Blue Cats

[tillylamp 1,902]

I don't know nowt about it pal, only what I saw on fishing programme here lol. It looks great fun tho and it's summat I'd love to try. I can't speak for everybody but I reckon most on here don't know a lot about noodling or the fish so keep the info coming please mate, it's great reading

i for one haven't got a clue what noodling is................. i know what canoodling is tho..............

[tillylamp 1,902]

They get in water and find holes in banks with there feet and hands and then get in the hole and let the fish either grab there hands or feet and pull it out, have a look on YouTube I'm sure it will be on there, all the fishing shows here have done an episode of it now lol

thanks for that katchy, very interesting way of fishing.......... mind you, i don't think i could put my hands/feet in a hole and wait for the bite, i think the anticipation would play havoc with my mind................

[BlackStreak 498]

Yes pretty much as W.Katchum said. When the water warm up to around 78 degrees or there close different species will start spawning. I believe the blues like I fish for spawn before the yellow cat but use a lot of the holes the yellow cat do to spawn. Yellow cats or flat heads as I call them, others call them appaloosas especially in the Lausiana area are the primary targets of the noodlers. Often times these nests will be under big rocks, cement slabs, ends or edges of boat ramps, man made nest boxes such as an old metal 55 gallon drum that's been sunk with a hole in each end that will accommodate a certain size fish to enter and exit. Big tractor tires with a wooden top and a hole cut out in it for the fish to enter into the tire etc. The fish like a gravel bed auch as pee gravel and the smart noodler will put a pee gravel type bottom in his artificial next box. He will keep his next box a well guarded secret from other people and the holes in which he regularly checks and catches good fish out of. Nests are not limited to stuff like this. Natural hole in the bank, brush piles or big stumps the fish can get under and back in, old sunken boat hulls turned upside down make great places to find a big fish. Just remember they prefer a loose gravel bottom to their nests but as a rule, there are no rules.

Blue cat are able to bite down a lot harder than yellow cat of the same size do to the structure of their head and jaws which are not as long as the yellow cats. Picture a pair of needle nose pliers vs a regular set of pliers. Put your finger in each at the ends and then squeeze the handles together. You will quit squeezing the regular shaped pliers before you do the needle nose pliers. Do to the power that the blues bite down with, a lot of noodlers hate to find big blues in the nest boxes and understandably so. Often times when the water has become to warm in the shallows where most of the fish have already spawned, the cats that are late to spawn when the other catfish of their species did will find holes in water deeper and cooler in order to lay their eggs in the appropriate water temp. Often the hardcore guys will extend their season by searching for holes deeper than what's normally searched out. I think it is the males that prep the nest, the female then comes along and lays her eggs while the male fertilizes them, she normally leaves and it is him that guards the nest. Females are bigger than males of the same age class but I think most fish are this way but not 100% in this.

The nest is defended vigorously by the attending fish. Normally you can just feel your way around the edge of a boat ramp that's under water, with your feet. Once you find a hole and run your foot in a little, if it's occupied, the fish will then bite or hit your foot. Often times there is an excape rout the fish can leave out through if the one entrance is blocked by your feet. Put to much pressure on a fish and it will leave out. Often times if they have a big noting hole that goes pretty far back in, the fish will hide at the far end of the hole but not leave out. If it does escape, they will often return later and you can find the same fish there the next day. If the fish did not push through the hole you are guarding but is no longer in the hole, your gonna need to find the exit and have a close friend who can keep a secret, guard that exit hole with his feet and legs, knees or whatever to keep the fish from excaping while you run your hand in the hole and provoke the fish into latch a hold of your hand. Once a fish has been plucked from the hole, often times another will move in, in short order and use the nest. As long as the season last, the hole can continue to be productive.

From my understanding, your thumb needs to be pointed down while your fingers are pointed straight out. Your trying to grab a hold of the bottom jaw of the fish and pull it out of the hole. It will try to spin on you and you must wrap the fish up close to your body using your other arm and maybe your legs to gain control of the fish. If the fish is allowed to spin on you, it becomes very hard to keep a hold of the fish and kinda painful. Them wraspy teeth are already working their way back and forth across the back of your hand and hurts bad enough when you have a big one but not bad enough to make you let go. The more you allow the fish to fight or the longer the battle for controle goes on, the more damage them wraspy teeth do to your skin. The deeper the water the more difficult it is to control a fish and for you are also fighting to keep your feet under you where you can stand up and poke your head above water to breath. Often times you will be completely under water but in water you can stand up in and breath.

The nests that are completely submerged under water are usually safe from snakes, turtles, beavers, and nutria. The ones that are not, are very risky because all these critters can breath in them and thus likely for one to be lurking in there. A 40# fish is not an easy chore to get controle of when you are in the water, even shallow wast deep water and you likely won't get it don't until you get a little experience with the smaller ones.

[mackem 29,522]

What size do those blue cats go up to mate,they look like siamese cats i get in thailand a bit.

[BlackStreak 498]

What size do those blue cats go up to mate,they look like siamese cats i get in thailand a bit.

 

 

Blues and yellow cat are close in size they can possibly grow to but the blue is the bigger of the two. Both can grow over 100 pounds. I just looked up the world records on each and because I did not know the yellow cat and wanted to see if the blue cat had changed hands again. Yellow cat is 139 pounds and the blue is 143 Pounds.

I'm pretty certain there are consistently more blues caught over 85 pounds then there are yellow cat though. It's not something that is done very often with either of them though. My personal best so far is 60 pounds. The lakes I fish have not had blues in them as long as the lakes and rivers where the giants are being caught from

[mackem 29,522]

Thanks black,good weights.Do you cook and eat them,i saw jeremy wade noodling for them in some southern state on TV,the guys he fiahed with said they taste great but i imagined cats would taste muddy?

[BlackStreak 498]

Thanks black,good weights.Do you cook and eat them,i saw jeremy wade noodling for them in some southern state on TV,the guys he fiahed with said they taste great but i imagined cats would taste muddy?

 

I don't eat the big ones. I used to but the more catfish I ate, the more I preferred the smaller fish do to only to the texture of the meat when I ate it. The meat fiber is just a bit more course on the really big fish but still really good. Lake and river fish are really good to eat. I like to fish the really muddy water lakes because the catfish are usually the supreme predators in it and the bait fish like shad prefer it to clear water also and do really well in it because they are not as preyed upon by other fish. Catfish caught out of lakes and rivers, no matter how muddy the water is don't taste any different than the ones I catch out of clear water lakes. . The dark meat on the catfish needs to be trimmed off if you don't like a fishing taste. I trim it off all my fish. I cut the tail off and let the fish bleed out for a few minutes. This keeps the blood from collecting in the meat when your cleaning the fish and your not left trying to rub the fillet under the water trying to work the blood out of the fillet at the sink. I also only skin one side then fillet that side, then flip the fish over and skin then fillet that side. Keeps the meat from contacting any blood, fish slime, dirt etc and your just left with a clean fillet that just needs to be rinsed. After rinsing I put the fillet on a cutting bored, cut it down the lateral line then fillet the red meat off the white meat and give the red meat along with the skin to the dogs.

I prefer to fry my fish. Compared to some other fish like Halibut,catfish is cooked in hotter grease for a longer period of time. Usually when it starts floating in the grease I consider it done after just a little longer. If you leave the red meat on, it will taste a lot more fishy. I prefer eating catfish to anything else and am pretty dang picky.

Up north in Alaska where I work, they will have farm raised catfish shipped up now and then and cook it. They leave the red meat on. Yuck! They also do not fry it in grease that's hot enough for cooking catfish and the meat is kinda soggy as a result. Terrible eating stuff, and I can totally understand why they don't care for it much up there. I shipped some of my meat up there, cooked it for them the way I do at the house and them boys couldn't get enough of it and beg me to bring more up and cook it where as before they hated it. I tried to fry halibut the way I do catfish and I ruined it lol

[mackem 29,522]

Out of likes mate,but i owe you one for that reply,i ate small thai cats in the philippines,maybe it was the way they cooked them but they tasted like dirt,i will try one in the states one day,do tou fish for halibut?Whats the biggest you have caught?

[BlackStreak 498]

I've fished a couple times up in Alaska where I work for Halibut. Biggest I've caught was 103 pouds. Second biggest was 72 pounds

This was the 72 pounder

[BlackStreak 498]

Yellow cat won't bite much on dead bait. They prefer live bait such as perch and big gizzard shad. I catch one now and then on fresh cut bait though.

Big blue cat are not as picky as yellow cat but still so picky that they are rarely caught by the average angler on any consistent basis. Big blues will hit live bait and fresh cut bait but won't hit previously frozen bait like they will freshly caught and cut bait. As the cut bait gets older if it's kept on ice before using, the less they will pick it up. I know as much about shad (their preferred forage fish and the primary bait I use) as I do about blue cat. I feel this is important. Also to know about shad means u need to know about what they feed on etc.

I fish for blue cat year round and thus have to know there seasonal habits to be successful. Like wise with the shad. I catch shad in a throw net each morning or evening I fish. I have a 55 gallon live well I put them in and keep them alive till right before I cut one up and put it on a hook. Shad are pretty delicate and take putting a few things in the live well to keep alive. All of this is way more than most will go through but once you know what your doing and know so much about shad, it's fairly easy all year round. I also catch buffalo and carp like this and will use them like this too. Fresh bait like this cut up is the biggest trick to catching trophy blue cat. You can put fresh caught bait in a zip lock bag and put them on ice but after a while they go soft and stop working.

Smaller blues are fished same as channel cat and can easily be caught on stink bait. Just as they get older and bigger do they get finicky about what they eat.

Often times when I certify a big blue for some kinda record, I'll keep it in a live well over night. They will usually regergitate what's their stomach when kept in captivity over night. I found 2 fully mature ducks in the live well once from one. One was freshly eaten just before I caught the fish and the other was mostly disolved. I have had them regergitate other decent size game fish such as croppie and bass. Back when I used to eat the big ones I would find 1 or 2 big croppie and sand bass in there stomach.

[mackem 29,522]

Fantastic Halibut mate,beautiful fish,like a giant flounder on steroids.