# 6-10 & 6-16 [MONSTER Channel Cats on Matrix Shad]



## ThaFish (Feb 27, 2013)

*The Report:*

The lady & I made a road trip up to Wisconsin, & then to Minnesota for a few days, last week to go to a wedding & to surprise our families. Luckily I managed to make it out fishing a couple nights as well. 

We made two trips to a stretch of the Yahara River in Madison, WI & tossed 3/8 oz. jigheads paired with various colors of Vortex Shad on both outings. We concentrated on working rocky shorelines between docks. The average water depth in these areas is 2'-5'. 

The technique of choice was finding an underwater rock pile within 10' of the shoreline (generally even closer than that) & crawling the jig over the piles & letting it fall down into the crevices created by the rocks. These fish eat almost like a crappie, in that they do not usually hammer the jig. Instead, they lightly bump it, which makes setting the hook at the right time particularly challenging. Getting them out of the rocks is another challenge in itself, but man is it fun!

Really miss jigging for these cats when I'm down here. Has anyone tried this technique (or a similar one) & found success on big cats in the rivers in the Pensacola area?

*Tally for the Two Trips:* _*Total of 18 channel cats*_

*Me:* 13 channel cats ranging from 29'' & 10.2 lbs. up to 36'' & 21.4 lbs.
*Bryce:* 32.25'' & 37'' channel cats
*Mike:* 28.5'' & 32.5'' channel cats
*Kyle:* 32.25'' channel cat
*Troy:* Nada

*Tight lines everyone. *


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## ThaFish (Feb 27, 2013)

Next set of photos.


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## ThaFish (Feb 27, 2013)

& some more.


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## ThaFish (Feb 27, 2013)

ANDDDD.... some more.


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## ThaFish (Feb 27, 2013)

& here's the last of them.


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## Try'n Hard (Oct 23, 2008)

Wow! lotsa nice fish! Seems like working the rocks like you describe would be hard unless you were in a boat but based on the pics with the lures still hooked in I guess you were bank fishing?? Or is this another commercial? lol
Ive caught a few cats while jigging drop offs for bass, if they are biting good I usually switch to a live bait - don't think there are many rock piles around here


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## TFRIZZ30 (Jun 26, 2014)

That is crazy. The channels up there are bigger than most flat heads here 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Dmoney (Feb 19, 2017)

Fine mess of cats. They even look like flatheads. How are those big ones for eatin'? I have caught some nice blues, up to 44 lb. on CC spoons below the dam at the locks, but not many on any other artificially.


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## Jason (Oct 2, 2007)

Dang fine trip Sawyer!!! Glad ya'll got some quality kitties!!!


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## olegator (Dec 6, 2014)

dang, you could feed the whole neighborhood with that mess....nice.


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## ThaFish (Feb 27, 2013)

Dmoney said:


> Fine mess of cats. They even look like flatheads. How are those big ones for eatin'? I have caught some nice blues, up to 44 lb. on CC spoons below the dam at the locks, but not many on any other artificially.


They actually eat just fine! Taste almost as good as the 3-10 pound ones. I have had them on several occasions, but on these trips we just went for fun. We released every fish we caught! 

& that's cool to hear you've caught them on spoons man!


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## ThaFish (Feb 27, 2013)

Try'n Hard said:


> Wow! lotsa nice fish! Seems like working the rocks like you describe would be hard unless you were in a boat but based on the pics with the lures still hooked in I guess you were bank fishing?? Or is this another commercial? lol
> Ive caught a few cats while jigging drop offs for bass, if they are biting good I usually switch to a live bait - don't think there are many rock piles around here


Thank you man, glad you enjoyed the report! 

Nope, no commercial here. Haha. Yes, we were on shore for both of these outings.


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## Dmoney (Feb 19, 2017)

Hey Fish, if they eat plastic that good, man I would love to feed 'em some shad, cut skipjack, or for heaven sake, dare I say, a big ol can of Blountstown worms. I betcha 'd have to hide behind a tree to bait your hook! BTW that was a fine report! "Keep a line in the water".


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## ThaFish (Feb 27, 2013)

Dmoney said:


> Hey Fish, if they eat plastic that good, man I would love to feed 'em some shad, cut skipjack, or for heaven sake, dare I say, a big ol can of Blountstown worms. I betcha 'd have to hide behind a tree to bait your hook! BTW that was a fine report! "Keep a line in the water".


Hey man, glad you enjoyed the report! The funny thing is, although we didn't put out any baits on these two trips, we generally have some quality cut baits out on bottom rods (fresh sucker, large shiners, etc.) & ALWAYS do much better on jigs! I believe this is due to the mass amount of pressure that is put on these fish. At any given night there are at least a half a dozen people with bottom rods out in this area of the river, so I think that jigging may work well because the fish are not used to seeing artificials. Just a thought though!


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## Dmoney (Feb 19, 2017)

Interesting angle. I just never thought of it that way. Knowing that catfish are generally opportunistic feeders that will eat almost any meat or fish, alive or dead, I just thought some of the above mentioned catfish fare would work better. I never considered the possible effect fishing pressure might have. This could be something I might consider here in the swampland when the bite gets slow. Lawdy mercy, us coonazzes put ungodly pressure on these cats. "Keep a line in the water".


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## ThaFish (Feb 27, 2013)

Dmoney said:


> Interesting angle. I just never thought of it that way. Knowing that catfish are generally opportunistic feeders that will eat almost any meat or fish, alive or dead, I just thought some of the above mentioned catfish fare would work better. I never considered the possible effect fishing pressure might have. This could be something I might consider here in the swampland when the bite gets slow. Lawdy mercy, us coonazzes put ungodly pressure on these cats. "Keep a line in the water".


Dang, just saw this post now for somer reason. A little late, haha. If you do try a similar tactic up that way, let me know how it works out for you!


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