June 11, 2001 - The Fish are Biting...
We had lots of rain and very cool temperatures up until about a week ago. The river came down from it's third highest crest in history. Although it started to drop on May 16, it only came down a little and then due to the rains, it came back up and it did that three times. This morning for the first time, it finally dropped below flood stage (17 feet).
Last week, when the river was still about two to three feet above flood stage, my neighbor (Ken) and I decided it was time to try our luck at getting a few "finned" creatures. On Wednesday evening, we put out three trot lines, baited them up with nightcrawlers and checked them the next morning. That morning we got one catfish and one throwaway shad. Not too good, considering there were about 75 hooks out there!
The next morning (Friday), we ran those lines again and got nine catfish. Doesn't sound like too many, but their total live weight was 51 pounds with the largest at seventeen and a half. On Saturday morning, we got 10, with a total weight of 49 pounds. The largest was just under ten pounds.
