posted by Gary on Jul 6

We started the week out in Charleston South Carolina, I went  down to the pier at Folly Beach. There were plenty of black tip sharks to go around. Those little guys were attacking people baits. One fishermen managed to catch a nice 7 pound black drum amid all the shark attacks.

Later in the week me and 2 friends went to one of my favorite fishing spots, Santee Cooper, to fish for catfish. We arrived at Goat Island around 8:30 pm and caught a quick cheeseburger at the Goat Island Restaurant. After that we loaded the pontoon and headed out for the night. The fish were really biting slow, the water temp in the coves was 90 degrees .

We tried a few spots with no success the moved over near the old river bed and anchored up for the night. 
Around 2:00 am we had a hit on a large live 10″ gizzard shad, he hit it hard. After Brandon battled the beast in the dark we got a glimpse of him before he dove again, it was a blue catfish and it looked like a nice one. When he landed it ,we weighed it at just over 30 pounds, a very nice blue catfish and Brandon’s first over 10 pounds. Upon inspecting the blue while removing the hook we could see some serious damage on the inside of this fishes mouth, its mouth had a large wound and the body had several line scrapes. This is indicative of escaping from a trot line. After pictures we looked it over and made the decision that the fish would survive and released him back into the lake to grow and be caught another day.

Gone Fishin Club member Brandon Kohler with a nice 30 pound blue catfish.

I always encourage releasing catfish over 20 pounds unless they have been hooked in a life threatening manner or in this fishes case had other wounds, make a good evaluation and if it is doubtful that the fish will survive by al means take the fish otherwise let him go and grow.

Around 2:45 we had our next bite on a live 3″ bream, it was a solid hook up and the line was running off the spool. Tonia picked up the rod and started trying to turn the fish as she started cranking down on the reel. We scrambled to get the other lines out of the way or out of the water as she drew the big fish closer to the boat. Finally when the fish was landed we got to see the nice flathead. It weighed in at 22 pounds and after pictures we put it back also.

Gone Fishin Club Member Tonia Harbin holds a 22 pound flathead.

Time for a quick nap and at 3:30 another rod went down, I reeled in the 17 pound flathead, took pics and released him back to grow up.

Gary Turner with a nice 17 pound Flathead Catfish.

We caught several more fish that night, including another 20 pound flathead Tonia caught and a 9 pound gar that I caught just after sunrise, that wrapped up 5 lines and made a real mess of things.

Tonia Harbin with another good 20 pound flathead catfish.

We had a great time catching catfish on Santee Cooper in June even if it was pretty hot.

I’m looking forward to going to Santee again in July.  Look for Gone Fishin Club’s Video’s on YouTube or click here  to go there now.

Have Fun Fishing!!!  Gary

posted by Gary on Jun 25

Chris Rolph with his Ohio Record Blue Catfish.

Now that is a pretty Catfish, 96 pounds of blue catfish to be exact. How would you like to feel the tug on you line when you set the hook on that guy!

This fish is the new state record Blue Catfish for Ohio, it has been certified by the Outdoor Writers of Ohio State Record Fish Committee.

Chris Rolph, of Williamsburg, was fishing for catfish from a boat on the Ohio River near Cincinnati in the early morning hours of Thursday, June 11, when he hooked and landed a 54-1/2 inch blue catfish with a 36 inch girth weighing 96 pounds.

Upon landing the fish after a 30 minute battle, his fishing partner that night, Jon Owens, of Amelia, knew they had just boated a new state record catfish and the pair immediately headed back to Schmidt Field ramp from where they had launched. Later that morning Rolph, who kept the fish alive in a large aerated stock tank, had the fish weighed on certified scales at Bethel Feed and Supply.

Rolph’s record blue catfish was caught using cut skip jack for bait at approximately 12:45 a.m. Together the fishermen caught five small catfish before hooking the state record.

Rolph wanted to release the fish unharmed, therefore special arrangements were made to have the fish examined and photographed that morning by the chairman of the OWO State Record Fish Committee. Afterwards the record blue catfish was safely released into a large farm pond.

Rolph’s blue catfish replaces the previous record held by Keith Setty from Lynchburg, who caught a 57 pound, 3.2 ounce blue catfish from the tailwaters of Meldahl Dam on the Ohio River.

Joint studies conducted by the Ohio Division of Wildlife and Kentucky Fish and Wildlife found blue catfish populations in the lower Ohio River were substantial enough to warrant down listing the species from “endangered” to species of special concern.

Down listing the blue catfish opened up sport fishing opportunities for anglers on the Ohio River, resulting in the fish being added to the state record fish list by the Outdoor Writers of Ohio in 2008.

Ohio Division of Wildlife fisheries biologist Doug Maloney, at Wildlife District Five, identified Rolph’s catch as a blue catfish. Blue catfish is the largest growing catfish in the Ohio River often weighing in excess of 100 pounds. The Kentucky state record blue catfish is 104 pounds and was also caught from the Ohio River.

Ohio state record fish are certified by the Outdoor Writers of Ohio State Record Fish Committee. Assisting in the process is fisheries biologist with the Ohio Division of Wildlife.

Who will catch the next record fish? How big will it be, there are some giant catfish out there, it’s just a matter of being prepared when the oppurtunity hits. Good Luck and Tight Lines, Gary

posted by Gary on Jun 21

OK, I know this report is out of order but I am backtracking to cover this week. I spent the week at an FFA camp in Georgia with 576 middle school and high school students. It was really hot but we had a great time. There are 2 lakes at this camp. One is very large with all kinds of fish and the other is a couple of acre catfish-bream pond with a few bass. My mission at camp is to get these kids fishing. Several students with us are Gone Fishin Club members and love to fish. I drive my van loaded with rods and reels, breambusters, tackle boxes full of hooks, weights, lines etc. so everybody can fish. We have people who fish all the time to kids who have never caught a fish here. Most have caught small fish before but not 4 or 5 pound catfish. I’ts really challenging and fun to coach these kids on how catch these fish. First I start most of them off catching bream for our bait supply. After they have caught a few bream we let them put out a catfish rod with a 2-4″ bream under a 2″ float. Now they are watching that float bob around, then the bobber starts moving a little faster. As it is gaining speed I tell them to start taking up the slack and tighten up the line to the bobber. When the bobber plunges and dissapears I pull back hard on the rod, you should see their faces when that fish pulls the rod back forward. Then they get that face of determination as they start wrestling in the fish. Two middle school girls formed a teanm to gang up on the fish, whenever one would hook one the other would get down close to the waters edge to yank it out of the water as it came close. This camp was about leadership but I think thses kids learned some good team work skills too.

How many fish did we catch, wow!

Monday we caught some really nice big bream, maybe 15, and a good cats, maybe 5 or 6.

Tuesday we caught 30 or 40 small to medium bream and 25 – 30 good cats.

Wednesday was the day, we caught 70-80 bream and hammered the catfish, 30 plus good one with 10 or so 3-5 pounders.

Thursday was slow in the morning, live bream for bait wasn’t working, one kid switched to cut bait and caught about 7 before lunch. We had one student in a wheelchair come down to the lake. I set him up on breambuster and he caught several bream, then we put him on some stinkbait and he caught his first catfish.
He had to leave before the bigger ones started biting but he was happy with his first catfish. By Thursday 2 of the kids who were fishing earlier in the week had stepped up and were helping me bait hooks, remove fish, and untangle lines. So their was some leadership training at the lake after all. I know unhooking fish may seem elementary but last year I had a kid who said he knew how to unhook a catfish and the next thing I knew he had a fin stuck all the way through his hand.
I had to cut it off and pull it through because these fins are barbed like fish hooks and don’t go backwards easily.

After lunch we moved to the sunny side of the lake and things picked up, the bigger catfish were nailing the bream live or cut it didn’t matter. We would hook bait up, cast it out and try to hand it to somebody before the fish hit, it was awesome! Also by Thursday we had most of these kids casting their own rigs, now you are thinking big deal right. Well these bream rigs were set at 7-8′ deep so your bobber was at the rod tip and if you are a 5′ tall girl your bream is laying on the ground waiting for take-off, so yes I was proud when some of these kids casted better than me in 4 days.

Friday we got up early and headed back home, passing the catfish hole on our departure. All in all we had a great week and a great time at FFA-FCCLA camp.

Oh, did I mention that we also built a 10′ long john boat out of cardboard and 2 rolls of duct tape and three kids paddled it around the lake, hmm, it was fun!

Looking for something to do, take a kid fishing!!!

Hope you enjoyed my recount of camp. Tight Lines, Gary

posted by Gary on Jun 21

Well I managed to squeeze a little fishing time in this week.

Monday I went to a little private pond to see if the catfish were biting. Tried the catawba worms and got a few nibbles but no real strikes. Tried the bream and caught a few small ones on my breambuster pole, they were biting slow too, it was like 91 degrees. Hooked one catfish around 4 pounds on my breambuster when I was trying to catch a bream, I played him a little and tried to bank him but he straightened the hook and got off. Note here: I normally use nothing but Gamakatsu hooks but I love the size 10 hooks for small breaming and can’t find a U.S. source for these #10 G09205 Aberdeen hooks or the size 12 G09204 Aberdeen hooks. If anyone knows where I can order these please let me know, this other brand of hooks just ain’t no Gamakatsu.Tried the small bream live hooked and got 2 cats under the dock then cast out a bream head and the catfish finally came to life a little. Caught 5 good eating size catfish and we caled it a morning and headed for a late lunch.

Tuesday I took my daughter and wife and we went to a local public lake to catch some bream. We went around 7:30 as they are usualy biting in the late afternoon. They were biting slow too. My daughter managed to find a spot of small to medium bream and caught 7 or 8. My wife caught a couple and between baiting hooks, removing fish and replacing line on the breambusters I caught a total of 1/2. A half you say??? Well, while I was baiting another hook I asked my daughter to hold both rods and she hooked a fish on my rod, in our family you get a half fish credit if it’s on your rod.

Friday it was a scorcher, at 97 degrees here it was really hot! At around 6:30 my buddy and I decided to try a little pond and see if they were biting, armed with my usual breambuster, red wigglers and a tube of crickets we headed for the lake. When we arrived it was pretty grown up. As I approached the dock a large moccasin was laying there, he went off into the bushes and after making lots of noise we stepped onto the dock. I found the bream anxious to bite, one after they other they hit the crickets. After I caught over 50 nice bream and my buddy caught several bass we decided to get out of there before it got dark. I made it home in time to go see X-Men Origins: Wolverine with the family.

Some friends of mine fishing in Canada did very good this week on the pike also.

Look for next weeks report, I hope to get in a little salt water and Santee fishing next week.

Tight Lines,
Gary

posted by Gary on Apr 16

posted by Gary on Feb 17

posted by Gary on Feb 16

This is Gone Fishin Club members Gary Turner, Stacy Fleming, Tommy Bowen and Capt. Dewayne Proffit catching blue catfish on the Santee Cooper Resevoir in January.

Hope you enjoy our video and Happy Fishin’, Gary

posted by Gary on Feb 13

I love fishing for catfish! I fish Santee Cooper in South Carolina a good bit.

My favorites baits are as follows:

For Channel cats I prefer to use my homemade concoctions or Magic Baits night crawler flavor.

For Blues I like cut bait- gizzard shad, threadfin shad and eel. Cut into small to good size chunks depending on your quarry. You can also slice the sides to give more scent.

Gone Fishin Club Member Gary Turner with a Nice Flathead Catfish

For Flatheads I only use live baits, I prefer large live baits when I can get them. Check your state regs to make sure what is legal in your state.

Large flatheads will eat other fish up to 10 pounds. So if you think your bait is to big, think again. The Best baits are always indigenous to the waters you are fishing. Gizzard shad, theadfin shad, yellow perch, bream, crappie, catfish, white perch, suckers, and eels all make great flathead baits.

For more information on Catfishing check out Catfishing Products

Happy Catfishing Gary Turner

posted by Gary on Jan 30

Check out this video I found on youtube a few seconds ago. I like it, you’ll see why!

This guy is young but he is very smart and really has this youtube thing figured out. You can see his other videos by looking for fishboy1212 at youtube, he has lots of fishing videos.
Tight— Lines and Happy Hookin, Gary

posted by Gary on Jan 26

Catfish Chili is a hit, well kinda. It’s a story, isn’t it always. The chili was coming along great, smelled great, tasted great – we had a constant stream of testers coming through – all seemed to be going great. I decided to cook the chili at the High School where the event was being held. I was in charge of part of this event since I am President of the Alumni. I was overseeing the setup and move-in of the teams while everybody else was busy doing other thing.

The chili was all done and just simmering on low while I worked on other things. Well if any of you have high school kids or know any, you know sometimes they do stuff and all you can say is What? Why?  One of the students tasted the chili and decided it tasted to “tomato-ey”. He looked around and found my spice bottles and proceeded to add a little more chili powder–”a little” is a relative term with high school kids. He dumped in a pile, maybe 6 tablespoons. Needless to say my chili was HOT! It was still good, but after you swallowed, well, IT WAS HOT.

I did manage to win the “Hottest Chili Award”, so not all was lost.  My chili cook-off partner and fellow Gone Fishin’ Club member, Chuck Neuschafer, won “Best Chili in Town”. We had our booth decorated with fishing poles and my laptop with Gone Fishin’ Club pics playing in a slideshow.

If you have some fish and want to try the “Award Winning Catfish Chili” recipe, look in the previous posts. We had a great chili cook-off, and the FFA Alumni raised money for our FFA Chapter, so it’s all good.  Try the recipe and tell us how you like it.

Thanks Gary

Come back again to see what we’re catchin and cookin up!