Injury by catfish fins

All of us know that have ever had a catfish fin us while we were trying to handle know it can be very painful. And we also know that the next day is sometimes worse than the time of the actual injury.

Well a couple of years ago Ron (my brother) and myself were out catfishing. I had ben stuck by a catfish fin while removeing it from the trotline we were working,and Ron told me he had heard that if you rub the spot where the catfish finned you on the belly of the catfish that it would not be as painful the next day. We looked at each other for a second and decide that it sure couldn't hurt anything to try it.

I know it sounds a little bit out there or at least thats what I thought,But after rubbing my hand on the belly of the catfish the next day there was not that tender pain that always seemed to be ther the the next day.

Since then I have done this any time I get stuck by a catfish no matter how small and the healing time has been shortened dramaticly.

Try it next time a catfish gets you and let me know how it works for you.

Richard Gowens

P.S. These catfish were caught last night at lake Lavon, The largest was a 10 pound blue catfish caught by Ron.

Lake Lavon

Lately we've been having some fair fishing on lake Lavon. Not what we're looking for but much better than not fishing.

Weve got our sites set on catching the lake record blue cat with rod and reel on Lavon. Not sure what the actual record is but I'm pretty sure it's 60 + pounds.

The first three times we went out it rained on us the whole time we were out. that's ok we caught fish and were on the water having fun.

We went out last night and stayed dry the whole time. Caught 8 blue catfish and 2 channel catfish. The largest was a 10 pound blue catfish caught by my brother Ron.

Our odds of catching the record blue catfish are not the best since this is our first season on lake Lavon and there are alot of guys fishing Lavon that have been on that lake for years and know it alot better than we do.You just never know.

Richard Gowens

Fishing 101 at Lake Cooper

My sister called me and said she was taking two of her granddaughters camping at lake Cooper state park in east Tx. She said they told her they wanted to go fishing. That's where I come into the picture,she said she didn't know anything about fishing and would I like to go along and give a hand teaching them some basics.Without hesitation I said YES. After all how could I turn down a chance to go fishing and be the most experienced one there.(doesn't happen often)

The first thing we had to do was get them some equiptment suited for them. So we went shopping and found a couple of rod & reel combos that would be good for them to start with and would last for more than just a couple of trips.

On Friday August 21st. Lesa and the girls (Alexis and Rebecca ) headed out for lake Cooper to get the spot picked out and set up for the weekend. They went swimming and did some exploring. They saw an armadillo and a rabbit.The girls said around sundown the could see a bunch of catfish at one point along the bank.

Anyway it was about 9:30 pm before I was able to get there after I got off work. As i was pulling into the park I saw a hog just off the road. It was solid white which was a little unusual I tought,so I stopped and backed up to get a picture of it. Of course it was gone when I got backed up so no pics.

When I got to the camping spot we built a fire and roasted some hot dogs and marshmallows and just had some fun talking and trying to keep rebecca from playing in the fire. She reminded me of myself at that age. We talked about fishing and what we would do the next day. About 11:30 as we were sitting at the table talking I looked up and there were two raccoons coming out of the woods looking for a hand out, and yes they got one.

We got up Sat. morn. and had a very good breakfast that Lesa prepared for all of us. Then we went to the local bait shop to get some woarms for the girls. After that we went back to the park and I showed the girls how to put their equiptment together and how to take care of it.

Now we're ready to go fishing so we drove around and found a dock they could fish off of, so we went down to the dock and started getting ready Rebecca had no trouble pinching off pieces of the worm to bait her hook,on the other hand Alexis was alittle mor stand offish about about this part of fishing. She didn't mind putting it on the hook so much but she was not about to pinch it apart.

I showed them how to cast the setup and they both did very well. So i told them they would probably have the most luck catching fish if they would fish by the structure on the dock. But they were pretty sure if they cast it out away from them they would have better luck. After trying that for a while I was able to talk Alexis into trying the structure where almost immediatly she caught the first fish. After that it was on, I don't rember which one caught the most but they both caught quite a few. So i explained how fish really like to hang around structure and when you'r fishing be sure to looke for structure. I don't know how many perch were caught but it was plenty. We went back to camp and fixed something to eat and just relaxed for a while. Then we took them back out for some more fishing that after evening and thats right they caught some more.

Needless to say it was alot of fun helping them get started fishing and watching the excitement in their faces everytime they caught a fish.

You can really tell that they are hooked on fishing when the fish stop biteing and they don't want to leave because they just know that any second they are going to get another one.

Now back to taking care of and protecting your gear from getting broken. I told them never store them behind a door for fear of them getting in between the door and the facing and getting broke when you close the door,and beware of ceiling fans when indoors. Well I was pretty sure one of them would get broke after all I can't rember how many fishing poles I broke growing up. I just didn't know it would be so soon. As we were getting everything ready to pack the car Lesa told the girls to take their fishing poles out to the car so they would be ready to load up. Well here comes Alexis walking back to where we were, she walked up to Lesas and said I'm never going to get to go fishing again. somehow she let her pole get in the door of the car and you guessed it closed the door and broke off about six inches of the rod tip.

All ended up well we were able to get a rod that my brother had in his garage to replace the pretty broken one with.

All in all we had a great time and watch out world here comes two more fisherman into the sport.

Richard Gowens

Homemade stinkbait

Many anglers will tell you this is what they use and catch the big cats, and others will tell you that they use this to catch the big cats.

The story is true. Everyone has a different way to catch a fish. The thing is that the bait is the one ingredient you need to catch a big catfish.

It is not necessarily the best bait for catfish fishing you need to know, but the bait that work the best for you. Once you know some of the top rated baits that are used will help you select and use one or all of the baits.

The first bait that you might try for catfish fishing is stinky bait. There are many different stinky types of bait that you can try. The first one that comes to mind is the chicken livers.

You will need a package of chicken livers. Place the first layer in a pan, add garlic salt. Then add the second layer and garlic salt. Do this until the chicken livers are all layer and salted n the pan.

You then cover the pan with a cover or tin foil being careful not to let the lid touch the chicken livers. Put the covered pan outside for three hours.

After three hours, drop the chicken livers into a bucket. Add the remaining garlic salt while stirring the livers. Save about a quarter of the garlic salt for when you uncover the creation.

Cover the bucket and place outside in a storage area for ten days. Ten days, you are ready to go catfish fishing. Pour the rest of the garlic into the bucket and stir.

Now you can head out with your tough chicken livers for some great catfish fishing. This is the easiest catfish bait to make and use.

The next bait on the top of the list is fish heads. This is as simple as it sounds. You can use fish heads from a market or from fish that you have caught before. The biggest catfish that was caught a while back was caught with a fish head.

The catfish attract to the smell. The keen sense of smell allows the cats to smell and find something smelly such as a dead fish or fish head. This would probably account for less dead fish in lakes that have catfish. They can keep the waters clean and free of dead fish.

Then there are the anglers that use an Ivory soap mixture for baiting the catfish. This is a strange recipe, but it has been proven to work.

It is relatively inexpensive and the cats like it. You need four bars of Ivory soap, 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 cup water. Put the water into a pan, add the sugar, and dissolve.

Add the shavings of the Ivory soap to the water mixture. Keep the heat low as not to boil over.

Once the soap is melted, pour it out onto a piece of paper and while it is still warm, flatten it down to about a half an inch thick.

Then cut the flat slab into cubes before it cools all the way. Put the cubes into a zip-lock bag to keep it moist. You can use these cubes to catch a catfish with a baitholder hook or a bait hook. The catfish attract to the smell and taste of this stinky bait.

These are the two top stinky baits used. However, there are many recipes for stinky bait.

You can use just about anything for stinky bait. The more it smells, the more it will attract the catfish. You just need a place to keep the bait after you make it unless you plan to share it with friends or use it all in one day. The amount you make at one time will depend on how often you go fishing.

If you fish a few times a week, you can use a large recipe, but you might need to cut it in half if you only fish occasionally. You do not want the bait to lose its stink appeal. This would defeat the purpose of making the stinky bait.

If you decide to do some catfish fishing, you will find that any of these baits will work.

However, catfish do bite at anything. They will eat minnows, frogs, other fish and even have been known to eat possum.

It is all up to the angler as to what bait to use for catfish fishing. Take the time to study what other anglers are using as well.

Every area has a different type of catfish. It might be as simple as catching a catfish with a piece of herring or a plastic worm dipped in a stinky bait mixture.

Enjoy a great day of fishing the most sought after fish.