Home > Entertainment And Recreation > Sports

Skipjack Was The Key

by NORB nlcatfish

Took my boat out with a supply cut Skipjack in quest of catfish. My trip cover a short section of the Ohio River in the area of downtown Cincinnati. Thsi si a summary of the events of that morning.

You have permission to publish this article in its 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.


Skipjack Was the Key

This morning I got my boat set up at my favorite fishing spot. I
was using 2 rods today. One was baited with a chunk of
skipjack, the other with tuna blood vein. The rod with the
skipjack started tapping, then it bent down. The fish was hooked
and the fight was joined. My reward for this effort was a 12
pound Channel cat 29 inches long. Took my normal 2 photos of the
fish and put him back to fight another day. Put on fresh bait and
cast the line back into the river. I did get a light tap on the
blood vein before heading for another place.

I moved my boat down river for the second spot to fish. The wind
started blowing up river, so I had to put out my back anchor to
hold the boat steady. Stayed there for a good 45 minutes without
a bite. I pulled up the anchors and started checking out other
spots. I looked over the area of places I thought would hold
fish. Nothing really showed up with my fish finder to stay
anywhere to fish. I returned to the place I started and was
protected from the wind. I left that area just after 25 minutes
of no action.

My final spot was a place I had marked fish with my fish finder
in the past, but never fished. Once again had I to put both
anchors out to hold the boat steady. I baited both rods up with
skipjack this time. About 5 minutes later I noticed a good tap on
my inside rod. I picked up the rod and the fish took off, so got
a good hook set. He did not want to come off the bottom, so I
knew it was a nice fish. Once he was in the boat, he was 27
inches long and weighed 10.8 pounds. The out side rod got a good
bite about 15 minutes later. This fish checked out also at 10.8
pounds but was 26 ½ inches. Just as I was starting to pack it in
for the day the outside rod got another good hit. This guy just
would not come up off the bottom, even though he did swim towards
the boat. I did not horse him even though the rod I had would do
the job. That was when he wrapped my line around the back anchor
rope. I now had a real chore of holding the rod as I got the
anchor rope up enough to un-wrap my line. I did take my time to
get that task done. Once the line was cleared I then got a lot
more forceful about getting this fish to the surface. This topped
out at 11.2 pounds per my digital scale and 28 inches long. I
took 2 photos of him as I did with all other fish of evidence of
this trip. All the fish were returned to the Ohio River and home.

All the fish were caught using chunks of Skipjack . That is the
greatest poundage of catfish I have caught when fishing out of my
boat. I have never caught 4 catfish over 10 pound on the Ohio
River in one trip before. So I am now starting to believe more,
that Skipjacks help catch more & bigger catfish. Tight lines to all.

P.S> the photo is of a Bluecat I caught the day before with the same batch of Skipjack.

More articles >>