it appears to be of the species of catfish called, DINK catfish........I never catch this species but I have heard many stories of others landing them. 




White Catfish
Ameiurus catus
(A.K.A. - Mudcats, Cats)

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Key Distinguishing Markings:
•White catfish are members of the bullhead catfish family, Ictaluridae.
•White catfish are the smallest of the large North American catfish species.
•The White catfish has white chin barbells, which distinguish it from other species. There are four pairs of barbels ("whiskers") around the mouth, two on the chin, one at the angle of the mouth, and one behind the nostril.
•White catfish lack scales and possess an adipose fin, as well as a single, often serrated spine in the dorsal and pectoral fins.
•White catfish are bluish-gray on their back and sides and white underneath. Their tail is moderately forked and they have a noticeably broad head, large mouth and stout body and are smaller in size than channel catfish.
Size:
•White catfish rarely exceed 6 pounds and 24 inches long. Average size is about 13 inches.

if we had a watermelon eating contest my lil 'princess who hunts' as she calls herself would have won hands down. She ate half of the watermelon by herself saturday.....literally.........

thanks man, been awhile..........had to get the twins up to speed on fishing and listening to directions.

This was their first overnight trip on the boat but about their 30th time fishing so we are making progress. We mastered bluegills, pond catfish up to 12lbs and mountain trout with powerbait. Now onto catching real fish, channel cats!

A couple more years and we can return to fishing the derby hardcore 3 days non stop regardless of weather and stuff and not break the top 15.........lol

Here is a pic of my son Joe with his winning family derby fish of the night.........he fought his sleep to stay up until he caught this one then he was able to go to sleep 5 minutes later........lol
 

With the water level so high the water temps have not warmed up enough yet but warm weather is coming so good news.

with pics this time

Got the boat all ready Friday after work to leave Saturday, I was about to hitch up when I noticed the ball spun easily in the drop hitch?? So I checked and the nut was loose, ok yeah both me and the nut for the ball. So tightened that up. Got up to Clear Lake and paid the quagga tax. Turns out my last sticker was May/Blue in color. I had not been to Clear in 2 seasons and now the new sticker is May/Blue again but I paid it anyway didn't want any bad juju going.

We got on the water at 130pm. Noted lots of algae floating suspended in the water from rice to marble size balls of it. We drifted from 130 to 5pm across Bass Alley each time moving in until we completed it with our Jago Bay Drift. We were trying triple shad head hooked. One strike but not hook up.

We had enough of that and moved up into the creek at Ken's old spot, tied off offshore with rods tossed out into the open water and some laterally back into the shade. Not a touch, fishing mackerel and shad.

Moved to take the dog to pee then relocated back into Catfish Ben's old spot. Fished mackerel and shad then this happened. Had another strong take down then a couple nibbles, wife lost one then son who had stayed up to win our fishing derby caught this one. Top Prize was a bag of skittles since my daughter ate all of the watermelon earlier for dinner instead of saving it for dessert.......

We switched over to our tactical stealth fishing method only to have 3 lines broke off on take downs, dint ask me how, 2 of them had 50lb spider line and the 3rd had 25lb new spider line on them. The knots were still tied it broke off at the hook on 2 of them, guess that old stuff was just done but the new line go figure.

Water looked muddy brown and was very high. Weather was beautiful.
What an awesome lake. Wish there was a business I could pay to safely store or berth my boat there all summer long. Man I would be up there non stop fishing.......Oh well Tball begins next week, will try to make it up one more weekend before June.

We are fishing for cats this weekend in the south end. Our kids first trip to Clear Lake and first time sleeping on the boat overnight. We are moving up from the local pond circuit and back onto the big water for some catfish and carp training.

I will post up our report on Sunday or Monday, really excited, been a couple years since I have fished without sleeping 

nice pic, thanks for sharing......

thanks for posting the winner results so quickly. I know after a derby a person can feel beat down after fishing 2 nights in a row and all day.......

Stealth Tactical Hypothermia Prevention Module

I am grateful for the effort Catfish Ed put forth to make this website. Without it I would have never learned how to fish clear lake which I enjoy more than anywhere else.

It was an honor meeting Ed and fishing in the carp derbies he organized. We enjoyed those as well. Ed has contributed greatly to my enjoyment of fishing this last decade and I am indebted to him.

Thanks Ed, I appreciate and will miss you...

Man, we were BLACKOUT TACTICAL fishing.......its a new method we perfected. We all lay down on our sleeping bags pretending to be asleep but secretly watching our fishing rods ready to strike at any moment........very effective for catching the older smarter catfish

 

Not sure on what they have there but I see people along that shoreline every year. I have seen people carry in canoes and launch them there.

you know there is that walk in trail where people bank fish every year from the creek. Its right there where that old bridge crossing used to be in that first leg of the creek.

In a raft you could launch from Redbud, get out in the middle for some drifting in daylight and let the water drift you into the creek. You could deflate the raft and pack it all out on that trail to your rig or get a taxi back to your rig.

Shoot once in the creek you could raft all over that, it is normally reasonably calm then just pack out sunday using the trail.....

yeah trolling motor on clearlake is a NO option....lol

my first year fishing the derby we did it from the Hyde Drift Boat, stayed in there the entire weekend fishing using the trolling motor.....I brought 3 newer batteries. Sunday we woke up and began the drive out of the creek, we got to the open water on our way to the boat dock and the chop began. The chop went from flat to HUGE wind driven waves, we were actually going down into the bottom of them then climbing back out, about halfway to Redbud the last battery gave up the last of its energy and in a drift boat in waves we began spinning....water began crashing over the sides and the boat was filling with water as I was throwing the weekends gear out of the oarsmans seat and digging out the oars as fast I could so I get back in charge of the boats direction as we were about to sink. Once that was done it was only a nice 3hr oar back to the dock heading into the wind......3 strokes forward, 2 strokes back, gain 4ft....repeat and man after not sleeping for a couple nights out fishing that was grueling.....we left the creek at 8am, got to the dock at 12:36....good times, 

Sounds like there was a lot of shut eye going on, fishing kinda soft lately eh?