Kat-a-Log

[Catfish Dan]

Weather was a warm, comfortable T shirt night. High 60's to low 70's.
Location: Muskingum River about 1/2 mile south of the Wills Creek inlet on the east bank.
Terrain: An isolated gravel island. Shallow water with main river channel just in casting range. Water depth was a tad low for this time of year but raised a 10th inch or so due to some showers further north earlier in the day.
Bait: Creek chubs with a few suckers mixed in. 3 inch to 6 inch range.

It was a lazy Saturday night so we fished within wading distance of my friends campsite. The boat isn't ready yet so we chose a local gravel island that we could wade to without getting our knees wet. Started fishing just after dark and continued fishing till 4:00AM or so. Activity was very hit and miss. We managed to catch a few prowling channel cats combing the shallows for baitfish. No flatheads but the terrain wasn't exactly ideal for that.

One of the channel cats I caught was filling with eggs. I estimate spawn to be within a few weeks if temperature and conditions allow. There were certainly enough fry and bugs around to permit a healthy spawn. An old timer once told me when the cotton wood blooms and starts to blow thats the time to fish for channels and I have never found a flaw in that theory. With the mild winter Ohio has had I think this could be a huge year for biguns!