Some buddies of mine kept asking me to catfish with them this year and I was a bit reluctant. They told me I would not regret it once I hook up with a 30 plus pound blue and that once I did there would be no going back. So after much contemplation I decided to give it a try, I bought some catfish rigs and followed along to see how this would work out.
Before we did anything Paul, Greg, and I hit Lake Benbrook for shad, we froze some in case the they became hard to find. In all we must have accumulated 25 pounds of threadfin and gizzard shad and froze them in lake water.
In early November I took my first trip, a lone trip to Ray Roberts, I really did not know what I was doing I just looked for blues on deep humps and ridges. I found this hump in 26 feet of water and cast out in several directions and steady caught channels and blues for 4-5 hours but nothing phenomenal. But I can say I did not get skunked.
A few weeks after that I went out with my good friend and fishing guide Lane Lutke, not a paid trip but a friends trip. We headed to lake Ray Roberts and he began to show me what he knew. It did not take long to hook our first blue and the fishing was pretty steady for 3-4 hours. The winds were really stiff that day and if went from mildly cold to cold all day. We were able to get a few double digit blues but nothing over 15 pounds. I still learned quite a bit and we did get a mess of blues to bring home.
Lance with the day's tally
Lance's big blues of the day, they were released.
Well I must say after the trip with Lance I was hooked, and surprisingly enough the next week I went out with Paul Rich a buddy of mine I met online. He had been telling me about Lake Tawakoni and how it held huge blues and that, that was where we were going to get our 20 pounder. You see, Paul and I set out goal at a 20 pound blue... Funny how we can set a goal when we have so little control over fishing but we can always narrow the odds and lean them in our favor. We headed out to Twok and it was blowing to 20 mph and even though we could get around the waves were beating us to a pulp. Nonetheless, we managed some decent fish and a bunch of 5-7 pound cats but no monster blues.
I will let Paul chime in on the stringer debacle.
Big fish of the day 15 pound blue.
More later I am off to church.
Sorry for the absence but I have been really busy, however, I am back to post the remaining information for this kitty post. Lance, Paul, Greg and I continued to fish for the remining Winter season and we did fair or I would say good for newbies. We racked up a total of 1/2 dozen or so 30 pound blue cats and I even held a 9 day lake record fo blue catfish at Ray Roberts. In all I learned more than I could possibly eve tought I would learn about Winter catfishing and am eager for next year's season.
One of the good things about Winter catfishing is the absence of boaters on the lake but the grudge of it is the windy and awfully cold spells that are common in North Texas. Nonetheless, here is a mess of photos of this Winter's fish.
Lance and his 30 pound Tawokoni blue cat.
My son Peter with his 10 pound Ray Roberts blue cat Jr. lake record.
My 28.66 Ray Roberts blue cat, lake record for 9 day. A 56 pound blue replaced it, so it looks like Ray Bob has monster blue kitties.
Paul on a very cold Tawakoni morning.
My Tawokoni 30 pound blue
Lance and a 30 pound Twok blue
Greg and a 30 pound Benbrook blue
Greg and a 28 pound Benbrook blue 
Lance and a customer with a 18 pound Ray Bob blue.
30 pound Benbrook blue
Paul and 22 pound Cooper Lake blue cat
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