weird catfish behavior?

Post by **hoeboe** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 3:32 pm

when i was out on Sunday i noticed the catfish were biting really slow on bottom in my normal hole. i moved a bit upstream and fished there for awhile. after the wind died out and the river turned to glass i noticed a lot of small surfaces on top of the water where i had been fishing. i stepped back quite aways from the bank and walked back down to where i had been fishing. here i notice TONNES of catfish just coming up to the surface and hanging there just kinda floating along on the surface! i shortend up my bobber to about 6 inches from my hook and got better action than if i had been on bottom like usual. (still not great action though)

what gives with the catfish doing this? were they trying to warm up in the sun? i know they weren't hitting anything on the surface because there was nothing (that i could see) floating or flying around. i have fished cats for years and never have seen this. any thoughts?

Post by JP » Mon Apr 18, 2005 4:06 pm

Was there alot of dead bait on the surface? Also cats have been know to take gulps of air from the surface when the oxygen level is low in the surrounding water.
Whatever it was, cool to see I'm sure.
JP

Post by **hoeboe** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 4:28 pm

no bait that i could see. as for oxygen levels... just 200 yards upsteam is a small set of rapids and a mile upsteam is a huge dam with large outflow. can't imagine that the O2 level would be low. you'd think that the areation alone would diffuse enough oxy into the system.

Post by **BBRich** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 6:49 pm

You know what, I have seen them and carp do this before. I have no idea why they do it, but they do. Next time try chucking some corn on bottom, that will get them feeding downward and pull more action towards your bait. Don't be afraid to throw 2 or 3 handfuls. The scent will drive them wild.

Post by **spanky** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 7:09 pm

I got to witness something i had never seen before either, a 15" carp "tailwalking" across the water twice... was a bit odd, it wasn't hooked or anything, just decided it was time to jump clear of the water

the bullhead i got today was about 1 1/2ft down, but it was in 2ft water

.....fish are doing strange things i tells ya'

Post by **Flipper** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 10:16 pm

Betcha it's temperature. They find a layer they like and hang there. The sun must feel good to them when the water is this cold.
I held my hand in the river yesterday and it was painful after 15 seconds.

Post by **Wall-I-Guy** » Tue Apr 19, 2005 5:54 pm

Flipper wrote:Betcha it's temperature. They find a layer they like and hang there. The sun must feel good to them when the water is this cold.
I held my hand in the river yesterday and it was painful after 15 seconds.

Hey Marc,

good to see you again, Welcome to the board incidently. I believe we corresponded a year or so ago if you recall. Mentioned I ished the mouth of Buckham's all the time in a greeen Legend, which is now a green Sylan

I have a cottage in Buckham's Bay West which I'm currently expanding! Seem to recall having your neighbor over last summer or the year before with his "dial a mix" truck

Hope to run into you on the water sometime

Rob
(aka WIG)

Post by **Mike the 'Tender** » Tue Apr 19, 2005 6:55 pm

spanky wrote: .....fish are doing strange things i tells ya'

That's why we gots the big brains, spanky!

And yet it seems we still all do strange things too!

Post by **Flipper** » Wed Apr 20, 2005 11:29 am

Hi WIG,
Good luck with the addition!

Post by **steve-hamilton** » Wed Apr 20, 2005 11:40 am

down at Hamilton Bay, where there are literally 10 thousand bullhead swimming around, each and every night, at dusk, they do exactly what you described above...

i have been witnessing this for years....they are not feeding from what i can tell...at least it doesn't appear that they are...

it always occurs at the same time, just as the sun sets, and continued on into the first few hours of dark.

your correct about them not hitting...this is what we like about that time period....bullhead are So prolific were we fish, you can't keep them off your line....my favorite bait for big carp is simply a hunk of dew worms and a split shot....no fancy rigs. during this period, you can actually keep your bait on bottom, in hopes of getting a nice carp of channel cat.

your almost guarenteed to have a bull on w/in five minutes if you keep your bait in the current, without moving it.

Here's some pics to give you an idea of the size of cats were talking about...just small bullheads. I caught one that was 7 pounds...but that was much bigger than any other bullhead we see, most are like the pics below.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Apr 20, 2005 3:19 pm

Steve Hamilton.. you must of caught a channel catfish if it was a bullhead you shattered the ontario record and caught a fish 3 X the weight of the record

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Apr 20, 2005 3:27 pm

Channel cat

Bullhead

Post by **steve-hamilton** » Thu Apr 21, 2005 6:29 am

it was definately a bullhead.

i have caught numerous channel cats, and they really look nothing like a bull....tough to get them mixed up.

many of the course fish records have been caught and caught again....i bet the carp record has been beaten a hundred times. ]

hell, my dad beat it by almost 10 pounds!!!!

Post by **Markus** » Thu Apr 21, 2005 9:12 am

Removed a few posts. I felt we were getting off topic.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Apr 21, 2005 10:02 am

Off topic????

We have a guy claiming to have beaten two records, I don't think it's too much to ask for a little justification. Maybe some photos to back up the claim?

Sounds like more fish stories to me.

HW