Vic Smith wrote:
On Thu, 14 Aug 2008 14:18:54 GMT, (Richard
Casady) wrote:
On Wed, 13 Aug 2008 16:27:28 -0500, Vic Smith
wrote:
Don't care for catfish taste either. The poster said they throw them
back. Said the big ones are about 20 years old.
You can't really throw them back, as they always swallow the hook.
All you can do is cut the line, but you can't expect them to live.
Best to find someone that wants them and give them away.
They don't always swallow the hook. Probably about 1/4 of the time in
my experience. Depends on how much attention you're paying to your
line. If you're using a barbless hook - I never have - you could
probably salvage the fish anyway.
Channel cats usually hit a minnow hard and are I've nearly always
lip-hooked them.
I've never caught a really big catfish. Maybe 5 lbs max.
--Vic
Most of the sal****er catfish I used to catch in Florida were five to
seven pounds, and they were terrific fighters on the really light tackle
I used in the inlets.
My favorite inlet fish, though, were the whiting. Really small, but
school swimmers so you could catch a lot of them, and they were easy to
clean and delicious. We used to catch these in Nassau Sound, just north
of Big Talbot Island State Park, a little north of Jacksonville.