Author Topic: cats under the ice (Read 3248 times)

Sgt. Pepper · « **on:** Aug 24, 2008, 11:53 AM »

whos got some info on mr. wiskers? i am looking for general stuff like deep vs shallow, weeds vs open bottom, stuff like that. i have seen just about every species on screen at one point or another. do the cats swim south for the winter?

help a brother out.

Nate

miket. · « **Reply #1 on:** Aug 24, 2008, 08:44 PM »

well sgt.pepper, i heppened to get a real nice channel cat hrough th ice last year. it was a 10.5 pounder wich was one hell of a fight. was a little shocked to see a cat come through the ice to tell you the truth.i got it on a tip-up about 20 ft. of water, 2 feet off the bottom. it was a rocky bottom and had very little vegitation in this area. i have a pic here on the shanty in the picture thread.

mud_n_fun · « **Reply #2 on:** Aug 24, 2008, 08:59 PM »

You need to biy the Infisherman video Ice Tech. It has a segment on catching cats through the ice.

Tomhusker · « **Reply #3 on:** Aug 24, 2008, 11:02 PM »

I haven't caught any, but I am sure I hooked into a few last winter, cuz they snapped my line like it was nothing. The lake I fish doesn't have a lot of monster bass or anything, so I figure it had to be kitty's.

miket. · « **Reply #4 on:** Aug 25, 2008, 12:39 PM »

i thought it was odd to catch em in the day time let alone through the ice. but now that i have, it is one of my favorite fighting fish.

mud_n_fun · « **Reply #5 on:** Aug 25, 2008, 01:35 PM »

Catfish? How do you catch them?

Skipper · « **Reply #6 on:** Aug 25, 2008, 03:35 PM »

As an idiot youth, I braved the ice of the upper Mississippi for cats. The deepest hole you can find for miles almost always holds cats. I just fished them with a slip bobber and a chunk of cut sucker close to the bottom. It seemed like the head of the hole always held the biggest cats.

River ice = Stupid ice, I don't do it anymore.

jimmyclaude · « **Reply #7 on:** Aug 25, 2008, 06:25 PM »

No Channels , But lots of bullheads. seems they suspend later in the season. I was catching trouts and heads through the same hole on the same jig!

pooley · « **Reply #8 on:** Aug 25, 2008, 07:37 PM »

nice catch jimmy. i've only seen a couple of cats come through the ice.

miket. · « **Reply #9 on:** Aug 25, 2008, 07:39 PM »

even though i have nailed them in the winter,i never targeted cats to catch, it just happened while i was fishing for something else.always thought it was odd to see cats in the winter , let alone the monsters i have cought.

mud_n_fun · « **Reply #10 on:** Aug 25, 2008, 07:50 PM »

I targeted cats in the spring on this lake after watching people catch cats on there gobs of worms because they didn't know how to target a species while I was catching gills left and right only 40ft away In the same water depth of the a 20' hole.

miket. · « **Reply #11 on:** Aug 25, 2008, 07:57 PM »

i have a couple of spots i target cats in open water but it was something i never considered through the ice because i just couldn:t picture cats in the cold weather. not to mention i usually target them at night but have gotten them in the middle of the day , let alone through the ice.

Indiana_Lou · « **Reply #12 on:** Aug 25, 2008, 08:04 PM »

This past winter I caught a channel cat 29" and it was 10#-9oz. on a forage minnow tipped with a couple maggots. I had been catching crappies 10"-14" off a tree submerged in 20-25 fow. I thought I had a big pike or walleye. I can't say I've ever targetted them through the ice, but I have caught several that ranged from 15" to 18" over the years. Lou

miket. · « **Reply #13 on:** Aug 25, 2008, 08:06 PM »

how was the fight, pretty intense ha?

mud_n_fun · « **Reply #14 on:** Aug 25, 2008, 08:12 PM »

When I was chasing those cats it was from 10 or 11am to 3pm and did this for a few weeks straight till the spawning cycle was over and the water started to warm. We were only in 8ft of water in a lake that has deeper holes that hold them the rest of the year.

miket. · « **Reply #15 on:** Aug 25, 2008, 08:14 PM »

do they have any size to them at that time?

mud_n_fun · « **Reply #16 on:** Aug 25, 2008, 08:25 PM »

We were catching mainly 15-20"ers on a consistant basis in this lake. Perfect for pan frying. Any over 20" we let go most of the time. This is only a 80 acre lake right in the middle of lansing so we didn't want to take to many. We want to catch them next year too.

miket. · « **Reply #17 on:** Aug 25, 2008, 08:35 PM »

i totally understand you there mud, my lake i go to is only 87 acres and feel the same way so i can come back to an incredable fishery. i usually am a catch and release guy but this past weekend i tried catfish and sunny:s. i am hooked now. never knew i liked them but am real pleased i tried them.

mud_n_fun · « **Reply #18 on:** Aug 25, 2008, 08:45 PM »

Last time out(two days ago) there the gills and sunnys are so over populated I must have caught a hundred in just on spot. Never stepped left or right from the start. I think itis time to start thinning them out. Going to bring the five gallon bucket with tommorrow and sharpen the fillet knife for those 6-7inch gills.

miket. · « **Reply #19 on:** Aug 25, 2008, 08:56 PM »

they were a lot of work filleting , but i gotta tell you, man was it worth it. there are some real big calico:s there i was thinking of trying next. the sunny:s in my lake , you could lay them on your hands put together and you wouldn:t be able to see any of your hands. these things are huge, 1.5 to 2 pounders easy.

mud_n_fun · « **Reply #20 on:** Aug 25, 2008, 08:59 PM »

Thems huge

miket. · « **Reply #21 on:** Aug 25, 2008, 09:03 PM »

yes they are, i never even knew anyone ate them till this man andwomen asked if they could have a couple for some table fair. the rest is history, nowi am hooked.

jimmyclaude · « **Reply #22 on:** Aug 26, 2008, 06:44 AM »

When I visit my buddy in north guilford we usually have sunnys for a fish fry. The sunnys there are huge compared to here.

miket. · « **Reply #23 on:** Aug 26, 2008, 07:51 AM »

they are quite delicous !!!

jimmyclaude · « **Reply #24 on:** Aug 26, 2008, 09:49 AM »

There are Catfish in the Hudson River (Not eating those). The rest of the bodies of water here in up state do not seem to support a cat fishery...... Too cold?

anderson_dc · « **Reply #25 on:** Aug 26, 2008, 10:25 AM »

Ive caught some channel cat through the ice albeit i have never specifically gone after them, rather it was a bonus fish. Nothing ever really that big (12-16") but they still put up a good fight in the cold water.

December 2005, tip up w/ minnow, evening hours say somewhere around 9-11pm, fishing near bottom in 8-12 FOW

I dont have a picture of it but i fished another lake back in 2006 that had a decent gill/crappie/bass/channel cat population and it seemed in that lake that there was a large amount of cats near a pallet crib in moderate depth water (8-14 FOW). A guy could have sat there all day and pounded them but we stopped after 10-12 fish since they were all smaller fish and we werent keeping them; that time i was using a small jig and waxies.

jimmyclaude · « **Reply #26 on:** Aug 26, 2008, 11:45 AM »

so how much ice do you get? looks like IA is farther south than Schenectady NY. Cats are pretty tuff so why don't we have them in upstate NY.

anderson_dc · « **Reply #27 on:** Aug 26, 2008, 01:56 PM »

Depends on what area of Iowa you live in i guess. This last winter was a really long winter and we had a lot of ice. In northern Iowa on Clear Lake and West Okoboji i was drilling through 30-32" of ice last winter and down in the central part of the state we had a solid 24" of ice but that was kind of an odd year. Generally we get 14-20"+ of ice in northern Iowa and 6-14"+ of ice in central and southern Iowa. Really, southern Iowa and northern Missouri are about the far reaches of good fishable ice.

Not sure why you dont have the cats in NY. Obviously there is a lot of farming in Iowa and a lot of our lakes have excessive amounts of nutrients in the water due to run off, a lot of siltation due to farming, high turbidity of water due to nutrients and rough fish, and a lot of lakes and ponds are more geared towards you Largemouth Bass, Bluegill, Crappie, and Channel Catfish. In the northern part of the state perch, walleye, and northern pike are more prevalent.

jimmyclaude · « **Reply #28 on:** Aug 27, 2008, 08:29 AM »

It never made sense to me how farm ponds in the mid west would produce Cats and be frozen over and we only get Cats in a few bigger rivers that rarely freeze over because of the currents.

mud_n_fun · « **Reply #29 on:** Aug 27, 2008, 08:38 AM »

This year while gill fishing I will definitely set some tip-ups out for the cats on this body of water. Could be some great fun for the kids.

News:

Author Topic: cats under the ice (Read 3248 times)