If you haven’t caught a big catfish on a fly rod you’re missing some great fun.  This one weighed 7 lbs even (according to my fish de-liar anyway) and believe me not many fish fight as determined as they do.  I managed to hook up with this channel cat using a Yum alive black and silver shad.  It looks much like the swimmin minnow that I do so well with and it will remain a part of my fishing arsenal.  The difference between the two is that the swimmin minnow has a ribbon tail and the yum shad has a forked tail.  The yum also is sold wet in packages containing fish attractant.  I sometimes use a spray on attractant on my swimmin minnow when fishing with it is slow.  The scent spray will usually improve my catch rate but now always.  As I mentioned in a previous entry, Larry, my newest fishing buddy, gave me some bead head muddler flies.  They worked well when my swimmin minow did not. 

   I did miss another big fish that went straight into a sunken trees branches. I never did see the fish but it was BIG!  And, by the way, the fly rod I was using, was my new St Croix, 6 weight.  So, you don’t really need an 8 weight to land bigger fish if you have the patience to work the fish in.  I got him to the net three times and each time, except for the last, he made a long dash to get away.  Of course, I release the fish right after taking the picture.

I managed to catch another 25 crappie, including a 13 inch crappie, but most were in the 7-9 inch range.  I also landed 3 nice size bluegill with the swimmin minnow.

Some people ask me, "why don’t you use the swimmin minnow on a jig with a spinning rod"?  Well, if you watch the swimmin minnow or the Yum minnow hooked throughthe lip as you would a live minnow, you will see that it really resembles a wounded minnow.  When fish see it, including channel cat, bass, bluegill and crappie, the see an easy meal, and often as not, go for it.  On a jig the minnow doesn’t have that realistic wounded look.  It really works best when using it on a fly rod and without the weight of the jig. Fish it slowly with several pauses in your retrieve.  If you try spin casting a swimmin minnow or yum without weight is goes nearly nowhere.  It does work on a jig, but in my opinion, not nearly as well.

I’ve also used them (swimmin minnow, yum shad) on a beetle spin type spinner and have had some luck that way too.  Changing tactics is often the key to a successful fishing day.