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!