Catfish Jac

Lake Leon 8/5/09 - 8/8/09

2009-08-08T11:16:00.000-05:00

Got on the water around 6:45 Thursday evening and set out 9 jugs with shad and soap along the north edge of the tree stumps, where we thought the main channel was. The deepest we found was about 6 ft deep in this area. The wind laid down and it was actually nice and cool for that last hour of daylight.

Went back out at around 6:30 Friday morning but didn't have anything but a drum, which we chopped up for bait, and a nice sized bass. We didn't take the time to weigh the bass or pose it for a picture because we didn't want to give the wrong impression to any GW that might be watching, that fish went right back into the water ;) As we were rebaiting the jugs and re-positioning them we found that the channel actually got deeper as we headed into the middle of the stump field, closer to the bank. We found 8-10 ft deep water in the middle of those stumps. I went back early that afternoon and set out another 8 or so jugs with all shad.

The wind picked back up that afternoon so we couldn't get back out to run the jugs until Saturday morning. Though lots of bait was gone, there wasn't a single fish on any of those jugs that morning. I guess I'll have to chalk this one up to a full moon since I always get at least one channel on even dinky throw lines.

Lake Somerville @ Welch Park 2/21/08 - 2/23/08

2008-02-24T17:21:00.000-06:00

Since the fishing wasn't that great, I'll talk about the burger first.

Behold the majestic $2 Buck's Cheeseburger:

I had 3 of them in 3 days! Be sure to try one if you ever pass through Somerville, TX. Give them a call about 10 minutes out and it'll be ready when you get there:

979-596-3033

979-596-3035

The even have 20 lb bags of ice for $ 0.99! I've been told that the deli sandwiches are big and meaty but I'm still stuck on the cheeseburger.

Here's a couple shots of my fishing area:

I caught 4 channel cats on DK blood punch bait and 1 on chicken gizzard. Thursday night I had 16 hooks out with Redneck soap bait but didn't have any luck with it. I usually score at least on nice cat on the soap bait with just a single throw line so I guess I'll blame it on the cold front that roared in very early Friday morning.

Here's a couple of crappy shots of a plane that was doing some strange manuevers Friday afternoon:

That crazy plane seemed like it was circling the lake. A couple of times it seemed to skim close to the surface of the lake and then pull up suddenly near the shore of Welch Park and then pull a hard bank where the plane was complete sideways. This went on for a few hours and I saw a helicopter in the area at one point as well. I had some technical difficulties with my camera so I didn't get any shots of the good close stuff.

I'd also like to note that will all the rainfall lately the lake isn't up that much from where it's been for the last several months. The spillway was certainly in full flow. I saw that some folks had actually put a boat into Yegua Creek just downstream from the spillway. Striper time? I didn't even know that stripers could live in a creek/river but I'm still learning this stuff.

Lake Somerville @ Welch Park 12/1/07 - 12/2/07

2007-12-03T17:31:00.000-06:00

We took off to Welch around 1:00 in the afternoon. Here my son shows off his new pocket knife.
We got to Somerville and were welcomed by this:

Camp X-Ray was set up behind some trees and dense bambo-type bushes. Here's some sky shots later in the day.

It was windy and rough all night long so I never even wet a hook. The wind was constantly blowing in the 25 - 30 mph range gusting into the 40's. At least it wasn't cold and raining. The next morning it was a little more tame but we had to pack up and leave.

Though there weren't any catfish on this trip (or even any fishing for that matter), there was a cat. This little critter was hiding in the bushes that we were using as a wind break and hung out on the edge of our campsite all night. My son tried to lure him into the tent with a trail of pieces of cheese pizza. This kitty was biting but was never hooked.

Lake Somerville @ Welch Park 10/4/2007

2007-10-15T18:03:00.000-05:00

I headed out to Welch that Thursday after work and managed to get to the park with about 45 minutes of daylight left. I had the big idea of setting out a trotline from the bank with a heavy weight at the other end. This trotline came with trotline clips, which had to have a decent knot. It took me until dark to get that thing together and baited. I was at a new spot in the park and was not sure that there were no holes or stumps where I would be wading so I didn't go out too far. I'd say the first 5 hooks were in only a couple inches of water but the rest had some potential. Didn't catch nuffin.

I learned a new trick, put your gas lamp on the edge of the bank and toss your cast net in front of it. I got about a dozen shad in my first throw. Caught one keeper and one dink. Threw the keeper back since I have a 3 fish minimum.

Another neat trick, Bucks (in town) has a pretty good cheeseburger for $2.

JAC

Lake Somerville @ Welch Park 9/21/2007

2007-09-23T16:56:00.000-05:00

I got to Welch about 7:45 AM on Friday but the cats didn't start biting until about 8:30. I ended up with 5 keepers but nothing over 1.5 lbs. They were all caught with Danny King Blood punch bait. I had to leave them biting a little after 11:00 for some other errands I had to run.

The lake is looking really good. It's a little below normal pool and all of the underwater vegetation has finally rotted away since I didn't break a single line this time on hangups. For the last year I was used to losing 2-3 rigs a day with not much fish to show for it, sometimes nothing. The lake is definitely getting back to where it used to be. Now if we could just get a cold front it would be perfect!

Sorry about the lack of pictures this time. My camera was stolen a while back and my son's is never around when I need it.

JAC

Lake Somerville, Jerdelle Creek 02/23/07

2007-02-23T17:52:00.000-06:00

Put out 8 jugs (Redneck soap, beef heart, weiners with garlic, and minnow) from 10 am to 3 pm and didn't catch a thing, though some of the bait was missing or chewed on. Caught 1 white bass on a jig with spinner (white tail, fluorescent green head and big fluorescent green eye on spinner, don't know weight but pretty big).

On the west side of the bridge there's a quasi gravel road down to the creek ...

... this parking area is more quasi than gravel. It wasn't that bad today but from the looks of the old ruts it can get pretty muddy down here.

Looks like someone ran their trotlines shortly before I got there. These gar and drum were so fresh they didn't even stink yet!

Here's looking downstream under the bridge.

Looking the same direction except here you can see the well cut trails along the creek. Lots of bank fishing spots here.

Upstream view from bridge area.

A little further upstream.

I lost one white bass and caught one here. To the right is a 10 foot deep hole where my jug sat fishless for several hours. You have to pick up your outboard and paddle past the fallen tree. Note the bank trail runs at least this far on the right.

Another upstream shot.

My lonely white bass.

The creek drops off fast so it's tricky boarding and unboarding here, especially with a 10' boat.

Lake Somerville @ Welch Park 1/07

2007-02-10T19:01:00.000-06:00

Here's some shots of Welch a few weeks ago. The lake is above pool and Yegua Creek was flooded well above it's normal banks. In fact it looked as though the entire creek valley was flooded below Highway 36. This is in the part of Welch closest to the dam.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll head out to Pecan Lake for a couple hours to fish for cats and crappie. Then I'll swing by the creeks on the south end of the lake to see if there's any crappie or white bass activity. If time/energy permits, I'll swing up to Big Creek Park to try for whites on the rocks.

Lake Somerville @ Welch Park 10/27 - 10/28

2006-10-28T17:31:00.000-05:00

I went out to Welch Park at Lake Somerville yesterday evening after work. The lake is up higher than I've ever seen it. It looked as though it was actually back up to it's "normal" state. I ended up fishing an area where I had previously parked my truck when I took my son camping there about 6 weeks ago. I can honestly say that you can now actually fish from the bank at Welch and stand a chance of catching something (as opposed to putting rod holders out in deeper water like I usually do).
You can see in these photos the newly submerged vegetation:

I put out five rods with JPigg, Sure Shot, DK, Premo and Catfish Charlie. The bite was nice and steady from about sunset until almost midnight. I caught 9 keepers in the 1 - 2.5 lb range and threw back probably 6 or 7 dinks. All the baits were getting bites, even ol' Catfish Charlie!

As to my experiment with the tripe, I put out a couple rods with tripe dipped in Sure Shot and JPigg. I got bites but had trouble hooking anything because the tripe was too thick and covered up too much of the hook. I decided to remove the tripe and just fish the bait as normal since the bite was so good.

Here's a shot of my little GTMO Bay:

Once it got late I switched the rods over to my "overnight bait", which consisted of beef heart sprinkled with garlic powder and Redneck soap bait. Then I put out some throw lines with Redneck, Zote, Catfish Candy and Shelby. When I got up the next morning some of the soaps and beefhearts were gone and I only had a 12" channel hooked up (caught on Redneck), which I let go.

All in all I think this was an unusual occasion with the cold front (which is usually bad for fishing when it first arrives?) and the newly risen water level (which must have had a net positive effect).

Here's another shot of the Somerville 9. Upon closer inspection while cleaning it looked as though one of the larger cats might have been a flathead and another a blue, but I'm not sure.

Tripe, the Other White Meat!

2006-10-26T23:10:00.000-05:00

Howdy Folks,

Saturday morning I'm going to Lake Somerville @ Welch Park for some early morning R&R punch bait action. I generally have good luck at that park with punch bait. I can park right on the beach and there's nothing out in the water to get hung up on, except catfish!

But this time I'll be using tripe meat on a couple of my rods as the bait holder. By that I mean I'll place a square of tripe on the treble hook to help support the punch bait. Tripe is essentially the meat that comes from a cow's stomach. If you've ever had menudo then you've had tripe! Tripe is cheap (99 cents a lb), tough and stinky ... which are the primary prerequisites for a great catfish bait. Plus, I've already sprinkled mine with garlic powder.

I'll post full details (and pictures) when I return.

Frozen Shad

2006-10-26T21:23:00.000-05:00

For those of you who are castnet-challenged like me (I'm gonna practice, though!) Academy carries frozen shad, at least in the Houston area. Our local Gander Mtn carries goldfish as well. Throw in a little beef heart (sprinkled with garlic powder) and you've got a great jugging/trotline trip in the making.

Modified Zote (pink) Part I

2006-10-26T20:23:00.000-05:00

Well folks, my first try at melting down the Zote so that I could sprinkle in some extra goodies was a dismal failure. I dropped a bar into a double boiler and nothing seemed to happen after the water started to boil. Then I put the pot-O-soap directly onto the burner and the soap definitely started to soften up but part of it turned brown and then it really got stinky when I splashed in some fish oil.

After doing some more research I discovered that the double-boil approach was right I just needed to shave the soap up into very small pieces and give it a much longer period of time to melt. A crockpot can be used but a little water needs to be thrown in and this process can take 4-6 hours.

I'll try again as soon as I can acquire a cheese grator and possibly an old crusty crockpot from a garage sale. I'm also thinking about getting a pepper grinder or a small coffee grinder so that I can grind up some anise seeds and broken up range cube.

Shelby's Catfish Candy

2006-10-24T16:46:00.000-05:00

Stumbled across this bait today:
http://www.shelbyscatfishcandy.com/

It's a kind of dough bait that has a pleasant odor (anise probably?).

Anyways, here's a review:
http://www.jimporter.org/reviews/review14.shtml

I confirmed that Academy carries both original and garlic flavored.

Menhaden Oil

2006-10-24T11:58:00.000-05:00

Picked up a gallon of Menhaden oil at Bass Pro Shop yesterday for $17. I was hoping for Shad oil but I suspect that Menhaden is the only kind I'll be able to get by the gallon.

Howdy!

2006-10-21T17:06:00.000-05:00

From time to time I will be posting pictures and details about my fishing trips. I will try to be as descriptive as possible, cussing like a sailor whenever I can (ok, not really!).