Night of the Cats

It seems as of late, I'm only able to find time at night to get some fishing in. Thankfully that should change in the next few weeks. My brother and his family were in town from Boise for the Pioneer Day celebration. He is the brother that got me into fishing and started my addiction. Can you guess who my wife's favorite in-law is? We were talking and I found out he had never been cat fishing before, so I figured I had fix that situation quick!

We headed out last night along with a few other friends. We set up at our usual spot at around 8:30 p.m. and the fishing started out really slow. We would have a hit here and there, but it didn't get interesting until around 11:30 p.m. when the moon came out. That seemed to flip a switch and the catfish came calling. The first one to the net was a 20 inch cookie cutter, and Jason's first ever channel catfish. I like to see people knock off a species from their list as much I like doing it myself.

Not long after landing the first fish of the night, my pole slammed down and was on it's way in the water before Francisco grabbed it and handed it to me. I set the hook, and immediately knew it was a big fish. I fought him about half way in, and handed the rod over to Jason so he could feel the tug of a big catfish. A few minutes later, He got him close enough, and I netted him! What a fish! Jason and I are both counting it as our personal best since we both fought it. It measured in at 28 inches. Needless to say, we were stoked!

While we fished, we noticed a cat face spider starting to weave a new web close to where our poles were. It was amazing to see natures art take shape right in front of us. Before too long, I found myself throwing bugs into the web to watch the cat face wrap them up like a bug burrito and chow down.

We landed a few other cookie cutters, and lost two that felt just as big as the 28 inch beast we landed earlier that night. One was lost to a bad knot thanks to yours truly, and the other broke the line. I would say it was mission accomplished for Jason's first catfish experience.

Here kitty kitty...



First netted cookie-cutter kitty of the night.

A cat face spider munching on an insect caught from her newly spun web. Can you see all three spiders?

New personal best channel catfish for Jason and I. 28 inches long!

Jason's first cat fishing experience was a success.

Hide your kids, hide your wife...