Catfish
A member caught a flathead catfish in Coffey County off the Neosho River that weighed close to 70 pounds. This particular lease is one of the leases that has been in the Association since it's beginning in 1965. From the late 60's through the early 80's many members caught catfish weighing over 30 pounds and this was a very high demand piece of property. Since the evolution of Bass Masters and the hype for catching big bass began fishing for catfish has been put on the back burner and looked down upon as an unclean aspect of the sport of fishing. We thought we would take this time to look back on the past like looking at old sports cards to see how times have changed and how the focus of the sport of fishing has changed. Another two old catfish success photos from the last great catfish fisherman in the Association, Larry Wise.
Two more ancient catfish photos. Both were caught by accident when our Association owner was evaluating farm ponds before issuing a lease contract.  I went fishing May 26, 27, 30 and June 1 to three different farm ponds. Some of these ponds would have been passed up by anybody in his right mind, but I noticed them during quail/pheasant season and decided to try them. I release all catfish under five pounds and only keep a few bass. The bass that I do keep must be three and a half pounds or larger. In the four days of fishing I kept nine catfish and one bass. Two of the catfish weighed ten pounds! I released twelve catfish that weighed 3-4 plus pounds and three 3 pound bass. I can't tell you how many strikes I missed and I caught several smaller fish of different species. Of course I could tell you a couple of "fish stories" about the ones that got away, but won't do that here.Keep in mind that two of these farm ponds I have never been to before and was surprised at the good luck I had. But what I found to be more enjoyable than the fishing was the solitude and serenity. No noisy boats or personal watercraft, no trash or litter, no other people or fishing pressure. I imagined this is how it might have been 100 years ago.I will send a picture of the two "big ones" as soon as the film is developed, but I wanted to thank you, John, our new secretary and anyone else I missed. Good job, well done. Randy Major, United States Army
Channel Cats on a landowner's farm he took the effort to purchase, stock his ponds and feeds the cats as a hobby to make better fishing for Association members. This is one of our landowners that enjoys members using his land and ponds especially so when youth fishermen are involved. He also allows limited camping again as a youth encouragement activity. On that limited camping note, that addition to the lease contracts is becoming harder to non-existent as landowners increasingly resist that idea so for us to have such an enthusiastic landowner that actually encourages limited camping is a rare thing to gain. This landowner is protective of his land, supports the Association and the lease agreement and checks all who enters his farms. |
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Back in 1982....
