The Catfish Were Bitting

You have permission to publish this article in it's entirety either, electronically or in print, free of charge, as long as the bylines are included. A courtesy copy of your publication would be greatly appreciated! Thank You. THE CATFISH WERE BITTING I got my two fishing poles in the water at 07:10. The Ohio was around 28 feet a little muddy and still running fast. Around 07:30 I got a good bite on a chunk of roast beef. I missed it, may have been a garr for it did not come back to the bait. My bobber went under at 07:45 and stayed under. I pulled and the fished pulled back hard. I knew right then it was a nice size fish at the other end. With the fast and deep water the fish stayed down for some time. I just kept my 10 foot rod high in the air to wear him down. Got him in the net O.K. and up onto the barge. A nice blue cat 29 inches long and 10.7 pounds. Took two photos of us and he was a chore to hold up to the camera. At 08:30 my dead line took off I hooked my first channel cat of the season. When I got him in he was 261/2 inches long and topped out at 8.7 pounds. That is a nice size channel cat for this part of the Ohio River. I also got two photos of this one. While I was getting this fish I noticed I had a bite on my other pole. Since I had my hands full dueling mthis fish that pole had to wait. I finally got over to it and there was a fish on it. This one was much smaller from the pressure of it's pull. It turned out to be another channel cat but he swallowed the bait. I cut the line, weighed and measure him as quickly as I could. I then reurned him to the river. Hopefully he is old enough to survive with hook in the mouth. The big surprise is all three of these fish were cuaght with an unusual bait. I has scraps of fired chicken skins I had left over from dinner the night before. This was from Lee's regular fried chicken, however any fast food brand should do the job for you. I packed up my gear and headed home around 10:30. I had a very good morning with the weather and the feeling reward of hooking such nice size fish, It was the way to start my day. Tight lines to all. NLCATFISH nlcatfish@fuse.net webmaster for Cincinnati Catfishing www.cincinnaticatfishing.com SHOP WITHOUT DROPPING www.cincinnaticatfishing.com/Shop1.html Links 4 Fishing Information And Supplies www.cincinnaticatfishing.com/links4fishing.html