Surprise

[Yaker]

Hit the lake yesterday morning in search for spawning gills.Water temps are just getting in range,so I did find a few big guys fanning the nests.I was using a short ultralight,with a small generic Thill mini shy bite float,a long shanked thin wire hook,and tiny split shot,bait was a honey worm,tipped wth a mealworm.
The bite was a bit slow early on,but on one cast under an overhanging limb,the float disappeared as it hit the water a set of the hook let me know it was no gill.For nearly 6 minutes I battled a nice 5 lb channelcat,It dragged my kayak around quite a bit,before letting me stuff him into the net.
Needless to say,a thin wire hook that will straighten out with a tug,was surely straight after that,if it hadn't been for the barb,and a cats tough lip,I wouldn't be eating catfish this Thursday.I did end up catching 10 mammoth gills and 5 decent crappie,not a bad day!

[skeetbum]

That's a good surprise. I have never cleaned a cat but catch them all the time. My sil is coming along, learning all I can show him whenever we get the chance to go. One of his first trips, I pitched a 1/16 jig in the eddy behind a bridge post and got bit, set the hook and realized fast it was no crappie. I handed it to Mike and said "here, you play with this for a while'. Right at 10 minutes later he was holding a 10lb cat, black in color, and saying how glad he was that was over. His hand hurt from putting all the pressure on the 4lb rig it would stand. Pics and a release he's there to play again. Now he's disappointed when we don't get one.

[Yaker]

Cats sure put up a good fight,plus they taste durn good,as far as cleaning a cat,forget about skinning,fillet it instead.iIf you have ever fillet'da trout,it is pretty much the same,feel down the cats ribs untill you find where they end,slice the blade in like you would behind a trouts gills,except do it behind the ribs on a cat.Slice the whole fillet down to the tail,flip the fillet,and slice the skin off.

[Techno2000]

That's a good surprise. I have never cleaned a cat but catch them all the time. My sil is coming along, learning all I can show him whenever we get the chance to go. One of his first trips, I pitched a 1/16 jig in the eddy behind a bridge post and got bit, set the hook and realized fast it was no crappie. I handed it to Mike and said "here, you play with this for a while'. Right at 10 minutes later he was holding a 10lb cat, black in color, and saying how glad he was that was over. His hand hurt from putting all the pressure on the 4lb rig it would stand. Pics and a release he's there to play again. Now he's disappointed when we don't get one.

Forget all that skinning nonsense... like they say... there is more that one way to skin a cat, Yaker is right.