Only One Catfish?

For starters I'll should acknowledge that another post about 2016 indeed means that I've not yet been fishing this year. Not good. That should be reconciled by Tuesday at the latest, but for now please endure one more blog about last year.

It struck me today that while last year's fish tally of 38 species is the largest since I began keeping annual lists (five years), it only includes on species of catfish. My job that I began last year does have me fishing mostly with lures, which doesn't lead to as many cat catches, but I normally take one of my children to a catfish pond, slip in a weekend day for big blues, or at least catch a channel cat or a flathead on a bass lure during a year.

The one catfish I did catch, the big topsail catfish that is pictured above, took an artificial lure while I was fishing for redfish in Venice, Louisiana with tournament angler Keith Bird and his son. We actually caught a few cats that day, including both hardheads and sails, and a couple of them even hit topwater lures. I didn't catch any of the hardheads, though.

My smile is all genuine, by the way. I'm a huge fan of catfish, and when I catch one when I am fishing for something else, I'm never even a tiny bit disappointed. I see it as a bonus, like icing on the cake. Slimy icing. I'll admit that (especially with saltwater cats). But icing nevertheless!