Sabiki Surprise

The water was beautiful Saturday evening and we were lucky enough to be able to get out for a short while with Rookie and Jokerball. Fishing overall was slow, but the company was great, and for anyone who wonders about cats in Lake Erie, here is some proof of just what you may get into....
This critter was in 51 ft of water, and took half a minnow on my Sabiki rig (size 10 hook!), it took a few minutes of back and forth (my perch rig is a 5.5 ft Ugly stick light with a small mitchell and 8lb powerpro) but got him to the surface and Joker was quick with the net and we landed him before it could break off. He was an impressive specimen, 32" long, 19" girth and not a mark on him, looked to be in great shape and not too old either.
The cat was released back to continue to confound perch hunters for many years to come, and hopefully create many more generations of cats as impressive as he is!
Rookie has some scenic shots she may add later, it was indeed a beautiful evening out on the lake...




and yep... I wussed out and put on a glove to get a pic, the darned thing had some danged sharp tooth pads yet (another reason for the younger age estimate) and I wanted the skin left on the back of my knuckles, unlike ErieMako's after he got him out of the net.

Down here in KY if you threw a cat that size back; especially after taking it out of water as clean as L.Erie, you would be forced to move.

Awesome Karen

Thanks guys...

Ind... trust me that we've kept our share of cats for some good old fish dinners! But usually I let the bigger ones go. A few weeks ago we caught a number of cats on a night trip on the Allegheny, we kept a 6 lb flat for fillets, left all the rest go, including one bigger than this one! Since I let the biggest ones go, I'd just have to catch lots of the mid size 'eaters' to keep the neighbors happy in Kentucky! I'd just have to spend more time fishing to do it!

Deadbolt- that little hook was buried deep into his bottom toothplate just left of center, I had to use pliers to get it loose. Still amazed that little hook kept this guy attached!

Great cat Karen!!!!!Thats a long way down to reel him in...WF

Awesome catch.......You never know what you can bring up from the depths of Lake Erie.

 Your next task......... a sturgeon.  

Jack,
That was Saturday evening... Sunday was a completely different animal! 2-4's would have been fine, if that was it, the thunderstorms and high winds just added to the fun.

Nice catch! For those bigger catfish fillets - you might try putting it in a ziplock and marinating with soy sauce, after which you can put it in a fish basket and broil over hot charcoal with wet hickory chips - baste with remaining soy, real butter, pepper (soy is salty enough), dill weed if you like - works well with steelhead/salmon too! The fish basket enables you to turn fillet without tearing it up!

NICE CATCH KAREN
ALL THE HOURS I LOGED IN, I HAVE YET TO GET A
CHANNEL CAT THAT SIZE. GOOD JOB.

nice cat

Great pixs and glad you all had fun.

Sweet!

Nice Cat! Beautiful pictures!