whare are catfish stingers

Top front Dorsal fin, and 2 are located on each side behind gills. Not really a stinger and all. It's a bone-like needle. Bacteria collects on membrane coating the spikes. Ridges in the spikes make it for easy entry into your skin but rough to remove. Personally I think a papercut hurts more.

you better have good cutters for hooks&such! i just let one get me&it went all the way thru barbs on bone, i cut fin off &went to E.R.& they cut it& unhooked each barb. NO FUN. you cant pull it out without severe damage,doc says. been 5 days-cant use finger right, doc said could take a year,BUY SOME GOOD CUTTERS! 51YEARS& I TOOK MY EYE OFF THE BALL.  OUCH

And if you think that`s bad, it CAN get worse. Smaller (generally juvinile) catfish actually are  much more of a  handfull than most people think; the pectrail fin and dorsal fin spines are MUCH sharper in younger fish, as the cats get bigger these spines get blunter and less able to "horn" you. And at the top of the list is one of the smallest of all; the deceptively harmless looking MADTOM. These pint sized runts of the catfish  family are often food for other cats and apparently walleyes LOVE them. Many persons use them for bait, they only get 4-6 " long, HOWEVER they are very slimy and pack an EXTREMELY powerful venom in their spines; getting "horned" while trying to put one on a hook has been said to drop most big men to their knees for quite afew minutes and has even caused "horned" victims to have heart attacks! They are hard to find as bait since most are used as bait by those who catch them. Just don`t remove their slime- the other fish that eat them seem to prefere them with the slime on them. Saw a video showing a fisherman bait hook one thru the roof of the mouth by holding the Madtom`s upper jaw with needlr nose pliers to avoid the hypodermic needle sharp fins. Caught a very nice walleye with it, so probably works. Just make sure you don`t get the pointed end(s)!!

i guess you never had one diagonally clear thru your finger, and had to get it cut out.

Posted By larrysfishingservice on 09 Aug 2010 05:42 AM
i guess you never had one diagonally clear thru your finger, and had to get it cut out.

its to far from my heart&only the good die young. ha ha

Good one Larry! Stepped on one at the Beach, "horned" me thru bottom of foot, no surgery BUT did get badly infected, had to get a series of 3 HD anti biotics over 3 days IN THE @$$! WOW! Caught 23" channle cat in Marina infront of Baitshop on chunk of HOTDOG. 8th cat in 3 days over 4 pds, 15 in the last wk. Think the BB`s (brush blocks)  are attracting all kinds of small bluegill and "grannies" , these in turn are attracting the cats sick to death of eating shad for the last 2 months, only a guess, though. Don`t cats use some cover (snags) as cover to feed on? And forgive the fish stories but saw 2 lines snapped (8 and 12 pd respectively) today, ALSO on...YOU GUESSED IT!

wow! thats great. i been healing up&making pickles&beans&cabbage! kept that figer going& im good enough to go grab another one, what a ya say? gotta get em when they wanna give it up easy!!!!!

Larry, have an interesting spot on CJ that try to fish 2 or 3 times during hot but stable weather; it`s the gravel bar NE of the Marina. It`s 18-24" deep 400-420` offshore. Generally go on out `bout 6PM and stay till after dark. Last yr went out 6PMish with 3 doz night crawlers and 2 doz soft crawls; was back by sundown out of bait. Caught 18 cats and 2 smallies and 3 large bluegills. Had 12 pd  snapped twice, once on the hookset and once during a fight. Area is spotted now with someBB`s  (brushblocks), some have slid down steep underwater slope into 17-22+ fow.  !st break is generally 9-14 fow 15-30` to S. In yrs past sitting in lawn chair have seen some splashes 30- 40` away that looked like a cement block hitting the water- 2 were actually SCARY in the dark. Got the part of me out of the water wet! The summer before Corps of Engineers lowered CJ to build new Main Boat Ramp (2005?) 68 lb flathead caught there at night. There is a large underwater spring just to the SW of the far bouy. 80- 100` 32 fow. Will be going out there Aug 28th. Interested?

have to check schedule&stuff, yea your right some catfish use cover to feed on. get back with me on that in case i have a brain fart!

Roger that. Will have leaches and soft crayfish. Would suggest bringing 1 STOUT pole and 40+ lb line. Over a couple of decades have seen that spot near the spring produce SEVERAL larger cats. Same placed produced 68 lb flathead in 2004? (summer before Corps lowered CJ 13` 9" to construct new Main Boat Ramp) Lawn chair strongly advised.

hea lowell, ever use punkinseeds or gills for flatheads? [ alive]

hea lowell, ever use punkinseeds or gills for flatheads? [ alive]

hea lowell, ever use punkinseeds or gills for flatheads? [ alive]

Why, yes Larry, now that you mention it, have used them. Actually, the gentleman who hooked the "big" cat (shovelhead) said used a whole dying shad `bout 10" long, believe he said put a 2" trible hook in it`s nose and another on it`s tail under a large bobber and 1/2 oz of lead 15fow and put it in plume of spring and sat back and waited for sundown;  Less than 1/2 hr he started a 35 min fight, got tired smoked a cigerette while his buddy wrestled it and then finally landed it, said line was badly frayed from fighting "big" cat over 1st break, it goes from 18" to 10+fow 15` out. Probably explains alot of snap offs.  Can`t wait, was inviting 2 other "believers" on out too. You DON`T HAVE to be CRAZY, but it`s nice to have company! (and  WITNESSES!)

you got that right!!!!

lowell- icant make it tonite,sorry

No problem, sir, had a work scheadule change myself. Still want to get out there next wk sometime. It`s a great spot if the weather is good. More later.

Larry, will shoot for Sept 11 or 18, depending on weather- need calm warm evening with warm lake water. More later.