planer boards & catfish on chicot

Just got back from the chicot trip & wanted to post some results of experimenting planer boards. i installed some pole holders on the front of the boat. One of the things I read was you need to keep the rod tips high. Here is a shot of the Ms. manning the boards.
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Here are the cranks that I used to troll with. I used 100 series bandits on the inside, and these grappler shads on the outside on the boards. i didn't really get particular about how much line I let out, I just let it out.

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We trolled at 1 mph, and didn't catch any crappie, but we got their cousins the plentiful striped bass, & even caught a goo. I could tell when the goo hit it, the board went backwards, & the drag started stripping. no pics of the fish on the boards, but i'll try to keep trying until i perfect it. the article by jeff on trolling, suggested using med action rods. I used 10lb line, & the boards with the goo on it felt like a 6lb catfish trying to reel it in. I might use some heavier rods next time. I also had to reel in the inside rods when a fish got on the outside rods w/ boards. anyway, we caught fish, but were limited on time to try this technique. We trolled for about 2 hours, and managed 3 fish total. We caught them all on the grappler shads.

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We took advantage of the shad run to do our trotlines, and did it pay off!! The shad run around 6am on the shoreline.
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we caught enough to bait up our 5 trotlines, & harvested over 200 catfish on saturday. we had 400 hooks out. we caught so many catfish, that we pulled them out of the water on sunday, & had 66 quart sized bags of fish after a camp fish fry. One thing about chicot, it has too many catfish. before anyone says we over harvested, we had 14 people in camp, so we weren't being pigs about it. Here are my helpers, with my youngest screaming every time we took a fish off the hook. We also had fish on every other hook on saturday, & my electric fillet knife was on fire after the cleaning.


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We had an awesome trip this year, but the crappie bite was slow. My dad & I caught several on the last day of the trip, & I'll post those pics on a different post when I get them from my uncle. We caught a lot of those pesky little striped bass & not even 1 green carp. (I fished w/ an uncle that likes to fish for them). We didn't even catch keeper crappie until today, & had to go on the south end of chicot to get them.
There are so many catfish in chicot that they've lifted the limits on cats, so if anyone needs catfish, you should go to chicot & get those things out of the lake. In contrast, chicot has imposed a 20 limit on crappie & they have to be over 10" to keep. I have a lot of concerns about the balance of fish concerning crappie & bass. No bass to speak of and too many dinks on the crappie. More pics coming!!

One thing I wanted to mention was that I used circle hooks on half my trotline, & used kahle hooks on the other half. When the trotlines were checked frequently, there were no differences between the 2, or with my dads line which had regular trotline hooks on it. the only difference being his was in 5 feet of water & my line was in 8 ft. There was a difference in the overnite results though. After baiting up for the evening around 6 pm, we checked our lines the next morning, & I had twice as many fish on as everyone else on the circle hooks. That would be the only thing that I can say for sure that the circle hooks helped with. The catfishing was so white hot on saturday that we were sick of it. It was kind of like if your dad made you sit in a closet w/ 2 packs of cigarettes & you had to smoke them all in about 1 hour. you wouldn't want another one ever. That's how I feel about cleaning those things. My arm was worn out.

I fish Chicot quite often and I know what you mean about all the catfish, we usually catch all we want with crickets bream fishing. But that's all right with me, I like catfish and it always keeps us with fish. Those yellow bass can really be pesky when trying to crappie fish. Bass fishing has usually been good the last few years and caught some real nice crappie back in March. I'll be heading that way in a couple of weeks, I moved further off and can't get down there as much as I would like to. Glad you had a good time.

Great trip! I know what you mean about cleaning them. the kids cought 7 off the dock the other night. Never done that before. Did that all in about 3 hours. I hate cleaning them fish. I wish someone could tell me how to clean them faster.

I have heard about that "no smokin" program with 2 packs in a short time! Think it works.

Family fun! They will never forget it! Glad I did not have to clean those cats!:eek:

Awesome post Randy. I have read J Whites article a number of times and dont remember him suggesting having a pretty girls in the of the boat. Dont guess it could hurt anything but your ears.

Thanks for sharing your week of pics with us.

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Originally Posted by randybenham

One thing I wanted to mention was that I used circle hooks on half my trotline, & used kahle hooks on the other half. When the trotlines were checked frequently, there were no differences between the 2, or with my dads line which had regular trotline hooks on it. the only difference being his was in 5 feet of water & my line was in 8 ft. There was a difference in the overnite results though. After baiting up for the evening around 6 pm, we checked our lines the next morning, & I had twice as many fish on as everyone else on the circle hooks. That would be the only thing that I can say for sure that the circle hooks helped with. The catfishing was so white hot on saturday that we were sick of it. It was kind of like if your dad made you sit in a closet w/ 2 packs of cigarettes & you had to smoke them all in about 1 hour. you wouldn't want another one ever. That's how I feel about cleaning those things. My arm was worn out.

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WUSS :rolleyes: Come up and help dress Buffalo and Catfish when I put out nets.:eek: You need to hit Nimrod ,I been catching Crappie everyday for the last week. Seriously ,I under stand about being sick of dressing fish. I brought home 5 Crappie this week and gave away the rest.:D

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Originally Posted by Slipcork

Great trip! I know what you mean about cleaning them. the kids cought 7 off the dock the other night. Never done that before. Did that all in about 3 hours. I hate cleaning them fish. I wish someone could tell me how to clean them faster.

I have heard about that "no smokin" program with 2 packs in a short time! Think it works.

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Dressing catfish is like anything else . It takes a good techniqe and plenty of practice. Every summer I take people out to fish baited holes and dress 20 to 50 lots of days.:eek: Of course it does'nt take long to clean a bunch if your knives are sharp. I use a regular old fillet knife and would'nt touch those electric ones.:D

I did see some good info on cleaning catfish from www.catfishin.net . the guy cut his fillets off, skin on. He then used a pair of pliers (or skinners), held the tail, & used a very sharp fillet knife & slid down that fillet to take that skin right off. I tried to get my uncles to try it, but they couldn't adapt.

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Originally Posted by randybenham

I did see some good info on cleaning catfish from www.catfishin.net . the guy cut his fillets off, skin on. He then used a pair of pliers (or skinners), held the tail, & used a very sharp fillet knife & slid down that fillet to take that skin right off. I tried to get my uncles to try it, but they couldn't adapt.

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Clean just like scaled fish, cut the skin off with the knife. Results are great, 2 fillets and a carcass.:cool:

This is one EXCELLENT post on our board right here! The detail you went into was amazing and I like the way you encorporated pictures then articles and so forth....I should take notes, I have got to be the most avid fisherman on here that cannot seem to EVER remember pictures and posts of my own fish. I get in such a hurry when typing I sometimes leave out information I intend to put in there....hold me accountable if you ever stumble over one of my pathetic posts on the Arkansas Board....thanks man! Great catch, kiddos sure do look like they stayed busy too! Great fun!

MinnowMan

Hey Randy, glad y'all had a good time campin', visitin', and fishin'. The cats may not have been exactly what you wanted, but at least you had some fun with the fish slime...:D

And thanks for the tips on the planer boards and the results of your trotline hook experiment.

I am not too familar with planer boards. Exactly what do they do? Are they just for getting the line away from the boat or do they also help the crankbait to dive deeper? I plan to do some walleye fishing soon, do you think they would be helpful in trolling for these fish?

ff,
The job of the planer board is to get the line further out to the side so you can cover more water quicker. They don't make the lure dive any deeper. people will add weights to the line past the boards to get their cranks deeper though. you will have to use deep diving cranks to fish for walleye. I've not done any of that yet, but plan on doing so. I will also say that i'm no expert on planer boards either. I'm still sort of feeling my way around.
The peculiar thing is how to tell if a fish is on (particularly small ones). When trolling the other day, I noticed my boards would surge out of the water, & then sometimes run steady. Then I noticed that it started running a little deeper, so I reeled in, & there was a 9" yellow bass on the end of it. I set my drag real light, so if a bigger fish got on the drag would strip (sort of a strike indicator). The goo that I caught stripped drag immediately, (+ i saw the planer board go backwards) I need to go with someone a lot more knowledgable about using the boards, so I can pick up some tips. I'm still unsure about equipment set up either. the medium action rods made me a little nervous. the boards had the pole bent over, & with the goo on, I was worried about breaking off line. there is a weight on the bottom of them, so you can adjust it forward or aft as the type of bait you are using. So far I've told you all I know about the boards. I'm just trying to learn as much about them as possible. I think the technique will work good on a big lake like greers or ouachita, especially if you don't have a lot of pesky little ones??? Anyway, I'll try to put up a photo of the boards that I use to show a little more detail.

we troll for crappie all the time, slow your speed to .6-.8 that is the most productive speed we have found