Richard Casady wrote:
On Thu, 14 Aug 2008 10:32:53 -0400, hk wrote:

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.

Casady

Are you referring specificially to "Potomac catfish" and hook
swallowing? I don't fish in the Potomac, but when I fished in St.
Augustine Inlet in Florida, I used to catch lots of catfish on circle
hooks and chunk fish bait, and most of them were hooked in the corner of
the mouth, as they were supposed to be hooked, and were easy to unhook,
especially if you crimped down the hook's barb.

I don't know what it is like now, but that inlet was one of the greatest
fishing locales I ever encountered in Florida, and not just the
fast-flowing inlet itself, but just about everywhere in the immediate
vicinity.

Bullheads and channel cats caught on nightcrawlers, in an Iowa lake.
Maybe I need different bait and hooks.


Never been fishing for freshwater catfish, never caught one. Don't know
anything about catching catfish on lakes in Iowa.