Catfish spawn

[shadslinger]

Some recent posts got me thinking about the catfish spawn, so I Googled it and came up with a pretty cool site for information about the spawn.
http://www.gameandfishmag.com/fishing/catfish-fishing/RA_0606_06/
Check it out. it has a lot of good information and usefull information for catfishermen.
Of course this kind of information is best uesd when you apply your personel knowledge that has been gained over years (in my case a lot of years!) to tweak it for local settings.
There are some very savy catfishermen on this site that always add to my knowledge about whiskerfish, so I would like to ask them what they think about the spawn on their favorite lake/stream/river.
The site linked states that the best conditions for blues are; water temp about 80, riprap, logs, or other closed structure that the male can guard easily, and go upstream in early spring and behind dams where they stack up.
My personel take on Lake Livingston is that the flatheads (ops) go first then channels, and last blues.
My best rod & reel blues come about this time of year fishing on the edges of the river channel close to an underwater hump. They seem to hang on the slope of the river channel, where the slant of the old river bank is about 30 to 40' deep. I like to anchor on a hump and cast out big hunks of cut bait so that they settle on the slope of the river bank. I often catch blues over 35" on rod & reel when I can go this time of year and the wind will let me anchor in my spots. It doesn't last long however, about 3 weeks at most. The blues I catch then are heavy with eggs and I release those over 10lbs to spawn, they don't eat very well anyway, and from reading the site linked I now think that they are on there way somewhere else to spawn and using the river channel as a highway to get there.
This year the water temps are lower than usual, last time I went it was 74.9 and the channels are still hitting at the jetty rocks and their eggs are just now ripe. So I am thinking that there will be a good run on pre-spawn blues starting about now, and continue for 3 weeks.
I have noticed that when the blues are ready to drop eggs that they disappear from the spots where just a few days ago I had been really catching them.
What do you guys think about it?
SS

[ar_mcadams]

I think you should go with me and my dad to show us how to catch good cats on Livingston. Thats what I think. :biggrin: We live close to Rayburn but you have a lot more cats.

[seawings]

I am not sure if it's the spawn or what, however, we were catching a few nice cat's every day, mostly in the AM (0700 - 0900) then later in the evening (1600 - 1900). Lately we started catching very fat females (after fileting the first we learned to spot them). Now, for the last few day NOTHING. We are on a cove off the main lake up in Onalaska. We tried the bottom, cork suspended about two feet...using shad, cut shad, stink bait..."NADA" works. So...what's happening? We're newbies and have no experience.

We've been busy in the yard and haven't been out on the lake (with the boat), so I guess it's time to head out and try. We understand the white bass are starting so we have a whole bunch of learning to do!!

[oppelousas]

I really did like that article SS. It does make alot of sense. Thanks for the link. I hope to be over there soon to hookup with some of the Livingston cats. I live over here on Rayburn and all I can catch is the ones I chum for or by baiting with soured milo.

Opp

[shadslinger]

That is a cool link I learned a lot from it, and it may answer seawings question about why he is not catching them like he was. They may be activily spawning at this time, and like the web site says they tend to be hard to come by while they are "doing the do".
SS

[dbullard]

Good post SS!! I am heading up early Saturday morning I am hoping with another front hitting Sunday that they may be pretty active.If the wind lets us we are going to sets some jugs and some limb lines Sat. evening.

[Red3Fish]

Here is a letter I wrote to Parks and Wildlife..about sores we found on catfish in Lake Palestine, at the end of June last year...



Dear Sirs,

A friend and I fish Lake Palestine for catfish, about a mile
above (North of) the 155 bridge, and the last two times we have
caught several, both blues and channelcats, that have rather
large ulcers on their skin. Some are as large as a silver
dollar, and others smaller. These look like open sores that the
external skin has been eaten away, and an open and slightly
bleeding circle of exposed tissue.

The ratio of infected fish seemed to be about 5%...20
caught...one infected...19 healthy. I dont know if this is a
new problem, or one to be concerned about, but I felt the need
to report it, and would like feed back form you. Naturally we
didn't keep them, but are they dangerous for human consumption?
Out of about 150 fish, we had about 7 with these sores,
including a 9.85# one. Most of the ones infected were in the
range of 15" to 18". Will take pics next trip if necessary.

Thanks in Advance
Mark Red3Fish@aol.com

Hey Red3fish. What you are seeing is a disease called Collumnaris. It
is a bacterial infection (the red part) combined with a secondary fungal
infection (the white outline). It is very common when the fishes immune
system is repressed during a stress event. Since catfish are spawning
now they are in close association, are stressed, and spawning in catfish
is not a gentle activity. The disease is not transmittable to humans
(the meat is fine) and really does not represent a problem for the
catfish. It will heal as the water temperatures stabilize. If a fish is
still feeding they are not so stressed by a disease that it is a
problem.

-----Original Message-----
From: hunt
Sent: Friday, June 29, 2007 4:34 PM
To: Richard Ott
Subject: FW: Web Site - E-MAIL REPLY REQUESTED - Wildlife Management

[shadslinger]

Red3fish, I have caught many blues below the Livingston dam with those same type of sores, and at about the same ratio. It is usually about early summer when this happens there and seems to last untill the water starts to cool again. That is very informative information, thanks for sharing.

jackieblue, as a pro with probablly hundreds (maybe thousands!) of hours of catfishing behind you, I know I would like to hear what your take on the spawn is for blues at the lakes that you fish, weigh in on this for us.
SS

[RAYSOR]

Great post and the great info it provided.

[seawings]

The shad are still sparce, however, we did castnet a few this morning (and this eveining). We caught two "keepers" and had a few "throw backs". We saw quite a bit of top water action and the egrets were working the cove...we expected more than two, but that's fishing.

[TXPalerider]

Good info. thanks

[shadslinger]

Seawings, if you saw topwater action and only caught a couple of cats, and the egrets were working over the water, then them is white bass! Try throwing a blue/chrome rattle trap a few times and see if you can hook up with one.

[Red3Fish]

As you can tell by my name, I wore out the shallow water flats around Port O Conner all my life, and am a relatively new comer to catfishing. Pale rider and McBuck got me pointed in the right direction on Fayette...very generous with info. As the shallow water boats, and a ton of new fishermen ran all MY redfish off the flats I used to stalk, and as I got older, I decided to switch gears and go for a more sendentary type fishing.

You can put everything I know about spawning Blues in a jigger, and still have room for a good shot of whiskey!!

My catfishing experience is limited to farm ponds when I was a kid, Fayette, and Lake Palestine where a buddy I have known and fished with since we were 10 or 11, has a place on the lake.

On L Palestine, we catch channels about 5 to 1. During the summer and fall, usually find them in 4 to 12 foot depths. It does seem most of the blues we catch are in the deeper water..12 to 18. There were no catfish in the shallower water and all these fish were caught in 21'. Day in and day out we use Danny King...but due to its' quality declining...gonna give sureshot a try.

A couple of weeks ago when we caught 6 or 8 blues and 12 or so channels, they did have eggs in them, but not quite "ripe" yet. These were mostly 3# fish. It might be because L P is further North, but last year it seemed the fish spawned mostly around the summer, June, July... and were spawned out around August. We caught fish with eggs in them all summer and then started catching "spawned out" skinny fish around Sept. Oct, Nov.

The letter I wrote P&WL was the end of June, and they said the sores were from stress of spawning so, I guess they spawn June, July...altho they had eggs longer than that. IMHO I think they might actually spawn several times over a 2 to 4 month period, altho the main spawn is in June July.

THERE! My opinion and another dollar or two MIGHT get you a cup of coffee!! LOL

Later
R3F

[shadslinger]

Yeah those cats spawn as long as conditions are favorable, and the site linked backs that up. They may spawn over the summer in waves, and I have noticed in good years where their is plenty of rainfall and conditions are favoprable so do black bass and sunfish. You can see their beds all thru the summer, but the big wave happens when the first time water temps and rain are right the first time, usually early spring to late spring depending on species.
Those "poo" baits will catch a lot more channels than blues and outfish even SHAD for channels. Blues feed all up and down the water colum, and feed on live fish or fresh dead as a first preference. they will hit rotted cut bait, beef hearts and the like but tend more towards live/fresh dead fish as first choice. There are a couple of spots on Lake Livingston where I troll for white bass and run jugs in the same area and catch blues trolling a pet spoon behind a jet diver. They are usually big ones (6lbs) and bend the trolled rods in holders all the way over! Most days I will catch one or two trolling for whites, but 2 years ago I had several days in a row where I would catch 7 to 10 each day running back and forth over the same hump. it was awesome!
So red3fish try some shad, cut perch, or crush 2 to 3 minnows on a hook to catch those blues, and you are right most of the time the blues are somewhat deeper than channels.

[Red3Fish]

As my buddy and I usually plug for bass or look for white bass the first hour of daylight....we haven't bothered with netting shad, and just used the stink bait. We didn't actually target the blues, but they were always kind of a bonus when we caught them and they run considerable bigger than the channels. Next trip or so, we will take the time to net some shad and target them!! Thanks for the good info.

After thinking about it, we actually caught catfish with sores in May and June on L P...I just didn't report it until the end of June, so for accuracys' sake, they prolly spawn up there in May and June, maybe as early as April, altho, none had sores on my trip this year in April, and the eggs were not quite ripe, but "getting close". May is my best guess for L Palestine.

He and I are both 64 and retired, and we decided life it too short not to spend it fishing so we try to schedule a week each month except for Dec, Jan. and Feb. So we get to sample them every month all year long! LOL

I keep waiting for a good report on Fayette, but I think McBuck and PR are slipping out there and slaughtering them and keeping it a secret! LOL Oh, well, I am due a trip there anyways in the near future.

Good Fishing All,
Later
R3F