Curiosity (almost) Killed the Cat

I went out for a quick evening troll in my Hobie on my hometown waters in the San Joaquin River to try and see if I could get a striper.  I also threw cranks at the rip-rap for an off-chance that I could get a bass--nope, nothing there.  The water was very very low though.  I trolled a broken back shallow running Rebel with a white worm trailer.  As I was about to reach my turn around point, I see my rod load up...wha...not taking drag...no wiggle...SNAG???  Debris???  Reeling it back to the yak just feeling weight like a weed or stick, about half way home I finally get a head shake, what the hell???  Finally I see its head and whiskers...a river cat!  On a striper trolling bait.  I snap a few action photos so no one thinks I'm pullin' a joke, and then let the Curious Cat go.

Have fun out there...

HobieBlue

mmmrrroooooowwwwwwww!

Nice one, Bryan.  Cool photos.  It's always neat to have a variety of species potentially biting.   

Catfish will most readily hit a crankbait. Seems funny huh. They love live minnows as well. I take it that catfish did not make it to the fry pan?

It's always a nice surprise to catch a cat on a lure. I've caught them on Crappie jigs out of the river.

Craigh

Cool.  I caught my biggest kitty ever trolling for stripers...not always just laying on the bottom!

Reelfish--

Yeah, I let it go.  As far as catching cats, I caught a ten+ pounder on a spinnerbait once.  That was fun.  Thought I had a real good bass at first.

Bryan

Nice Kitty HB!  bet that was WIERD! 

I've read they turn into STRAIGHT PREDITORS after hitting the 10lb range.
and using native bait fish will do the best. Like BlueGill meat or Herring.
something about the oily herring attracts the bigger cats....never did it, but read it!

thanks for the pics&port HB!

Those barbels are meant for sensing prey in the muddy water.

Nice catch!

-Brian

Love that first photo of the cat swirling. Looks like fresh fish-sticks to me!

That is one lucky kitty. It would have been straight to the frying pan if I'd caught her. Yummy yummy I love eating kitties 

-FF

I caught a nice cat at Chabot on a crawdad imitation plastic.  I thought I had a nice bass on only to see whiskers.  When I opened it up, I noticed something hard in the guts.  Sliced into the guts to find, what do you know, some crawdads similar in size to my plastic creature bait.  They aren't just bottom-feeding scavengers.

Love the photos and report. Does the long trailer worm change the action on the lure?

scott

The worm just adds a bit of visual alure but it does wave thru the water nicely. A lot of people also add a squid skirt just above the rear hook. Some delta striper fisherman created it he calls it the wildthing. You can buy them like that or build them your self. The worm is Zoom trick worm a pack of 30 cost like 4.00 or 5.00 bucks. They work great.

I attended a Delta Striper Trolling Seminar at the FH show. Barry Canavero(?)
He said the worm trailer is A MUST in the delta for bigger fish. It immitates the big river Shad.  however, he did not recomended it for trollin the bay. No river Shad down there.

Makes sense to me....now just have to apply it!

Love the photos and report. Does the long trailer worm change the action on the lure?

scott

I think it actually reduces the wiggle on the rebel, and makes them troll more shallow.

that bit about looking like a shad is probably rationalization, imo.

there is a web page for a delta guide, captain jack, he explains a lot of this.

http://www.bassjack.com

and

http://www.bassjack.com/stripers_trolling_chart.htm