NO NO NO!!! This is NOT that kind of report….

IT’S CATFISH LIMITS FROM A TUBE KIND OF REPORT!!

THERE!!! That’s more like it!!!!!!!!!! A mouthful of sunflower seeds and a whiskerfish in the net, WOOHOO!!

The catfish out at Corona decided to wake up and I crawled out from a mountain of “nose to the grindstone” paperwork just in time to hear the alarm GOING OFF…unreal fishing and good grief did it feel good to pay a visit to an old friend. And it turns out that the new residents like to party…you just gotta find where to bang on the door!

I’ve been buried to the very tip top of my upstretched fingertips in a ton of life’s “stuff”, all of it good, but far more than enough of it to keep me off of the water. But with the plate now a whole heck of a lot more empty, I’m off the wagon and on a total bender, fishing the last 4 days, diving yesterday and heading out on another overnighter in the salt later in the week. I’m now basking in a bit of the light towards the end of the tunnel and loving it! Thank God for fishing. Seriously.

After turning in a few projects and having a work-related trip cancelled earlier in the week, I was dead set on getting back out to Corona on Saturday. I called up a friend and we made it a two man afternoon mission with a plan to bury ourselves in the trees and see what we could get to go. And what a day it turned out to be! Easy limits on the catfish and to mix it up, we put some hash marks in the trout, bluegill and tilapia categories too!! Cats bit everything we threw at them (shrimp, mackerel, nightcrawlers and meal worms) while the tilapia, bluegill and trout seemed to have a more selective palate that seemed keen on only the nightcrawlers. 12 inch leaders or so on 4 pound test with a #6 baitholder hook below a small #5 splitshot did the trick all around. We fished until we ran out of bait and had an absolute blast! What a day!!!!

I’ll let the video do most of the rest of the talking but I will say this…catfish love to entomb themselves in the timber, both before AND after you hook them. The float tube is perfect for navigating the shallow, tight, structure burdened water that you should be fishing but obviously, not everyone has access to a tube. But that doesn’t mean you can’t fish where you need to be. You’ll see in the video exactly what I mean by “in tight” and you can exploit these areas whether you’re fishing from the shore, a rental boat or even your 30’ sportfisher. The difference between skunked and as wide open as it gets last Saturday was having the ability to get in tight to the trees, toss your bait in the most dense structure you could find, and literally chase the fish down AS SOON as you set the hook. Wait a second too long and you could just about guarantee yourself losing the fish. Every catfish we caught was in about 4’ of water in dense cover with not even a nibble from the cats in the open water. So if you’re fishing from shore and launching your bait into the middle of the lake, you’re severely reducing your odds of catching fish. If you’re fishing from a boat and casting 50 yards into dense cover, there is a slim chance you’ll be able to get those fish out of there. So do yourself a favor and get up close and personal. I was casting only a few feet in front of me at submerged structure and was bit on most casts. No reason to try to take care of business from farther away than you need to be!

Now sit back, relax, and grab your finest single malt (or soda if you’re more inclined (or under 21)) and enjoy the video! Good music, spitting, temper tantrums and FISH, what more could you ask for!?! Thanks as always for reading and watching. A super big thanks to those that sent me emails and pm’s asking how I’ve been while I slugged away in the office. It’s just an awesome show of support and I can’t say enough how much it’s appreciated. Let’s be sure to get out there soon and attack it in full force!!! It’s time…

A little on the water update… I couldn’t resist and came back out.
Got here for the afternoon session…lost more fish than I care to mention but managed to win a few games of tug of war…

Your turn!!