gimbals on their rods and then they wouldn't turn.

Great video. A treasure of memories.

Your gonna love those Mad Katz for those Lavon toads Tim!! Those Rovers and SlimeCat reels are all the same reel with a different stamp on em. I call em throw away reels cuz you use em for a year or 2 and then throw em away. I have a bunch of Swedish Abus and I still run em but I break a few every year and have to send em to Southwest for repair. My Tekotas on the other hand have been doing serious battle for the last 5-6yrs without a single hiccup. I gotta give a huge thanks to Michael Littlejohn for turning me on to them cuz they are the best Catfishing reels I’ve seen. When you get tired of your reels breaking every year then pony up and get you some more Tekotas and your problem is solved. In case your wanting to get rid of the Tekota you bought a few months back I will be glad to take it off your hands Saturday!

I use 4 different rattles Fish Killer. Demon Dragons in High Fin Blue for large baits, WS rattling chubs for medium baits, homemade rattles from Jeff Manning on Facebook for medium baits, and for giant baits with stinger hooks I use big Berthas from whisker seeker and I add a versa rattle. I also run big baits with stingers with the 4” demon dragons. They all put out a different sound than the next. I run all 3 versions every trip but usually the fish prefer 1 over the rest. It’s always different from day to day but they usually prefer 1 over the others.

Y'all, I have been sufficiently chastised about the cheap chinese reels. I ordered another Shimano Tekota 600 HGA last night. That makes 2 and I need 4 more. Chris, I do not like reels that break. I also do not like spending $220 per reel. But given the choice between the two, I know you are right about the Tekotas. You can just feel the quality when it's in your hand.

Now, I am going to say that I don't like the BCF trolling rods. They are too light for me. They feel like a wet noodle when I'm casting. But I am thinking that the Mad Catz MH with the Tekota will be the ultimate Blue Cat Combo!

My son is a fire arms expert and he is always telling me "buy once, cry once" That's his way of telling me to stop looking to try and save money and buy the good stuff. Chris, I think you are saying the same thing. I guess it's time I listened to guys that are obviously smarter than I am.

lesson learned...

After buying those 2 lithium batteries for my TM, The Boss has put me on a budget for fishing stuff. Walmart had Shakespear catfish reels on sale for $35 each. I bought two. When one breaks, I will have a spare in the boat pre loaded with 30lb mono to take its place. The 2 year warranty was cheap, so I bought for the warranty for one reel. I'll just keep replacing them for the next two years. Already had to replace my Catfish Sumo reel, but it had a one year no questions asked warranty. Found out these are just Kast King reels painted green. Tennessee River rocks are hard on reels. Especially when your anchor slips and you don't realize it until you have all 4 rods bent over. I'm ready for TVA to turn the water release down. 10 gates open last weekend. I'm told the reason is the grass is clogging up the generators so all water release is being done with the flood gates. Tomorrow is skipjack day. I'm going to load the cooler with enough to tide me over until next year. The guides are all posting client PB's right now and it will only get better.

Josh sent me a picture of a client with a 73 a couple weeks ago...