For 11 Years...

[Nebuchadnezzar]

For 11 years, I've been fishing the pond in my back yard and never once caught a Catfish. I've heard rumors that we have Catfish in the pond but never caught one and never heard anyone else catch one...until today.

I caught myself a 4-5 pound Catfish on 6 pound test using hotdog on the bottom. It wore on my little reel I use out there because the biggest thing I've ever caught was a 2 pound Largemouth Bass and Bluegill bigger than my hand. I catch Bluegill out of this pond on a number 3 spinner, that's how big they are.

Anyway, it took about 5 minutes to get it to the bank, I had to take it easy as to not snap my line as it got close and started to thrash.

I'm now going to have to go down to Bass Pro or Dunhams and get me a better reel.

As for the Catfish? I think someone released him into our pond.

It was fun though and I'm going to have to stock our pond with Catfish now.

[Tiger Teeth]

I love catfishing. My favorite way to fish.

[SunsetBengal]

If you typically fish with spinning baits for bass and bluegill, you're not likely to even know what's on the bottom of the pond. I suspect that if you fish the bottom more often, you'll likely find yourself catching catfish on a semi-regular basis.

[Nebuchadnezzar]

(07-28-2019, 10:24 AM)SunsetBengal Wrote: If you typically fish with spinning baits for bass and bluegill, you're not likely to even know what's on the bottom of the pond.  I suspect that if you fish the bottom more often, you'll likely find yourself catching catfish on a semi-regular basis.

I've fished bottom many times out there with hotdog, blood/stink baits, worms and corn(I've caught Crappie on the corn). The only fish I've caught on anything are Bluegill and Bass, never a Catfish. 

I mainly use lures out there but sometimes I like to be lazy, lol.

I fish everyday too and I mean every single day from mid March to October, lol.

[SunsetBengal]

(07-28-2019, 01:47 PM)Nebuchadnezzar Wrote: I've fished bottom many times out there with hotdog, blood/stink baits, worms and corn(I've caught Crappie on the corn). The only fish I've caught on anything are Bluegill and Bass, never a Catfish. 

I mainly use lures out there but sometimes I like to be lazy, lol.

I fish everyday too and I mean every single day from mid March to October, lol.

Well, in that case, if you like to catch catfish, you might have to stock it.  Just go to most any small river or large creek and catch half a dozen, release them into your pond and a year later you'll have plenty for the kids to catch.

Not to seem nosy, but is there much vegetation in your pond? I know you said there are largemouth in there, they typically thrive in vegetated ponds.

[BengalHawk62]

I love catfishing. Grew up doing it. We fished for bluegills and crappies only to break up fishing for the cats.

I’ve always wondered how bullheads get into ponds and other water ways. No one likes them yet I swear if I dug a hole in my back yard this year I’d have bullheads in it by next summer. They are every where! Why is that? Do they grow in the soil? :)

[Nebuchadnezzar]

(07-28-2019, 03:41 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: Well, in that case, if you like to catch catfish, you might have to stock it.  Just go to most any small river or large creek and catch half a dozen, release them into your pond and a year later you'll have plenty for the kids to catch.

Not to seem nosy, but is there much vegetation in your pond?  I know you said there are largemouth in there, they typically thrive in vegetated ponds.

We have little vegetation but we have areas where the bass can get cover since they love shade both natural like Cattails in spots that we keep under control and man made like these fishing friendly bush things that are placed under the surface of the water.

I will have to head down to the river...not the Ohio River but the Little Miami or Whitwater and get me some Catfish or just call up a fish farm and have them deliver 25-50 pounds.

[*michaelsean*]

All I need to know about catfish is some company spilled fertilizer into my parents lake/pond, and hundreds of blue gill were floating on the top, and not a single catfish died.

[fredtoast]

(07-28-2019, 03:41 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: Not to seem nosy, but is there much vegetation in your pond?  I know you said there are largemouth in there, they typically thrive in vegetated ponds.

When I was a kid pretty much every summer we would go to a place on the Canadian side of Lake Erie called Rondeau Bay.   It was famous for the bass fishing.  My dad would fish early every morning then the family would go to the beach on Lake Erie in the afternoon.  The bay had so much vegetation that they had "choppers" cut channels from around the dock out to the deeper water.  We stopped going for many years, but when my sister's kids started getting bigger she suggested that we all go back.  Turns out they had used some kind of weed killer to get rid of the vegetation and all the bass had left.  All that was left were small perch and stuff like that.  Back in the 60's and 70's that bay was full of big bass, but last time I checked Rondeau Bay it is was being promoted as a waterfowl/birdwatching site.

[SunsetBengal]

(08-03-2019, 01:02 PM)fredtoast Wrote: When I was a kid pretty much every summer we would go to a place on the Canadian side of Lake Erie called Rondeau Bay.   It was famous for the bass fishing.  My dad would fish early every morning then the family would go to the beach on Lake Erie in the afternoon.  The bay had so much vegetation that they had "choppers" cut channels from around the dock out to the deeper water.  We stopped going for many years, but when my sister's kids started getting bigger she suggested that we all go back.  Turns out they had used some kind of weed killer to get rid of the vegetation and all the bass had left.  All that was left were small perch and stuff like that.  Back in the 60's and 70's that bay was full of big bass, but last time I checked Rondeau Bay it is was being promoted as a waterfowl/birdwatching site.

That's sad about your childhood fishing spot.  When i lived at the beach, my place was on a lake, between two Golf Course neighborhoods.  The vegetation in there grew at a phenomenal rate, due to all of the fertilizers and such that washed into the lake from the golf courses.  However, this made excellent habitat for the large mouth bass.  Several of us would wade out and rake out casting lanes off our back yards.  In the dozen or so years that I lived there, It wasn't uncommon to see a 10 pounder or two taken each year.

[Nebuchadnezzar]

When I was a kid back in the 70's, we would go up to this really great lake on Westwood Northern Blvd. called Dream Valley Lake but the owner passed and it was sold to a church group who built a church and the lake was no longer available. 

There's another place we would go out where my uncle lived on Bridgetown Rd. called Foltz Twin Lakes that's still there but I haven't been in decades.

Lake Isabella is still a great place to fish and there's a new place on Campbell Rd. in Harrison Ohio that is really cheap and you don't need a license to fish.

Lake Isabella costs $12.00 for 12 hours to fish at but Campbell Lakes only costs $2.00 per day. Campbell lakes is located in an old quarry and there are two lakes there. The second lake takes a bit of walking to get to.

There's a place in Delhi that is really nice but I can't remember the name or road it's on. There's a bar and restaurant there and they have fishing as well.

Didn't catch anything today down at the Whitewater River, the river is just way too low we need rain out here really bad.