Metro Catfish League

Who would be interested?

With enough interestd individuals this could be a reality by next year.

This would be strictly a catch & release league open to everyone fishing within set boundaries(pools 1 & 2 for example). It would be open to both captains and riders.. and possibly shore fishermen alike if that can somehow work out.

Each league night partners would rotate, the same captain, rider, other* will not be fishing with the same partner. The fish would be caught, measured, photographed, and immediately released. The documentation on the league nights caught fish would be turned into the headquarters(Moores Bait) the following day.

The league would be for Flathead, and Channel catfish both. There would be a *big fish* payout per specie following each league night, and a season payout on each specie at the end of the season.

The participants in the league will help determine the league nights/dates. I would like to see this start in the last week of May, and end sometime in August. League nights would probably be every other week on Saturday night.

The rules and boundaries will eventually be set in stone. I would like to see this open to pool 1(Coon Rapids Dam to Ford Dam), and pool 2(To the Hastings Dam) on the Misissippi River, and possibly a short section of the Minnesota river from the 35W bridge down to the Mississippi river confluence, including the tributaries.

This would be a 100% payout league less any expense neccessary to make it happen(not sure if any permit is needed, etc). The league would cost around $100 to join for captains or riders(all comes back in payout), and a small league fee each league night that would also be paid back in payouts. Payouts will be determined upon the number of participants, number of league nights, number of season final payout spots… etc.

With enough interest, each specie would be able to have a decent payout for the top 5. If there is a ton of interest, there will be more paying places.

Captains and riders would figure out on their own where they would be fishing and work out expenses… etc. If an individual could not make it out on a league night, they would be allowed to find a substitute to fill in their place.

This would be a great way to get out on the water, meet some new people, learn some new spots ad tricks.. and just have a good time! Between nightly payouts and the season payouts… absolutely everyone will have plenty of chances to win some cash, even if they are having a rough season.

Interested? Please post here. If there is something you like or dont like about what is already said please tell me. I want the rules to be fair for everyone who would like to join.

Fishing? did Dave say more fishing???
I’d be interested.
thanks
Larry

Here is another idea for the short term this year.
Metro virtual tourny.
I think that there still would be time for a metro tourny.
as many 3-4 man teams as we can round up people. (small entry fee) each member contributes 25-33% towards team total.
time length. Goes for the next 6 weeks.
must have proof of pics and a control item in the pic with wieght.
payout to the most wieght per team and individual big fish.

I know this is all preliminary, but if this idea gets off the ground, I’ll sign up for it. I like your proposed boundaries, that way you can truly keep it metro.

Let’s do it guys

Im in!! Like Larry Flatcaster said lets start this year! Why put off what we can do today?

Sounds like fun, I’m in

I wouldn’t mind trying to start something this year. I know the fishing will get kinda tough come late Aug.-Sept. But there are still fish to be caught, just not in numbers in my experience.

My 2, 3, 4 cents if you get enough guys to do this, and I may be interested as well, is:

1- I would like to see everyone use the same launch on each league night. Throw all the launch locations into a hat, and draw a launch to see what launch will be used for what night. Everybody would get to meet up at the launch and BS for awhile before going fishing. Think of it as a teambuilding exercise. This will also force people to learn new stretches of river rather than falling back to what is comfortable. The Grand Forks Cat League does this. They don’t have as many launches but the rotate between the 2 or 3 they have.

2- No shorefishing

3- Other than that, I fish the Belle Plaine Cat League which uses the exact same format and its fun. For those of you who wanted something to happen this year, there you go. We were short riders until just recently and now the league is full with 1st night starting this Friday. Go Larry!!

With a channel cat / flathead cat format, I don’t think many guys would intentionally fish about Minneapolis since the chance of a flathead up there goes down considerably compared to other stretches of the river. I also think that is a good reason to rotate to different launches intentionally. P1 up there could make some interesting competition if everyone was fishing up there on a given night.

Thoughts?

Preferred night of the week?

I am interested. Rotating boat ramps sounds like a good idea.

Do we get a prize for the longest skunk or largest monkey?

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Sounds like a familiar format

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Yes, it would be very similar to the Belle Plain Cat league. I have been wanting to do that one for the last couple years.. but the miles would start adding up fast and it wouldnt be practical after I figured in the $30/night for gas in my vehicle alone.

This would open up roughly the same league opportunities to metro fishermen without having to drive an hour in most circumstances.

I thought about the rotating launch idea too. That is also open for discussion. There are only so many launches on the boundaries posted that allow late night parking which might cause difficulty.. Boom Island and 494 are the only 2 that come to mind immediately, Lilydale I do park late and have never been ticketed, but the signs do say 11. Watergate might be an alternative, but its a pay launch.

If anyone can think of more launches that are open late, please chime in. We are only looking for good access points where ANY boat can run.

Sure, I’d love to donate $100. I’d also be willing to donate time and web space to setting up something online. That way we could track and archive results and post information relevant to the league.

I think the idea about meeting at a launch is a good idea too. It evens the playing field. Plus, it gives us all a chance to mingle a little before and after each tourney. I think without meeting there would be a little disconnected and I’d prefer to have a club type feel.

Also I would personally like to see a start time and time limit. Pulling all-nighters every other week isn’t exactly appealing to me. Maybe 6pm-1am, 7pm-2am sort of thing. I know some will not be happy with that, but it’s just a thought.

I think each boat should have a digital camera so at the end of the night we can meet back at the launch and tally things up and swap stories.

Lastly, it might also be a good idea to limit the area you could fish, since pool 2 is so big. If a guy has a River Pro or someone had a 200hp he’d kind of have an unfair advantage. This is probably the least of my wishes though. First, it would be hard to enforce. Second, say we launched from Lilydale. It’s a good test of a catman’s knowledge if he has no boundaries, because there are such a variety of areas you could fish with that being the starting point.

This brings me to my very last thought. I guess it really isn’t an issue, but what about launch hours. I suppose you guys with boats already know the answer to this one.

494 and Boom Island are the only two Iknow that you can be there all night. You can park all night at Black dog too, but that is a long run down to the Miss and even farther down to some of my spots, especially with the no-wake zone in St.Paul

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Lilydale I do park late and have never been ticketed, but the signs do say 11. Watergate might be an alternative, but its a pay launch.

If anyone can think of more launches that are open late

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I wonder if we were to get in contact with the park service and work something out by registering with them by giving our licence plate numbers. Maybe they would have no problem letting us park all night. maybe we could do them a favor and pick up trash around the park or something?
I will talk to my sister, she used to work for the park system maybe she knows someone who could help us.

Fisher Dave

I’d be interested — it would give me reason to clean up my boat, find a fishing partner, and meet new people since I don’t get out much. The Rotating boat ramps sound like a good idea. Now what we have to decide what the bottom line will be for pay outs
Bob

Pug..

There would be a start, and a cut-off time regardless… but I dont know about you, when i get off the water in the middle of the night I am usually trying to get my boat on the trailer and head home to get some sleep. I am not much for conversation at 3 a.m.

A few meetings should be arranged to keep things on the right track, and partners changing every trip out will keep things a bit more interesting.

I would like to see this stay as fair as possible to everyone, this is one reason why I am not sure if a set launching area would be ideal. The Mississippi is a good river to run in just about any boat. If there was a set time everyone had to be back to the launch, it would be a HUGE disadvantage to the guy with the 14′ jon boat and a 10 hp motor(takes a while to get somewhere), vs the guy that has the River Pro, or the 18′ Lund deep V with 50,000 hp… all are capable fishing rigs, but the RP is already going to be there and have 2 fish in the boat before the jon shows up on the horizon if the spot is 3 miles away.

Keeping the launching point open would allow the guys with the small boats an open playing field. To be honest, I dont want to be limited to a 5 mile section of river with 12 boats all chasing the same thing. The best spots would always by taken by the fastest boats.

Fishing time.. I really dont know what would be best. I could see 1/2 hour before sunset to 2 a.m. for a cut off time. Fishermen would be allowed to fish until the cut off time, make it back to the launch at their own pace(dont need people hitting a wing dam at 40 mph trying to get back to a launch in time). If a team cant stay out until cut off time… go home and sleep. This would eliminate the advantage of the folks that have nothing better to do than fish until sunrise.

The way i am looking at it is- since there are only 2-3 launches that we can be parked at past 11. We will be launching together anyway. I say leave the launch site open to the teams. I know for sure if this gets up and running. I will primarily use 494. I have way more spots on that section of pool 2 than I do up by Lilydale and Ford Dam.

I like the idea of launching out of the same launch. But I do agree with some of the concerns brought up. I would like to say include the last part of the MN river. From 35w or cedar ave.to the MISS/ MN confuence. They have launches open all night. (your supposed to have a park sticker at cedar.) I will check with Fort Snelling to see what there guidlines (you need a sticker as well) but that might be another option for launching and doing late night returns.

Sounds like lots of interest.

Sat nights would be good.

time I like 7:00pm to 1:00am- six hours is enough your gonna catch them if they are bitting by then.

thanks

Larry

You can tell I haven’t been out in the dark in a boat. I didn’t even think about having people race back to the launch and what not. Even if we had a cut off time, it might be a pain and too congested if it was out of the same launch. I can’t imagine too many happy cat guys having to wait to get their rig out at 1:30 or 2 after a night when they didn’t even have a run.

Can we have handicaps too? You know, like I get to add 30lbs to all my fish since I haven’t broken 20# yet!

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Can we have handicaps too? You know, like I get to add 30lbs to all my fish since I haven’t broken 20# yet!

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Hey I got an idea! We will just put you (Pug) with Larry Flatcaster and that will balance itself out! Sorry Larry!

An idea; give a prize for the one who has the worst record, but keep what it is secret until the end of the season and award it at the final gathering of the league. Maybe we could have a potluck at someones house or something?

I think what everyone has to agree upon is “Why do this?”

1- Is it to make money? Yeah right! If the point is to win some decent cash, you’ll price everyone right out of the league.

2- Is it to learn new water? Learn new spots?

3- Is it to fish with other people? Is it to hopefully learn from other people, or maybe teach others?

4- Is it to have fun?

With captains & riders alternating for every week. Who’s going to benefit? Who’s going to think this is becoming a pain in the [censored]? Who’s going to not like showing other people “their” spots.

Thats why I like the designated launch per week idea. Yes. Some guys will have an advantage at a certain launch. Some guys won’t. But somewhere along the line, everybody will have held a ‘homewater’ advantage.

To me, its about learning and trying new things. Getting out of your ‘comfort zone’ and challenging yourself. In the end, everybody will benefit and everybody will become better fisherpeople because of it.

I seriously don’t think 1 launch will become crowded. How many boats are we talking about so far? 6? Can 6 guys launch their rigs in less than a half hour?

So far, the southern boundary has been mentioned down to the Hastings Dam. What about launches down that way that are open late? Gotta be a few of them I’d believe.

Just a few more thoughts…

Lets get a count of who would be interested in starting the league this year instead of next year.

We only need a few boats to begin it with. As more people gain interest they can join in on the action. This way we will have many more people that will start on time next year making the league more exciting.

So Dave, you can count me as one who is willing to start immediately!

Darren-

I’ve fished a handful of winter events (IceLeaders & Ultimate Panfish League) and I’ve had a blast doing them. For those events, I’ve usually tried to prefish a little and then see if I can execute a game plan during the event. Its fun having to fish a lake you’ve never fished before, and seeing if you can figure something out in a couple days.

The Kato gathering was good as well. Not knowing the stretch of river at all, we motored upstream and picked out a few spots to fish and gave it a shot.

If the majority of guys want to fish their same stretch of river, same spots, and same milk run for the entire league, majority rules I guess. Can’t argue with that.

Maybe I just look at an opportunity like this a little differently.

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Hey Pug
Once our minds are ‘tattooed’ with negative thinking, our chances for long-term success diminish.
John Maxwell

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I am not being negative, just trying to give everyone else a false sense of security.

Seems like there are some rules and regulations to hammer out. Hmm, I am not mechanically inclined so I’ll stay out of it. (The debate, not the league)

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and 2 the novice can learn invaluable techniques/tips/info that can not be learned by surfing the net or reading a magazine.

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Okay I’m sold on launching out of the same launch. That would be interesting, fun and a possible bonus to be close to others in case the need for assistance arises.
I think that the launch should be picked ahead of time (the night before to prevent prefishing).
I’ve been into fishing new water for the last month and I can say that my success ratio has gone up considerable both in quantity and quality.
My goal is to fish, dont care where, or with who, I like fishing with new people. Never did it before this year. Gotta say my old fishing buddies miss it a little but Hey they can get in on the action like this.
Money makes it interesting but not the draw. (thats what tournaments are for.)
I’m game for what ever is decided upon. I’m sure I will have more input after a few weeks of participating in the BP league.
thanks
Larry

Pug,
I gotta feeling when you and I hook up were gonna be on fire.
Especially if we have a little dark brew in the boat.

thanks
Larry

Im with Hanson. I want to learn other parts of the river each week. That, I think, will be a huge learning experience.

Thats it!! I cant stand it!! Im going fishin right now!!

Hey Larry how is that new St. Croix rod treating ya!! Have you broken it in yet?

Had the hook pop out on a nice one last sat. then missed a run. So like an idiot I switched back to my (former favorite). And that exploded in my face. on that big channel.
I’m gonna have to pop the cherry on her tomorrow night.
thanks
Larry

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yeah, even now I’m intrigued. Once the launches are finalized, I’d like to take a look and see how far I would need to travel.

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My reasoning about finding out late the night before or early that day. (instead of right at launch time) Is it will give us a litte time to pull up a map of the water. Which I think is prudent any time your on unfamiliar water.
thanks
Larry

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Pug,
I gotta feeling when you and I hook up were gonna be on fire.
Especially if we have a little dark brew in the boat.

thanks
Larry

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Looks like one launch is winning. The nice thing about that is everyone gets a little time together for bs’ing and making fun of everyones bullheads. I’d guard yours when I am around. I love my dark beer, but if I can get your bullies nice and drunk and comatose, I will! I agree with Dave now, that we can go right home afterwards and tally it up the next day. I am also thinking we need a trophy to be inherited by each tourny winner. I think a Golden Clonk would be neat.