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View Full Version : The law of unintended consequences:


seawings
07-14-2008, 10:41 AM
Life on our cove, off the lake, brings many tranquil opportunities. Evenings sipping a glass of wine on the dock and watching the myriad of birds is one of the most enjoyable. We have been blessed with two families of mallard ducks. One family of eleven is the oldest and another of eight showed up about two weeks ago.

The older family is starting to spread out. At first the mother herded her duckling, now she just follows and give occasional sharp quacking instructions that they still obey. More and more they are wandering off in groups of two to six. They have grown very quickly.

The younger family of ducklings is still in that cute stage and make a lot of noise and create a flurry of noise and activity as they come around our dock, their mother constantly giving instructions and herding them around.

We have been feeding these two families every evening about six pm and low and behold under the ducks are a host of catfish! We're now calling it "dock dynamite". For a few dollars you can buy a bag of dog food, the ducks love it", and so do (we found to our delight) the catfish. Drop your line amongst the ducks and "Bammm" you've got a catfish on...is this legal? Most are throw backs, however, the freezer is slowly filling up...time for a catfish fry!

Our grandson discovered this while they were up for the week of the 4th. and now he and grandma are big into the duck feeding (aka...dock dynamiting).

D.L.
07-14-2008, 12:04 PM
Perfectly legal my inlaws do it all the time they'll have 50 of them boiling the water after they throw it in.

shadslinger
07-15-2008, 02:46 AM
Someone does it all of the time at the boat ramp at the state park and whoa baby the last time I loaded up the water boiled with a big ole blue about 15lbs who just went along the surface an scooped a load of the floating dogfood, quite a site!
SS

jfoster
07-15-2008, 10:05 AM
Try floating catfish food. Can be bought at feed stores, and is inexpensive. Attracts much better than dog food. I've heard that in a small pond oils from dog food will build up and cause a fish die off..?

tufffish
07-15-2008, 12:56 PM
50# of fish food is about the price of 30# of dog food.

KillaHookset
07-15-2008, 02:22 PM
You can get the catfish to boil with just about anything. This past weekend after cleaning out the pantry I found a few sleeves of crackers and an old box or two of cereal.
The boys 4 and 7 years old had a blast feeding the critters and found out that the ducks loved the cheerios and the catfish prefered the frosted mini wheats. The saltines whole or crushed were an equal fight between the turtles, catfish, sunfish, and ducks.

clean air
07-16-2008, 05:08 PM
You can go to your local feed store and get range cubes.Bait your spot and give it about a hour then fish it.The cubes are compressed and will last for alot longer.

huntvizsla
07-16-2008, 05:19 PM
Good fun. There is a place in Colorado where you can buy a handfull of food from a gumball style vending machine. Stocked rainbow trout, ducks, and geese all fight for the food. Cracks me up watching those trout clobber the birds!

KJON
07-16-2008, 05:47 PM
Used to live on the bayou, buy a couple 10' pieces of 1/2 inch PVC pipe, glue them together to form a big hoop, tie a short rope to it and throw it in, throw the floating feed in the hoop, it keeps it from floating off. Then just start plucking the catfish out. Works like a charm.

shadslinger
07-17-2008, 09:50 AM
Used to live on the bayou, buy a couple 10' pieces of 1/2 inch PVC pipe, glue them together to form a big hoop, tie a short rope to it and throw it in, throw the floating feed in the hoop, it keeps it from floating off. Then just start plucking the catfish out. Works like a charm.
Too funny, that sounds like shooting fish in a barrel!
SS