I've been hitting my local lake a couple days a week after work for a couple weeks now. Shad are easy to get with the throw net and we're in the season for south wind in the afternoon. I fish straight into the wind on flats about 4'-8' deep with cut shad filets. 4oz weight above a 6/0 circle hook on a 18" leader. Haven't really been tearing them up but catching enough to keep us interested. Nothing big yet, lots of 2,3, and 5 pounders but there's always the threat of a 40 swimming by and taking the bait. The old record blue came from this lake and there are 30 to 50 pounders caught pretty regularly here. 15mph south wind today will have me and my little boy out on the point sitting on the tailgate watching the rods this evening.

Anyone else after old whiskers yet this year?

Braved the wind for a couple hours this evening, steady 25mph with gusts to 35 or so had some pretty big rollers crashing into the banks. Had hell catching bait, throwing a 5' net into high winds takes some skill and luck. Ended up with 4 eating size cats between 2 and 4 pounds, one channel and 3 blues. Missed 3 good bites too.

Yeah, there's a lot of water being released down the Osage. Went with a couple of friends last Friday, we kept 29 between the three of us. The biggest ones maybe 5lbs. Eight oz. wouldn't hold in the fast water but we tied up at the edge of the slack water. Cut shad for bait. The bigger fish should start moving upstream soon. Big fish in that current are going to be a handfull... will be chasing them downstream with the boat I expect.

Yep!!

Couple of nice fish there, especially the big flathead. We have flatheads here but they are much harder to catch than blues IMO. Looks like you fish rivers, do you anchor, drift, back bounce?

Thanks! These were from the Ohio River around the Cincinnati area. The flathead was caught with cut shad while anchored, fishing submerged timber. The blue was caught drifting, bouncing cut shad off the bottom.

Rivers are all up and muddy here.....

They caught the heck out of them here (Clear Lake, CA) at the annual Catfish Derby. Almost a 1000 entries from 9 states entered. 11 year old boy won it with a 29 pounder and won $4000 which he said was going towards his college education

That's awesome! Congrats to the youngster!

Wife and I were out today and caught 17 in a few hours. Nothing big, mostly 5 pounders. Last year in the same spot she landed a 47 pound blue.

Rivers are WAY up around here. We managed a few before the rains hit. Mostly big channels. Going to try for some big flattys one day this coming week.

MO river is up pretty high here (Southeast Nebraska) so not much for channels or flatheads being caught yet. Lots of rain over the last couple of weeks and even more North of me. Right before the rain started a co-worker of mine did catch a 95 lb blue on rod and reel. I'll see if I can get a picture from him. Wasn't too far off of the Nebraska state record. He was fishing near Rulo NE.

Lots of small channels being pulled out of farm ponds and small lakes. Hoping to get the boat out of winter storage and get some lines out on the river once it drops to a normal level.

Adam

Nope -

Here is a picture of my catfishing partner with a 70 plus pound Flathead from last week

That thing is a beast.

I went from 9 to 11:30 tonight. Memorial weekend had folks camped in all my usual spots that I fish so I had to make due on a little beach that I had never fished before. Caught two blues, one 4lb and one 8lb and a nice 4lb channel. Missed a good bite and lost another in a brushpile. The channel had the most beautiful skeins of bright yellow eggs in her.

What state are you in?

Oklahoma

Caught some flatheads on the Mississippi this weekend. All were nice eaters between 12-19 pounds, had a monster on come unbuttoned, but that's part of fishing:)

Caught 4 or 5 while panfishing Sunday. Apparently they love Berkley crappie nibbles. I tip my jigs with them and the cats love them.

Having a hard time getting bait lately, shad seem to have just disappeared, haven't caught a shad in the net in over a week. Been slumming frozen bait and what few perch I've managed to sack up in my throw net. Went tonight for a couple hours and ended up with one drum and one 5 pound blue. Probably going to go try a new spot tomorrow and see if our luck will change.

The spawn has begun here. Gonna be tough fishing for a few weeks.

Thinking it's started here too. Went last night and did pretty well but some had their fins worn off and torn up and some looked to be full of eggs. Still haven't been able to catch any shad but did good with a piece of drum belly yesterday. Caught 4 fish and missed 3 bites on the same chunk of bait and it was still on there, tough stuff.

Those are some amazing cats!!

Caught 7 more blues last night, nary a bite until 10:00pm and then all the sudden it was game on. They were all identical 4 pounders and we peeled them and turned them into Father's Day grub.

As a side note I switched last week from 6/0 EagleClaw circle sea hooks to 8/0 Gamakatsu Octopus Circles. Both on an approximately 18" leader of 25lb mono, percentage of bites to hookups has at least doubled with the Gamakatsus. It is incredible how much sharper they are and 75% of the fish literally hook themselves. I have been a Gamakatsu fan for a long time while fishing saltwater but hadn't been able to find anything in a smaller size down here other than the Eagle Claws, finally rounded a couple packs up and the difference is amazing.

Gama's circles are my "go to" hook of choice in 8s and 9s. Hard to beat, for sure! Congrats on the blues! Work and chores have kept me off the water lately. From what I'm hearing from my buddy.....I'm not missing anything. The spawn is "on"... ;(