Ohio Cat Fishing Team

These are the reports on how we did for th 08 fishing season.

I fished this tournament with a buddy of mine Kenneth Miller, out at Tappan Lake.  The evening started out like it was going to rain which would have been great with a cold front moving through, but it never rained to really turn on the fish dramaticly.  It started out fairly warm around 60 some degress and dropped sharply throughout the night to about 45 degrees which seemed a lot colder than what it was.  Most of the channel cats were caught on the bottom tightlining with cut shad and dead shiners.  Kenney caught a 12 and a half pound channel right off the bat.  We continued to do good on the channels untill about 10:00 or so and the action just died off.  Around 1:00 my bait took off and it ended up being a 41.7 pound flathead which came off cut shad.  Catching a flathead on cut bait rarely happens so i was surprised to see that.  We had out live baits all night long (creek chubs) and didn"t even get a run.  The action didn't pick back up again untill 4:oo in the morning when we both caught several channel cats averaging the four pound range.  We were fishing 4-6 ft. mud flats with a  river channel running through it.  At the weigh-in in the morning I placed first in the flathead division, Kenny placed second overall in the Channel cat division with 20.00 lbs of cats and he also had big fish at 12.65lbs.  Overall a  good night.                                                                            

I started trying to catch bait with my cast net at 6:45 or so and caught several gizzard shad at around the 6-7" range. The weather was rainy on and off with the temp around 67 degrees.  I was out to just flathead fish, I figured that it would be a perfect night because of the overcast skies and light rain.  At 8:30 my line took off and I landed a 40 plus pound flathead the picture turned out horrible but I was fishing by myself so it was a little hard to take one let alone land the fish.  He took a 7" live gizzard shad in 7 ft of water in a creek channel.  Right after I caught him my lantern died. (forgot to get more fuel) so i called it a  night.  Oh well still a successful one.

Fished this tournament with my dad (Chuck Harmon).  The weather was nasty with a big cold front moving in lots of rain, windy,and the thomometer dropping quickly.  It was almost impossible to stay anchored in the wind to hit the spots that I really wanted to, but tried to make the best of it.  For about an hour we stayed anchored off the main lake in about 7ft. of water near a sharp drop and a railroad bed.  Right away I was getting runs off the live gizzard shad, and finally hooked into one.  It ended up being a flathead I got him next to the boat and the hook popped!  I was pretty upset but thats fishing if you always caught fish they would call it catchin!  Then i caught a little squealer channel about 14" which I threw back because of the 15" size limit.  That was it for the whole night.  We couldnt stay anchored on our spot, and we just weren"t catching them out of the wind.  Overall a totall flop!

I went out to Tappan friday night to screw around for some channel cats and flatheads.  I was fishing the Lower Clearfork bay  off the split in the road bed and the channel in 6ft. of water.  The weather was completly overcast with a slight breeze from the east and rain moving in.  The temp was 65 degrees.  I was using live gizzard shad, cut gizzard shad, and bullheads for bait.  The channels were very aggressive imediatley around 7pm on the cut shad. I caught and released 5 eight pound channels or so.  On the live shad I had a few runs and one really big fish that popped the hook.  It was getting late and starting to down-pour so i got off the lake.

I fished this tournament with team member Bill Abel.  We fished the point in Lower Clearfork bay and the mud flats.  The day was sunny and beautiful with temperatures in the high 60's with a strong north wind.  The water had a strong current in it from all the rain the night before the creeks were flushing out of the pipes very strong which steadily got weaker throughout the night.  We were using cut shad and live shad for the channel cats and live bluegill and live shad for the flatheads.  The bite was pretty slow in the late afternoon on the channels no size on them whatsoever.  The closer to evening and dark the bite steadily picked up with some larger ones in the four pound range.  They were really finicky on the bite also just hitting lightly.  I took the boat out to the mud flats right before dark and just couldn't set my pole down the channels were slamming the cut shad.  Again no size.  Around 10pm had a good run on one of the flathead rods ran with the bait crushed it and never came back for it.  A lot of action on the bobbers over the tight lines throughout the night.  Around 1am the fished turned off on the point, so i took the boat back out to the flats.  I landed a good four pounder right off the bat on cut shad on the tight line. And had numerous hits on the bobber.  Had a ridiculous amount of runs on the live shad on the mud flats but had trouble getting the hook in one.  Finally I hooked into a good one on the bobber with a live shad.  Hooked up with one peeled some line felt like a nice one either a flathead or a large channel and the hook popped once again!  The bobber only had a 3/0 hook on it so that was definetly why.  In the morning back on the point had an excellent morning bite with some more four pound channels on cut shad and Bill had a flathead run on his bluegill and that was it for the tourney.  Overall we caught over 30 Channel cats 0 flathead, all the channels were small from one to four pounds.  At the weigh in I had 11.85 pounds on a three fish limit and Bill had 10.67 pounds on a three fish limit.  Our weight was far off from the winner of 25 and some pounds of three fish taking first through 20lbs taking fith.  I ended up in 10th place and Bill in 11th out of 70 anglers.  Here's some pictures from the night.

11.85lbs.Our stringer of channel cats.

Due to an illness in the Eagan family, this event will be scheduled at a later date. 

The fishing on Tappan all week before the tournament was absolutley horrible!  The channel cats were no-where to be found and the flathead weren't hitting.  The weather was clear very mild with a slight chill and a northeast wind wednesday and thursday night.  Very few channel cats were caught and what were had no size.  Finally on friday evening and night the weather broke with a southwest wind and a storm approaching.  It all started pretty decently on the mud flats with a few nice channels in the 3 pound range and slowly died off around 12:00.  We moved out to the main lake to some rip rap where there were thousands upon thousands of shad being blown against the rip rap and a rock flat.  It was on then....  We caught numerous large channel cats and a 30lb flathead. 

We were all excited to fish this tournament, since this is our home lake and everything.  With the action we had the night before we thought that this was a done deal!  Well, little did we know that the wind would die off and ruin our wind blown shad idea.  So, that ruined the night with the evening going back to how it was during the clear pre-fishing nights.  All together nine channel cats were caught, two in the 3 pound range, one in the 2 pound range and the rest 16inches and under.  We went to the weigh in and was not surprized to see that just about everybody had a night like us.  Not being to worried about weighing our fish in because of the small basket we had I forgot to turn the aireator on for the fish which killed our two big ones (that was stupid!) But, even if we would have weighed in we would have only come in seventh or eighth.

Well, all of us buddies were finally able to get out myself, Bill, Jeremy, and Johnathon.  We hit up our favorite spot and it payed off pretty good once again.  The guys had been messin with me saying when I was dropping the baits that I would kill theirs or throw theres in a bush or somthin...LOL!!  They were all just mad cause I was kickin their butts fishin this year!! Sure enough, this night was no different I got the flathead of the night.  It was a 30lber not huge but still a flattie and one more on the board for me!!

On this Friday I took out a buddy or mine on a flathead trip at Tappan lake.  The weather was horrible with rain and thunderstorms.  Boy oh boy is that good flathead fishing weather though gotta love it.  If you can bear the weather that is the best time to go in which my buddy Jeremy soon found out.  The night was slow with little action.... I had two runs on my poles with the fish just dropping the bait and then Jeremy's rod started screaming.  He set the hook and landed a monster flathead and what a beast it was!  For being his first one this one is going to be hard to beat at 60lbs.  The flathead took a 1/4 lb goldfish in 4 feet of water off some structure.  Here is a picture of this awesome fish...

Friday night Johnathon Ayres and I hit up Clendening lake the night was clear and fairly warm.  While driving to the selected spot on the lake in a little bay we saw a flathead sunning itself with its back sticking out of the water what a sight that was and it was definetly a trophy class fish!  After seeing that we were excited to start fishing we got to our spot in a hurry to start dropping baits but we were in for a long wait until we got any action.  five hours later...... at around 12 o'clock with the full moon just cresting the horizon Johnathons setup started clicking out line on a good pace.  He was down the shore a good ways so i grabbed the rod and set the hook for him.  Johnathon got to his rod and started fighting the fish in but it just stayed right up against the bank I thought that he might have been snagged up but the fish just kept on coming in.  Well, sure enough the fish ended up wrapping around a pine tree in the water.  So I volunteered with a quickness to wade out to the fish and net it.  I got right up on the fish where it was snagged at and I went to net it,  then the fish got spooked and somehow unwraveled the line on the snag what a relief that was.  He got it up to the shore and finally we got her landed!  It was a good flathead and Johnathons first the fish weighed out at 40lbs.

In this event we had myself, Bill, and Jeremy fishing Tappan lake for the tournament.  The day started out sunny with a few scattered storms approaching rapidly.  The channels were slamming the baits but, it was hard to get some of any size.  Caught a few squealers before I started flathead fishing.  The storms were just about to hit at about 7:00 so I hurried up and dropped my baits for flathead and Bill and Jeremy did the same.  Right after the second storm finished up, I had a run on one of the flathead setups and I set the hook and got him half way in and the hook popped it felt pretty small though. A half hour later my other setup took off I set the hook and got him about halfway in again and sure enough the hooked popped once more.  I was sick to my stomach cause that one felt like a beast!  Oh well, it'll be in there for the next time. lol!  Bill also had some flathead action that night he hooked into two but was broke off both times.  I guess we just werent meant to catch any flatties that night! The size on the channel cats picked up a little through out the night once I quit flathead fishing.  Not for Bill and Jeremy though they caught squealers all night.  In the morning there was a tremendous morning bite on the channels and I ended up gettin a decent 3 fish limit at 15.7 pounds the biggest channel was a 7.15 lber I ended up placing 3rd out of 92 entries. 

Oh wow!! What a stormy start to a tournament.  The weather this night was flucuating dramatically with storms passing through giving bill and I high hopes for this tournament especially for the flathead.  The fishing was excellent all night with run after run with the channels but just yielding squealer after squealer.  We were unable to get our six fish limit with the channels because 95% of them were under 15"  We did turn in 3 though to put us into 9th place.  With the flatheads the action was also hot.  We had 1 missed run, one lost fish which got wrapped on a dead tree, and a 28.6 lber. to put us into 3rd place not a great bag to bring in at the weigh-in but a fun night!

This was probabley one of the slowest nights of fishing this year myself, Bill, and Jeremy fished this tournament.  I believe out of the whole night there were probabley 5 runs out of  the three of us fishing, and one flathead run which was missed.  Ol' Billy ended up on top this night taking the one and only fish of the night a nice one 9.3 lb channel cat.  He placed first in big fish giving Team Whiskers another notch in the belt.  Good job Bill! 

Jeremy decided to be a Trooper Sunday night after the tournament and hit up Nimisila.  I guess he wasnt satified with the weekend we had fishin I know I wasn't!  What a way to be persistent goin after them cats!  That persistence paid off for him he caught his new personal best channel at 13 lbs. even.  Good job Jeremy!!

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In this tournament Jermey and I fished Tappan lake and we had an outstanding night of fishing!  We caught around 40 channel cats one after another it was hard getting some of any size though. Our problem was our bait was too soft and the cats were just rippin it right off the hook before we had a chance to set it on them. At the end of the night we both ended up catchin some nice cats... we let Jermeys limit of three go because they were jus a little too small to place.  I ended up turning in 14.8 lbs of fish with the biggest being 7.9 lbs.  Which put me in 5th place. What a fun first night in the new boat.