Fishing in farm ponds

[loc n load]

I have been fishing for 65 years, it is the companion outdoor activity to my hunting. Over the years I have fished all over the country: oceans, lakes, streams, reservoirs and ponds.
When I retired I bought some property that has a 1 acre pond.
I fish it every week, it is full of bass, bluegill & channel catfish that I stock periodically.
Yesterday while fishing in my 8 ft Jon boat, my fishing partner hooked this behemoth. It took us an hour to wear it down and get it up to the surface alongside the boat.
My fishing partner and I always have an informal contest of who catches the most fish. When she battled this one to the surface, I said "okay, you win".
A. My dip net was not nearly big enough to even try to boat this monster.
B. The fish is 4ft long & weighs 55 lbs, I was afraid we would swamp the boat and end up in the water.
So we beached the boat, I got into the water and hogged this fish up onto the bank.
It is a flathead catfish. Not something you see normally find in a farm pond, they are typically river & reservoir fish. My cousin told me later that he & an Uncle of mine had put a half dozen 10-12" flatheads caught in the Eel River in this pond around 85.
After the photo's I drug him back out into the pond and he swam back into the depths.

 

[THE PILGRIM]

Have caught a lot of fish in a bunch of Ponds.
But never caught one that Big!

 

[Onomea]

Holy moly! Thassa bigun!

 

[Rudi]

Monster fish! We got some ducks off my old buddy's farm pond.

 

[Rule3]

Nice fish
When they get that size are they not good to eat??. Full of worms or whatever?. In an enclosed pond" like yours even though it is big, do the large catfish like that upset the balance of the other fish like Bass and Bluegill? Fish inshore salt water, catfish are a menace hate those slimy things plus they will barb you. It is a nasty barb ! Do flatheads have barbs?

 

[loc n load]

Rule 3

They are perfectly good to eat. They make fine fish steaks. I was not in a position to transport & clean a 55lb fish.
That pond is full of fish. So that fish's presence has not had much detrimental effect on the fish population.
Catfish do have barbs, and they can be dangerous. Over the years I have been "horned" several times. On normal size catfish, I wrap them in a terry cloth towel, so that I can handle them safely. This catfish is a channel cat.

 

[SMSgt]

Some TN cousins took me fishing below a dam on some river. We hooked some monster fish that we could never get to the surface despite heavy fishing gear. They assume they are the monster catfish you always hear about. You pull; they pull back harder. The line always cried uncle first.

 

[LVSteve]

The little ponds I fished in England wouldn't support a monster like that. In our ponds it was Roach, the closely related Rudd, Bleak (tiddler), and the elusive Tench. It was all catch and release, sometimes into different ponds to spread the wealth.

 

[Rule3]

They are perfectly good to eat. They make fine fish steaks. I was not in a position to transport & clean a 55lb fish.
That pond is full of fish. So that fish's presence has not had much detrimental effect on the fish population.
Catfish do have barbs, and they can be dangerous. Over the years I have been "horned" several times. On normal size catfish, I wrap them in a terry cloth towel, so that I can handle them safely. This catfish is a channel cat.

I like fresh water cat fish breaded in cornmeal.





We have the Sail Catfish. They are strong fighters!

 

[StrawHat]

If the fish in the first post is 48" (4') long, how tall is that angler? Sounds like a fish story to me!

Kevin

 

[m75rlg]

Here are a cople my grandson caught in my brother-in-law's pond a few years ago.

 

[loc n load]

Nice fish, that is a huge bass!

 

[Rustyt1953]

JR last year with his first Shovelhead.

 

[loc n load]

Rule 3

We coat our catfish in beer batter, then drop it in the deep fryer. Delicious.
Catfish are battler's. We had two adults and gear in a 8 ft boat with two anchors down in sticky clay and we were being drug around.
The fish was caught on 10lb mono, a homemade 3 hook crawler harness & a big fat juicy night crawler.
That Sail Catfish is a beauty!

 

[Nevada Ed]

Flatheads canget very big but I think the river "Blue's" top out in the 80-90 class?

In Oklahoma, at a 100ft square pond, we would catch 24" channel cats for that nights meal.
Open a jar of stink bait and put some on the hook with a stick, and wait ten minutes.
We always left the stick behind and tossed the damp rag in the trash can,
that we wiped or hands with, when we left the property.

A great summer meal, with cold water mellon.

 

[THE PILGRIM]

'There's more than one way to skin a cat.'
The only Cats I ever skinned were Catfish's.
We ran bailing wire through the gills, made a cut all the way around the head, hung it on a nail in a tree.
Then skinned with 2 pair of pliers.

 

[tinkerer]

"Noodlers" in the Land Between the Lakes region catch 40-50#'s quite regularly.

Have only seen one that big from a 'farm' pond when I was a kid. Was a pay lake at one time.

 

[mtgianni]

That is a nice fish. You also need to consider that she is probably eating your stocked fish, when you return it to the pond.

 

[fleabus101]

Now you have me wanting to go by Riverfront Restuarant and get a big catfish plate with hushpuppies and slaw !! Great Job on the Cat !!

 

[Alton]

That is a nice fish. You also need to consider that she is probably eating your stocked fish, when you return it to the pond.

When I was younger my dads boss had an irrigation pond stocked with channel cats. They went fishing to the river and caught two pretty good sized yellow cats/flat heads, didn't have time to clean them so they chunked them both into the pond. After a few years they couldn't catch anything from the pond so he drained it. One very large yellow cat remained. One year we had a trot line strung out in a river. Dad noticed about 11 o'clock it was tugging pretty good. So him and my brother jumped in the boat and paddled out to where it felt like a monster was on. After several minutes he was able to get the monster to the top of the water where it then slid off and back into the water. You see a 15 lb yellow cat got hooked first so I guess the big guy thought it was an easy meal. Yea you should of ate the yellow cat, glad you had fun catching it