Lake Champlain United - Forums

6/3/2016 wayne and i changed it up yesterday morning and went out in my jon boat for some pan fishing and catfish and bowfins. this was waynes ist time fishing them. set up one cat rod each for us and then fished for pan fish with another rod. wayne had a run before i even got set up but it dropped it after a brief run. then my line was skipping across the water and it dropped it. in the mean time we are catching some big sun fish and few yellow perch. then about an hour or so i had another strong run only to miss it after taking approx 60 feet of line. threw it back out and it took off again then stopped and took off again . the fish was burying itself in the thick weeds and i knew it. told wayne what it was doing waited a while then set the hook and fish on. struggled getting it out of the heavy cover and it came off. we were having fun with the sun fish though and wayne ended up taking home a half of a pail of sunfish all nice ones. had a couple more runs and i lost a good size bass and landed a good size tench fish that put on a show for wayne. wayne says what is that i said its a tench fish (doctors fish) and they are a fierce fighter. we had a great morning and wayne liked his new fishing adventure. were probably done with the trout ponds until fall.

That sounds like those fat bowfin me and one of my friends were fishing for in Burlington, they just use all their weight to barrel through the weeds. I was surprised how fast a bowfin can move. Ill be setting up for crappie maybe tonight since my plans went through today for Laker trolling. It is nice to mix it up a bit.

Thanks for the report. Gonna try again in the evening for some ugly fish soon

6/6/2016 grabbed a catfish rod this morning and spinning rod for some pan fish this morning and went out in the bay with my jon boat. set the anchors at 6:45 am and 6:50 am fish on the cat rod a nice 8lb bowfin that i released very quickly. started catching some nice pan fish for filleting also. then at 7:15 am a strong run on the cat fish rod when it stopped i closed the bail and fish on. it was buried in the heavy weeds and zzzzzzzzzzzzzzing my drag on my cat reel. fought it for approx 5 minutes trying to raise it up out of the weeds and it shook loose. dont really know if it was a big catfish or a big bowfin since this is the ist time that i can remember a catfish or a bowfin peeling off line with the drag especially in heavy weeds. had another strong run at 8:20 am and missed it as it stole my bait. i was catching some nice pan fish for the frying pan in between runs so i was very busy. another run at 10 am and the line caught on the net i had up front and the fish flipped the net up in the air and into the lake. the fish then dropped the bait. retreived my net and called it a day. it was a good morning as i brought home some nice big yellow perch blue gills and pumpkinseeds for the frying pan. i was using cut bait on the cat rod and crawlers on the spinning rod.

Had some limited luck at otter and found some drum and bullheads, never got a drum before, but was fun to check off the list of things to do. Night fishing with worms. Tryi,g to decide what to target for master angler entry #5 for the year? We have giantbowfin near work. Hookedinto a coupe at otter as well. They fight good when they are near 30.

Registered Kayak wrote:Had some limited luck at otter and found some drum and bullheads, never got a drum before, but was fun to check off the list of things to do. Night fishing with worms. Tryi,g to decide what to target for master angler entry #5 for the year? We have giantbowfin near work. Hookedinto a coupe at otter as well. They fight good when they are near 30.

those drums put up a good fight i caught some 15 lbers last year and all you can do is hang on and set your drag. those fins fight and they like to wrap the weeds around the line.

Rumor mill has it a little girl caught a monster sheephead. I think they said it was 29 pounds.

Is there anywhere in the burlington area where one can fish catfish? Always wanted to catch one, but seems like they are sparse up north. What technique do you use when fishing them? Just a heavy weight and cut bait sitting on the bottom?

keithm87 wrote:Is there anywhere in the burlington area where one can fish catfish? Always wanted to catch one, but seems like they are sparse up north. What technique do you use when fishing them? Just a heavy weight and cut bait sitting on the bottom?

Other than the occasional bullhead around the Winooski and Burlington water front I have never seen a cat or heard of anyone getting them. We have bowfin, pike, bass, eels, carp, and panfish at the water front now.
A month or 2 ago you could have caught dozens of stockie browns and see the occasional salmon.

Hey Fishy, if you can get use to not "setting" the hook, a 7/0 or 6/0 circle hook would solve a lot of the catfish/bowfin losses. With a circle hook when they make a run like you explained they would have either hooked them self or if you had your bail open all you had to do is close it and let the line get tight on it's own and the fish would hook itself. If you try and "set" the hook, you will not get a hook set and pull it right out of their mouth. I use a "Bait Runner" reel so all I have to do it dis-engage the bait runner feature and fish on! If the fish makes a run and stops, again all you do is reel steady and it will also set the hook.

Hairbone wrote:Rumor mill has it a little girl caught a monster sheephead. I think they said it was 29 pounds.

i would like to see a pic of that beast . could be a record drum.

jimbow wrote:Hey Fishy, if you can get use to not "setting" the hook, a 7/0 or 6/0 circle hook would solve a lot of the catfish/bowfin losses. With a circle hook when they make a run like you explained they would have either hooked them self or if you had your bail open all you had to do is close it and let the line get tight on it's own and the fish would hook itself. If you try and "set" the hook, you will not get a hook set and pull it right out of their mouth. I use a "Bait Runner" reel so all I have to do it dis-engage the bait runner feature and fish on! If the fish makes a run and stops, again all you do is reel steady and it will also set the hook.

i am not a big fan of circle hooks simply for that reason you lose to many fish before getting them to the net. very rarely do i lose a catfish after hooking it with a j hook and most all go in the net. i have tried both and my teammates in the fathers day derby all use circle hooks and they lose more fish than i before netting. i guess its a preference thing and an experience thing. most catfish runs are long and fast and some dont even stop so if your using a circle hook it might be better but then you have to get it to the net. i have 150 yards of line on my reels and i have gotton right down to the bare spool and had to close the bail before it took all of my line. this happens frequently. i can see your point to jim but i like my j hooks.

I guess you are right Matt, it is a personal preference, I used circle hooks a lot including on our trips for salmon in the rivers and find I hook up better with circle hooks...plus you almost NEVER get "gut" hooked...Very rarely do I ever loose a fish on a circle since they are almost always hooked up in the corner of the jaw... a very tough area to break free from. I do use a bait runner reel so that could make the difference....What ever you are comfortable with always works best...for those who are new to the sport might want to give them a try, it could possibly help....FYI...they are also great on strippers in the river, bass & pike everywhere when using live or cut bait.

if i'm not using a lure I use circle hooks. there is not a negative to them and many positives. I dont see myself ever using a J hook or treble for bait fishing again. this winter I even went to circles on my tip-ups and dead sticks and my hookup ratio improved.

SEMPER_FIshing wrote:if i'm not using a lure I use circle hooks. there is not a negative to them and many positives. I dont see myself ever using a J hook or treble for bait fishing again. this winter I even went to circles on my tip-ups and dead sticks and my hookup ratio improved.

thanks for the report on you using circle hooks. i never used treble hooks as they kill to many fish. how do you use them on tip ups the same way as open water fishing just let them run .