Been meaning to post this story for a few months, just haven't had the time.
At any rate about mid-November of last year I went down to a check one of my River eyes spots, water was a tad low, but I thought it could still produce. Got down to the hole right about dark and proceeded to start rigging up my gear, however something immediately caught my attention. It sounded like Smallmouth smacking baitfish on the surface, and it was coming from the base of a riffle that I knew was only maybe 18" deep, max. At first I just thought I was hearing things, because after all it was way to dark for Smallies, and even then area which the noise was coming from was simply too shallow to hold gamefish.
Then I heard it again "SMACK"...SMACK,SMACK.....SMACK!
I said enough is enough, that has to be fish busting, no doubt about it. So I dropped what I was doing and crept up the riffle, step by step, as these fish (whatever they were) were holding in mere inches of water. What followed was one of the coolest things I have ever seen in all my years pounding the River(s).
Channel Catfish, Probably a solid hundred of them, had pinned a massive school of shad right up at the start of the riffle. The Catfish had absolutely inundated every square inch of the river below, essentially blocking every last escape route. Those Cats were in maybe 20" of water, literally lying on top of each other, slurping down shad after shad after shad after shad that came washing down. It was amazing. But it got better.
I decided what the hell, i'll throw my head lamp on, see if I cant spot a monster cat before they all spook. Threw my headlamp on, shined it right on them; They could have cared less, they just kept right on munching! Wondered to myself how close they would allow me to get before they spooked, so I waded out towards them, head lamp blazing and all; they could have cared less!. Finally got right over top of them, (im not kidding, they were in-between my legs), headlamp beaming and all, and they just kept right on slurping down shad! It was absolutely unreal.
Waded throughout the school (of what had to be hundreds of Channels), and every last one acted the same way; they could have cared less about my presence, they had their mind set on one thing...SHAD!
Im guessing they got full after about 30 minutes, and like that they were gone.
By far one of the coolest things i've ever seen
Sorry for the poor picture quality; my Camera was having a fit trying to focus on the fish with all the current.
At any rate about mid-November of last year I went down to a check one of my River eyes spots, water was a tad low, but I thought it could still produce. Got down to the hole right about dark and proceeded to start rigging up my gear, however something immediately caught my attention. It sounded like Smallmouth smacking baitfish on the surface, and it was coming from the base of a riffle that I knew was only maybe 18" deep, max. At first I just thought I was hearing things, because after all it was way to dark for Smallies, and even then area which the noise was coming from was simply too shallow to hold gamefish.
Then I heard it again "SMACK"...SMACK,SMACK.....SMACK!
I said enough is enough, that has to be fish busting, no doubt about it. So I dropped what I was doing and crept up the riffle, step by step, as these fish (whatever they were) were holding in mere inches of water. What followed was one of the coolest things I have ever seen in all my years pounding the River(s).
Channel Catfish, Probably a solid hundred of them, had pinned a massive school of shad right up at the start of the riffle. The Catfish had absolutely inundated every square inch of the river below, essentially blocking every last escape route. Those Cats were in maybe 20" of water, literally lying on top of each other, slurping down shad after shad after shad after shad that came washing down. It was amazing. But it got better.
I decided what the hell, i'll throw my head lamp on, see if I cant spot a monster cat before they all spook. Threw my headlamp on, shined it right on them; They could have cared less, they just kept right on munching! Wondered to myself how close they would allow me to get before they spooked, so I waded out towards them, head lamp blazing and all; they could have cared less!. Finally got right over top of them, (im not kidding, they were in-between my legs), headlamp beaming and all, and they just kept right on slurping down shad! It was absolutely unreal.
Waded throughout the school (of what had to be hundreds of Channels), and every last one acted the same way; they could have cared less about my presence, they had their mind set on one thing...SHAD!
Im guessing they got full after about 30 minutes, and like that they were gone.
By far one of the coolest things i've ever seen
Sorry for the poor picture quality; my Camera was having a fit trying to focus on the fish with all the current.