Jack O'Malley Interview w/ Dave Richey
They aren't pretty like a rainbow trout. They lack the bright hues of a sunfish, and missing are the fancy black stripes against a golden background of a yellow perch. Even the mottled gray with creamy spots of a lake trout or the milky-colored eyes of a walleye are beautiful by comparison.
Catfish do have a big mouth, whiskers that would put old Uncle Elroy's sideburns and chin hair to shame, and they also have the beady eyes of a little piglet. Another characteristic they also share with bullheads is a semi-poisonous spine under their fins that can puncture the skin of an angler. These spines can cause infections that may require a physician's care.
Carp are capable of great size, as are catfish, and carp can be a golden yellow or a dirty dish-water gray. They can be smooth-skinned or have huge scales like 25-cent pieces, and oddly enough, carp are just now developing a reputation as a great fly fishing prize in places like Grand Traverse Bay.
The reputation of carp and catfish is as suspect as a second-story cat burglar. Rumor has it that they always frequent slow-moving or stagnant waters, the backwaters and sewers of the marine world. Another bit of hearsay information is they fight like an old, worn-out dishrag.
Granted, neither one are the prettiest critter in the world, but it's time to dispel some falsehoods about the fighting qualities of these game fish.
Although Michigan's two primary catfish species (channel and flathead) may frequent slow-moving waters at times, it's also a well documented fact that channel catfish, at least, are found in clean, flowing waters as well.
Dishrags? Not hardly. A big carp or catfish will give an angler a lengthy battle, and leave them with tired arms and a sore wrist before being landed. In fact, it could be the largest game fish a fisherman may ever land.
The state-record channel catfish weighed in at a hefty 40 pounds. The state's largest flathead catfish weighed a whopping 47 1/2 pounds. These are hardly small fish, and they will put up a strong and determined scrap. Our state-record carp is even bigger, and it dragged the scales down to 61 1/2 pounds.
Catfish are commonly caught in many Lower Peninsula lakes and streams, and certain waters provide more fish than others. My largest channel catfish weighed almost 18 pounds, and it nailed a Hot-'N-Tot on Saginaw Bay while trolling for walleyes. The fish had a huge rip out of its back where it may have been hit by an outboard prop, and if not that, I would like to have seen the fish that scarred that catfish.
Channel cats are much more aggressive than their flat-headed brethren. I've caught channel cats on spinners, walleye plugs, and have taken more than a few while bouncing a minnow-tipped jig along bottom. They like their food moving, and casting or trolling can produce good catches.
Commercial catfish stink baits attract fish if the angler can stand to unscrew the lid on a jar of the slimy, stinking goo. Some of the stuff sold for catfish bait would offend a garbage dump sea gull or rot the bright chrome off a new car bumper.
A few people use rotten meat for bait, and again, it works. But there are easier and less foul smelling techniques to use.
Fresh but bloody beef or pork liver makes good catfish bait. A big wad of nightcrawlers wriggling on the hook will produce catfish. Dead, mushy minnows have been known to attract catfish but they are hard to keep on the hook. Buy some rubber thread and wrap the dead minnow to the hook to hold them in place.
The ovaries from immature bluegills make good catfish bait. Fish a lake loaded with stunted bluegills in the spring, eat the little rascals and save their ovaries for bait. Kill the fish, remove the sacks of eggs, and this practice will provide food for you while helping to reduce the number of runty bluegills in an overpopulated lake, and provide good catfish bait.
Thread 8-pound mono through a 1/8-ounce egg sinker, and tie on a tiny barrel swivel. Tie on a 36-inch length of 8-pound mono to the other end of the swivel, and tie on a longshank No. 8 hook. Attach one or two bluegill ovaries or other bait to the hook, and cast it into a lake or stream known to contain catfish.
Allow the bait to rest on bottom with slack line. Once a catfish picks up the bait, give the fish more slack line and wait until it moves off to swallow the bait. Reel up slack line, set the hook and hang on.
The trick to catching catfish is to fish where they live. Check the sidebar below for some hotspots.
Catfish are not pretty, and their reputation could stand some public relations work. But they can still provide a wealth of angling fun, and who cares if they are uglier than sin. Fried catfish is great, and that is my last convincing argument for tackling these whiskered game fish with a face that only a mother could love.
Carp have developed a following on many inland lakes and bays off the Great Lakes. A booming fishery exists among fly rod fishermen on Grand Traverse Bay, and right now is the hot time while carp schools are in the shallows.
Anglers use dark-colored nymphs to fish for carp. These fish are much warier than many anglers believe, and accuracy while casting is important. Anglers try to cast just to one side of the fish's head, and twitch the fly along bottom slowly. Cast in front of the fish, and often the carp appear not to see the offering.
Polarized sunglasses are useful to cut the glare, and anglers must stalk slowly and noiselessly within casting distance. This is flats-type fishing, and some anglers who wax poetic call these carp "golden bonefish." That may be a stretch, but once hooked, then is no stopping a big carp. It just keeps running out line, and the angler that doesn't have at least 100 yards of 20-pound backing on their reel may lose the backing, fly line, leader and fly.
Some anglers come to the Traverse City area in early to mid-May just to hook carp on a fly rod. Whoever would have guessed, 30 years ago, that these fish would attract so much attention. Don't believe it: give it a try and see. A big carp on a fly rod is everything that most anglers want to handle.
Sidebar
Where to catch carp and catfish: Try the Kalamazoo River and Kilowatt Lake in Allegan County; St. Joseph River below Berrien Springs Dam in Berrien County; Saginaw Bay; Union Lake in Branch County; Grand and Maple rivers and Jordon and Morrison lakes in Ionia County; Skegemog Lake in Kalkaska County; Grand and Thornapple rivers and Big Crooked or Big Pine Isle lakes in Kent County; Grand River (Petty's Bayou), Spring Lake, Lake Macatawa and Crockery Creek in Ottawa County; Looking Glass and Maple rivers in Clinton County; Secord, Smallwood, Wiggins and Wixom lakes plus the Tittabawassee and Tobacco rivers in Gladwin County; AuSable River mouth in Iosco County; Sanford and Wixom lakes in Midland County; Lake St. Clair, Lake Erie, and the Black River in St. Clair County; the Huron Ponds in Washtenaw County; the Detroit River and Belleville Lake in Wayne County; and Loon and Platte lakes in Benzie County.
