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Thanks guys!

Went hog hunting last weekend with thermal. Hogs were not cooperating.

So, I tried to call in some some coyotes... They weren't cooperating either.

But a bobcat came charging in. :)

Merry Christmas Guys!

:)

Paul, saw your pic on FB...

What a beast! Some good eatin' right there! :)

Buster sends his eater greetings :)



I think he was about 5 years old then.

You done good!

You will also be VERY glad it has a front end loader. You'll use it much more than you think you will! :)

I need to build a new shooting table!

My target backstop was getting ratty, so I redid it the other day...

Guess I ought to get busy with that table.

Target stand.

Got one boar..

Better than nothing though.

Sounder spooked because I had reset the game camera there, and threw out some corn to hold them. Just settled in with Bandit when they came in. Sows must have smelled me where they were, and bolted.

Couple of boars had just come through the woods into the clearing and froze when the sows ran.

I took a crippled boar at 150 yards. Only shot I got.



Bum leg on the boar.



That sounder's gonna be spooky now. (Spookier....)

:D

Going out to where this was going on to see how many I can get with my .308 AR10..





Due to the bumper crop of acorns this past winter, the hogs have been in the deep woods, and didn't even come out.

Until now that is.

It looks like I have to play catch up!

Paul, I'm right there with you on the non-native species stuff.

I've seen a ton of it.

There is an increasing willingness to "play God" withing both state and federal wildlife agencies as well.

Many times those screaming for it loudest are radicalized environmentalists now in higher positions of authority in those agencies. They get those positions because the ones with common sense are getting old/retiring.

In my opinion, non native species should be treated as non game and have no bag limits and no seasons. Even then, you may not put even a small dent in them. Look at the hog situation...

So what species of fish are they? What do you fish for them with, bait of some kind?

Marcus

I have caught them on wieners, and this time I used Gulp shad/blood catfish bait chunks with a 1/0 Eagle Claw hook.


Seems like they bit better on the Gulp bait this time.

My buddy weighed the big one. It weighed a shade under 30 pounds on the scale when he got it home. :)

Those are "channel" catfish - Ictalurus punctatus. There is a similar species, the "blue" catfish (I. furcatus I counted the rays in the a-nal fin, and the number is consistent with I. punctatus.

"Bait" - as opposed to "lures" - is the most common bait used when fishing for catfish. "Back in the old days", making one's own "stink bait" for catfishin' was considered an 'art', and recipes were fiercely guarded. Most stink baits had some form of dough coupled with chicken "guts" of some sort - like livers, hearts or intestines - all of which was allowed to ferment for some "secret" interval of time. Of course there were MANY 'variations on a theme'. The BEST bait for big cats, NOT in farm tanks, is a  live bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus) or any other member of the Lepomis genus. It is a commonly held belief that catfish are "bottom feeders". This myth came about because they are willing to eat stuff like chicken livers and other 'offal'. In fact, they are just REALLY good at "smelling" stuff, and are WILLING to eat that stuff. Be that as it may, they are VORACIOUS PREDATORS, and their PREFERRED food is other live fish, like L. macrochirus, etc.

Some people don't like to eat them because they don't have scales, and the Bible (Leviticus) admonishes THE JEWS from eating fish without scales. Personally, I consider them one of the best-tasting of all fresh-water fish, second only to crappie (Pomoxis sp.).

The fish in the above pictures are EXTRAORDINARY examples of channel catfish.

Paul

I stocked that pond with 250 hybrid catfish.

The hybrids are a cross between channel cats and blue cats. They are supposed to be sterile... BUT... They are not.

The idea is to control your fish population by having them not breed. But they do...

I had a virgin pond with no fish in it at all.  Stocked the 250 catfish, 500 bluegills, and a bunch of fathead minnows.

The bluegills bred like all get out. I was getting all sizes. The big ones were getting close to a pound. Had a BUNCH of them. Until those catfish got to the size they did. I can't even prove I have a single bluegill in that pond now.

I think those catfish ate them all.

Looking at that stringer, you can see smaller catfish... Those had to have come from breeding. I called the hatchery and asked them again about the sterility.. They told me that are not supposed to breed, but they have seen where they will indeed breed sometimes.

I feed the fish in there as well. Guess the catfish just were needing some fresh meat.

Paul, those offspring do indeed look more like channel cats than hybrids.

Jamie, I have plenty of firewood! (especially after that hurricane blew over)

Do all my outdoor cooking on a real grill. :)

Paul, I sent those fish home with my buddy. I need to go catch a few more anyway.

Had to thin the herd some in my stock tank.

Really needed at least twice as many caught, but they were slow biting yesterday.

Buddy and I landed 10 anyway...



Smallest was about 8 pounds. Biggest was over 20 pounds.



No way the two of us could pick up that stringer. It weighed well over 100 pounds.

Broke one good rod, and lost two big ones due to 40lb test braid knot coming undone. (I have since learned the palomar knot for braided line..

Sure hope things keep going your way, Farmboy!

I hear ya on the thinners..

Doing what I do with heavy machinery and sharp stuff, I worry about that a bit.

I sure carry a close at hand first aid kit, which contains lots of the blood stopper stuff.
Paul, I bruise easily now too.