Switching Things Up: Thanksgiving Catfishing For Giants
Elise and I headed up to her parents house on Lake Norman in North Carolina for Thanksgiving a couple weeks back, and while we were there I got to do some of my favorite type of fishing in the world: catfishing. I like to switch things up from time to time and catfishing can be some of the laziest fishing you've ever done, just set it and forget it. We got in on Tuesday afternoon before Thanksgiving and the fish in this video were all caught within the first few hours of us arriving to the lake.
I caught 2 giants just after dark including my PB flathead which measured in at 36 inches! I'm sorry for how dark the video is at some points, I was wearing a head lamp but it's pretty narrow and doesn't provide that much light for my GoPro. Next time I fish at night I plan on setting up some lights in advance to make the video quality a little better.
Now while the video quality wasn't great, the quality of fish I caught this first night sure was. I hope you enjoy and please let me know what you think of this type of bank / dock catfishing and bank fishing in general just to mix up the types of videos I'm putting out.
I set out with the goal of redeeming myself going after sheepshead with lures and that quickly went out the window when I saw how low the water was. I switched to fiddler crabs on a Sheep Sticker jig and very quickly hooked into a few big fish. And then just like that the bite died down for a while. It finally turned back on just in time for me to catch the big fish of the day in a really unbelievably lucky way. I honestly couldn't believe how big this fish was and that it didn't break me off. What made it even more insane is that I use braid fishing line which cuts like thread... I can't explain it short of being especially lucky on this day.
I hope you all enjoyed the video, have a great weekend and remember to make some time for fishing!
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The weather has been tough for fishing recently but I managed to get out on a less windy day for a few hours on this trip. I got lucky and I actually got on a great sheepshead bite, which can be pretty rare to find fishing inshore in the winter. Many of the larger fish head offshore to the reefs when the water temperature gets cold in the creeks, but there's still plenty of great fishing opportunities in the winter if you know where to look!
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This was my first trip back out in the kayak after a busy couple of weeks so it felt great to get on a solid, big sheepshead bite even in the middle of the summertime heat. I was fishing docks as usual but I was finding fish in areas I don't often find them which was interesting and I think I learned quite a bit on this trip. The bait of choice was mud crabs on a sheep sticker jig as usual. I also had the opportunity to try out and give my honest review on the new KastKing Legend II 3000 series spinning reel. This video is NOT sponsored by KastKing, they just sent me the reel in hopes I would give my honest feedback.
After testing the reel out on a few big fish I can say it passes my initial stress tests and seems to be a solid budget reel at a very inexpensive $35 (currently). I like to think it will stand up to long-term abuse well for the money as other reels I've bought from KastKing in the past have been put through a lot and are all still kicking. However, only time will tell how it's going to hold up long-term but I will do my best to keep you guys posted if you're interested.
This was meant to be a comfortable trip for me to get my groove back and get the deck of my kayak a little slimey. Thank you all for watching and remember to make some time for fishing, I'll see you next time. Stay safe out there!
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I spent another morning out on the Folly River searching for some big fish. I explored a ton of docks along the way but ended up back at my new sheepshead honey hole and it did not disappoint. I caught a few good fish on the Sheep Sticker jigs from Bellaire Jigs, but the bite completely stopped with slack tide. Once the tide flipped over I got on a really high quality bite and caught a bunch of big fish in a short amount of time. Bait of choice was halves of mud crabs fished on a light split shot rig.
I hadn't planned on keeping fish that day, but whenever I catch a keeper while fishing near somebody else I always ask if they're keeping. The people on this boat said they were hoping to keep a fish each so I broke out the stringer just in case and I'm glad I did!
Thank you all for watching and have a great day, remember to make some time for fishing!
Check out the Sheep Sticker jigs and the other jigs I use at Bellaire Jigs (use code MT4F10 for 10% off your order):
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In this video I ventured far outside of my comfort zone and spent over a week fly fishing the Maine coastline searching for one of the most popular game fish in the world: Striped Bass. Striper are aggressive, fight hard, and grow to be absolutely giant. The trip started out on an amazingly high note, then very quickly completely fizzled out. I fished hard from the beach, from rocks and cliffs, and of course while wading. Overall, it was an incredible trip and I caught some high quality striper and I can't wait to come back next year and try to do even better!
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TODAY'S GEAR:
Rod: TFO Mangrove Coast 8 wt.
Reel: Sage Spectrum C 7/8 wt.
Line: Scientific Anglers Sonar Titan WF8I
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This is part 2 of my last video where I was fishing on the Folly River in Charleston, South Carolina with live mud crabs for whatever bites. I started out this video with a big surprise catch that put me through the wringer and finish it out with a whole bunch of big, hard fighting sheepshead. All together this made for an awesome and crazy morning of fishing!
The bait of choice was mud crabs either whole or cut in half and the only rig I used all morning was a very light split shot rig. Rod is a 6' MH ugly stick GX2, reel is a Penn Conflict 2 2500 spooled with 15lb braid.
Thanks for watching and remember to make some time for fishing!
Check out the Sheep Sticker jigs and the other jigs I use at Bellaire Jigs (use code MT4F10 for 10% off your order):
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In this episode I launched on the Folly River which was a new area to me that I’d never fished before. The weather was supposed to be great with plenty of sun and light winds so my plan was to explore the area a bit with lures and see what I could find. While I was rigging up my kayak the wind started blowing harder and harder so I made a switch to dock fishing with my short rod and mud crabs. I don’t think I've ever been fishing on the kayak in conditions as rough as these, and with this being new water I was fishing on I was not too thrilled about it. It took me about 45 minutes to find my first fish, but once I did it was game on. I caught a ton of huge sheepshead on this trip (even lost a few along the way) and found a fantastic honey hole I will be revisiting on future trips when the weather is a bit calmer.
I apologize in advance for the audio in this video, it’s not up to my usual standards but I promise you it sounded 10x worse before I cleaned it up. With the native GoPro audio you can’t even hear my voice the wind was blowing so hard! I hope it’s bearable for you to watch and I promise to not force you all to listen to this much wind noise again any time soon (if I can help it)!
Thank you all for watching and have a great day! Remember to make some time for fishing!
Check out the Sheep Sticker jigs and the other jigs I use at Bellaire Jigs (use code MT4F10 for 10% off your order):
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