4th of july channel cats.

Went out in the morning yesterday staying close to home for the sake of idiots with fireworks starting wildfires.put in at the mouth of the deschutes around 630.went up the big island to try for walleye.caught one and lost it.fighting the wind headed back down to try for steelhead across from the ramp.no love. So I thought I would go waste some leftover worms from the walleye on some bluegill in the back waters.caught a few smallmouth and 2 gills.then the Pike minnows showed up.I caught 6 in a row 4-8in.I thought to myself cut bait for cats?

So I paddled around and found a weed edge in 8-12ft of water.went to the bank and nestled in bobbing just off the rocks.rigged up and cast out.in about 10min I had a take.14in small mouth on half of a squaw fish hmmmm well OK then. Bait looked good so tossed it back out.about 20 min later had a take and run catfish 18 3/4".not bad at all.rebaited and cast out.15 min later I had a pickup then it slowly walked off with my bait.thought it was a shaker sturgeon at first. when it showed I had a 24 1/4" cat on.sorry I forgot to weight them.I did cut the stomachs open upon cleaning and found what they were eating.loads of squaw fish and sculpins.I was surely using the right bait.

Them's is some nice looking bottom feeders you got there cowboy. Glad you got to fish even if it wasn't in the salt.

Nice! Catfish are under-appreciated around here. I might have to go up there sometime with you... pick up some AOTY points!   It's been a long time since I've caught anything other than brown/yellow bullhead around here.

Very cool. Sounds like a cool area with that many species so close.

Nice! Catfish are under-appreciated around here. I might have to go up there sometime with you... pick up some AOTY points!   It's been a long time since I've caught anything other than brown/yellow bullhead around here.

So tasty also.l used to catch tons of brown bullheads at prineville res as a kid.only 12-13 inch at the most.but when you get 50+ that's a lot of meat.I wanted to go camp on the John day before now but time got away.still other places to go with a shorter paddle.Lauren,I will go as long as time allows.

Nice work!