Catfish on a grub - make that TWO cats

[SenkoSam]

Decent bluegills caught - approx 2 doz. but this you'll find hard to believe - a picture is proof!

First catfish caught in the morning :
[inline "Lake Frederick catfish May 24 2016.jpg"]

second catfish caught in the afternoon on a different bait:

[inline "2nd catfish.jpg"]

[inline "second Lake Frederick catfish.jpg"]


There's no way the same fish was caught twice !!! Was it? The fight for the first fish was at least three minutes; the second a little less and on a different lure (also on my soft plastic creation.)

Last year I had a fish on that gave me the same incredible fight in the same location but it got lost in the shallow weeds and broke the line. Could it have been the same fish?

Freak'n strange to say the least ! At least this time neither fish broke the 6lb test line (if it was two separate fish....) I forgot my scale which would have told the story. (wt. approx.)
Besides that, why do I keep catching catfish on my lures?


The rain held off and the day was nice.
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[wiperhunter2]

Could be the same cat but the one in the first pic looks fatter, hard to tell for sure. Good cat or cats, none the less. Pretty exciting to get a big fish like that in on lite tackle.
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[SenkoSam]

Come to think of it, the second fish was leaner besides which, what are the chances a catfish would attack a lure again on the same day? At least the sunfish were stocky.
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[Stickleback]

I have often wondered how long it takes a fishes drive to eat to recover after loosing a battle with the terrestrial bipeds.

My answer came a few years ago when my sons and I were fishing Strawberry. We were using 3 inch white tube jigs. I had just netted a nice cut. As I released him he swam down and away about about 6 feet when he suddenly made a hard right turn and hit my sons jig only a few feet from the boat. The fish changed its mind before it fully committed but my son and I had a good chuckle over it.

It also bruised our pride a little as we realized our success was a lot less related to our practice and expertise and more to the fact the the fish are just damn hungry.
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[SenkoSam]

I have caught a pickerel twice in the same day and knew it was the same fish because it still had my plastic worm still stuck in it's mouth from three hours ago.

As for a motive to attack lures, I believe fish hit them because lures are an unknown they feel it necessary to attack. Live prey are a biological known locked into their DNA and prone to becoming a meal whereas lures irritate the crap out of fish, forcing it to attack like a bull attacking a matador's waving cape.

If you remember all of the unique lure actions you've caught fish on, you might start to wonder, 'what were they thinking?' Then you might come to the conclusion that fish can no more think than a clam.

To each his own when it comes to why fish strike lures. At least I can now match-the-action needed to get fish to strike rather than match-the-hatch or prey they might be eating that hour or day.
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