Welcome to the June & July 2000 update, Please be patient for the page to load.
River conditions this summer have been unlike any I have seen. We experienced high water with lots of current and drift, also water clarity was poor. Usually by this time of year the river has settled into its summer pool stage. Even the water temps did not climb as high as normal, 85 degrees was the top surface temp I recorded this year. Every time the river would settle into its summer pool, it would back up again. The construction of the olmstead dam could be a factor and good rainfall which we have not had in years.
Enjoy the pics and as always click on the pics to view the full image
Pictured here myself with a 24lb cat taken with shad head. I have always prefered live bait, but we tried some new tactics this year, 1 using cut bait, particularly heads taken from live shad.
I learned this from T smith of catfishin.net
This is a great tactic for muddy or stained water. We also tried the cut bodies from live shad, and live shad with no luck. Another tactic we experimented with was the riggin. I have alays been partial to a 3 way rig with the hook (12 inch drop) hanging about 3 inches above the sinker. We used slip rigs and a 3 way rig with the drop for the hook being about 2 feet long and the drop for the sinker about 6 inches long, the latter being the better for the conditions of the river this year. We used all these rigs every time out.
4 bluecats total weight 51 lbs. again taken on shad heads.
ofcourse no summer is complete without a little night fishing action. on this night we were fishing a steep cut mud bank 17 ft dropping to 35ft for flatheads, with no takes we switched to (yep) shad heads and took this string of channels.
Here, 14 lb blue (shad heads)
2 other poles in the boat bent double while I paused for a quick pic, Dang just to share with you!!
You can see the drift in the river. We fished these same conditions all summer. 35 ft of water, just below a big eddie.
This big fella, guestimated! 22lbs. was really battle scared as you can see in the close up, even his pectoral fins had knots from being broken? a quick pic and released to fight again.
Myself pictured here with a 23 lb blue, unfortunately, he had one more twist and flop while posing for the camera - and I dropped this beautiful specimen, thus the bloody pic.
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