The Bowfin Curse!

Bowfin,
Your curse on Cattin_addict and myself done us in last weekend on our trip to Lockport. I know now who has the power of the catfish gods.

To start with after cattin_addict picked me up and hooked up my boat, we did not make it 30 miles and the air conditioning went out. Then when we arrived in Lockport we find out that the catfishing up there had taken a big nosedive just prior to us getting there. On Sunday after hearing a great tip on where the sumo’s had went, 8 miles downstream, we set out only to lose power on the RiverPro which kept us stuck close to the dam the rest of the trip. But thats not all, even cattins wristrocket ended up broke by the weekends end.

It was the toughest fishing I have had in the many weeks I have spent up there, only 11 cats between 12-22 lbs. That may sound good to some but I was expecting that in the first hour we were there.

It was not all a bust though, we did see a great sauger bite going on and cattin_addict thought of you every time we saw the people around us catching the 10-14 inch sauger. He said you would love to be here with a bite like that going on.

I do thank you though for not cursing the RiverPro too bad as it is now back to full power and it was just my stupidity in running a jet that kept us from running downstream on Sunday.

Dennis

Bowfinhunter where are you, did you make the 8 hour run up to Lockport to chase those saugers that CA said you would love catch.

I was sure I would have some sort of comment from you by now. Hope all is well.

Dennis

PS Chitwood how about this one—-no hands

Hey i.c.s.c.
I was looking in a Catfish mag looking to see what kind of Catfish a snauger was. It was not a Catfish so I don’t know what kind of fish(?) your talking about. But I know C_A has a cabin on Minni Lax(ative) so if it was a 10 to 14 inch fish I’m sure he nows all about it…
The Air conditioner went out on you huh…
Glad to see the Catfish Gods frown on you also.., the jet engine goes out too… well thats to bad, shucks
I guess we will see today if I am back in favor with the Catfish gods, C_A and I are going to the Dam in Anoka.
I’ll ask him what a Snauger is.
Oh I did catch a 45 pounder this weekend my little Bowfin is learning to ride her bike with out training wheels I caught her 100 times..
See ya

Hey Dennis,

Sorry for the very delayed posting, just very hetic on the home front now as I told you .

What I can say about the trip to Lockport Canada is this, simply FANTASTIC , Ryan and I both caught our biggest kittys to date, actually most fish were bigger than we have ever caught before, and we couldn’t of asked for better company thanks for a great outing bud .
I have done a little math about the trip we took, if we add up the total hours we fished then divide by the total real fish we caught it comes down to about a nice kitty every 2.22 hours on average , but when most of the fish we caught were doubles, it does make the time between fish a lot longer
As I stated earlier I said real fish. You did catch that little ugly sauger up there and if im not mistaken I thought I seen your eyes light up, it was only for a second but I swear I saw it I know you’re a recovering ugly green fisherman and just wanna make sure you don’t go falling off the wagon on us, if you need any support either call me or bowfin and we will be there for ya brother , quickest fix would be just go in your back yard and catch a piggy. Next time I am up that way, I best not find any ultra light rods and 6lb test line lying around either
The bowfin curse is still intact , we went out Saturday morning for a few hours on the Anoka dam and between us only managed to get one little bullhead I am at a loss how to appease the cat gods . I have stayed true to the faith, traveled to gods country to where the monster cats roam and still have the black cloud over me when it comes to cattin.
Perhaps its from that character chitwood that complaines about how how cattin people have big hands
must just be a case of hand size envy

Cattin_Addict

Hi C/A, and I.C.S.C’s
Dennis where are you you have not replied for a while?
Mmmmm…., I wonder did you go back up north Mmmmm… I wonder what you would be doing up there. Oh wait here is a clue. (from Cattin_A) “You did catch that little ugly sauger up there and if im not mistaken I thought I seen your eyes light up, it was only for a second but I swear I saw it…”
Dennis, Dennis, Dennis…You don’t need to be a member of Mystery inc. To know where you are and what you are doing…
Cattin_A, it looks like Dennis (i catch small snaugers)
has fell off the wagon. Maybe it was the heat in the car on the ride up. Maybe it was “chit” talking about hands all the time.. Really, C/A don’t blame yourself… Maybe it’s that time of year that “I catch small snaugers” goes wally fishing… Don’t be scared for i.c.s.s. yet.. It’s too early to call for a intervention now…(i hope)
Of course if he does not post soon (and we are too late)
he might have joined one of those cults up there you know like the PTL or PWT or one of those things..
Hey wait a minute he was a member of PWT if I remember a earlier post of his.. C/A looks like we lost Dennis forever! He was so young too young.
it’s always the young and the good that go to early I remember as if it was only yesterday he was posting smack about me, fishing for snaugers, giving me the ol’stink eye.. now he is gone, GONE I say! Snauger fishing… Dennis why oh why did you have to catch that snauger… why could it not have been Cattin_A or Rino someone a little stronger… Not with your past on the PWT that one fish weakend you I am sorry I was not there for you. I guess I blame myself thats right Cattin_A it is all my fault.. I guess the thing I will miss most about Dennis is those gigantic hands.
See Ya
Bowfinhunter

I have n doubt you guys are in some big catfish country. I envy your access to the monstor flatheads. I am sure you are grinning often when you hook up with some of those. The hands thing just looked unnatural to me in a couple of those pictures? Even if the fish were artificially enhanced, they were good fish. I am more curious than displeased. At least you didn’t call me names for pointing it out.

You may already realize it, but these photo’s from Dennis and his clients are all Channel Cats, not Flatheads? If you did…well….my bad.

Most folks just can’t imagine Channel Cats getting this large and in any numbers. But here are on the Red River of the North…they do…and in numbers. We have cats of all sizes but not one Flathead is known to swim the Red River system.

I have had many clients SWEAR unequivocally they these cats are Blues, and not Channel cats at all. “No Way Josie”….Because Channel cats just don’t get that big anywhere, especially this far North! That is there initial perception. But…Yup…the certainly do, and in great numbers in some regions.

We need to venture to the East over to the Minnesota River to tangle with any Flatheads, or South to the SD/NB border country. I wish we had them here in some rivers, I think they would do very well too.

For blues, you can find a few monsters below the Dams in SD on the Missouri River system. Not sure if there are any below the Garrison Dam here in ND? Might be, maybe there are and we just do not hear of any? If somebody did tangle with a big Blue, it would likely be written off as a paddle fish and quickly forgotten. Now I am starting to wonder about that myself?

Dennis do you ever hear of any Blues being caught below the Garrison Dam at Picks-Town?

Wow! I take a couple days off to go CATTIN, not snaugerin , and come back and I think you guys must have missed me. All of you guys post some very entertaining posts.

Yes, Ed is right we have no blues or flatheads here on the Red. The only other kind of catfish other than channels on the Red that I am aware of is the mighty stonecat . I do think they put up more of a fight than the snaugers though.

Chitwood I do admit that I do have most of my clients hold their fish out in front of them to make the picture look better. I also take the time to wipe the fish off so the cats look good, as most people get cleaned up to take pictures so why not the fish. All of these fish are released so the only memory these people will have is the picture I take. So I have learned to take the best picture possible and if that means holding the fish out in front of them so the fish looks better, so be it. Some of these fish have grown in pounds soon after showing the picture to the client. They think my scale must be off as the fish looks much bigger than the scale had said.

Dennis

By the way CA, what did this fish weigh? Boy, Ryan you have big hands.

Great pics Dennis

Dennis what’s up.
No smart remarks for me..
I guess I am a Red headed step child..
See ya
Bowfinhunter

I hope you are aware i was not trying to be beligerent. I just had a questiion about how it appeared to me. There was a picture of of the one that appeared to me to be a flathead, I can see the others are not. Here is what the Iowa DNR says about identification of blue cat vs channel cat.

“Blue catfish are easily distinguished from the channel catfish by the number of rays in the anal fin, channel catfish having 24 to 29 rays, blue catfish from 30 to 35. The tail is deeply forked and the eyes are small. The air bladder has three lobes or parts, an anterior pair joined side by side and the smaller third lobe is placed behind.”

Fish on guys. If my father-in-law could fish there he would most certainly consider himself to be in heaven.

Chitwood,
I too, was not trying to be smart. Heaven knows that I have a tough time with that . Maybe someday I will have a little time to play with this computer and figure out how to digitally alter pictures but as of now I do not. I have figured out how to take some great looking pictures (to those less observant than you) by having people hold their fish just so. But I am really not trying to fool anyone and will tell you the weight of any fish picture I post. I will try to do so in any of my future posts.

Bowfin, or was that Snaugerfin ,
After reading your post I knew there is no getting in the last laugh with you. I was laughing so hard that I knew there would be no topping that, so I decided to bow, or is that snaug, out of this one.

I finally had a night off last night from guiding so I decided to go out and try a little cattin. Below is a picture of a double I had. The bigger fish weighs a little over 14 lbs and the little one weighs about 8 lbs.

Dennis

Hi Dennis,
I just wanted my props

Thanks,

See Ya,
Bowfinhunter

i love this site.. want you all to know how much it makes my day to come check in on this site and see the banter that goes on…. makes my day.. as well as dennis, i get my daily laughs…. nothing better than fisherman… dennis, cant wait until spring to come back north.. my boys still want to know if you will adopt them so they can live with you in the cabin and fish every day… i tried to tell them, you cant honestly think you could go fish every single day, and then i forgot about whom they would be with and realized i better quit before i got in to deep… thanks for many memories this summer as well as the past… come on spring….

idreamofcats (jeff)

Hi IDofC,
I don’t fish everyday, I have had a day or two since last spring that I have not been on the river. I do need a couple of good kids to take over some of my guiding so I could have some time to go fishing myself.

As we get into fall my fishing days will get fewer and fewer and before long I will be heading to the hockey arena to warm up.

The cats are definitely starting to slow and the river has been a little tough to get around this fall, at least for the guys without a RiverPro. But we should still have some good fishing yet to come on the warm days ahead of us.

Hope you have a good winter, Master Angler!

Dennis

Chitwood46 some of the larger Red River channel cats, especially the very old dark males look kinda like a flathead.

The older sumo females start to resemble blues in many ways too. There color may vary and the bulk is unheard of for channel cats in any system other then the Red.

The exceptional size of the Red River Channel cats tend to allow for some misidentification from folks whom are new to the system. Very few river systems can produce such magnificent Sumo Kitty’s, and channels of this size is not the norm by far, anywhere.

Yup, we are very blessed here on the Red. Thank God we were able to change the harvest and creel limits on the Red. The regulations will keep this fishery viable long into the future, so many more folks can discover it’s treasures.

Gitty up & Go..PIGGY…………>