Nighttime the Raritan 8/7/16

[AVA67]

I decided quite late last night that I needed to get out of the house and hit the water. I typically over pack for most fishing trips and I don't like going out unprepared, but I just grabbed a handful of hooks and sinkers and figured I would hit a spot on the North Branch I always figured would hold catfish or eels. Long story short, I smashed my knee in an unseen storm drain, almost walked off a 10 foot drop off, and somehow bumbled my way into a massive green briar patch before I ever made it to my spot.

At that point I said F$%* it and walked back to my car and started driving home. Two minutes from my house I passed a spot on the Raritan that I scouted earlier this year for smallmouth and carp. The water here is much shallower then I normally think of as prime catfish water, but I know the area well enough to at least get to the water without bleeding anymore and hoped that I might manage a few eels or a bullhead or two.

The first 2 casts I broke off 2 of the 4 slip sinkers I had brought with me. Finally I managed to get a line in the water for a few minutes without snagging bottom. I missed the first few light bites I had before finally connecting with my first fish of the night with turned out to be a nice 4 lb channel cat. The next 40 minutes I never went more then 5 minutes with out a bite. I finished the night with 2 channel cats both around 4 lbs, a big 16" brown bullhead, and 3 cookie cutter 12/13" stripers.

Fish were still chewing very well when I lost my 4th and last sinker I had with me. Oh well, nice ending to what started off as a really crappy night.

All fish safely released.

[icebadger]

wow man those are some hard earned fish, nowthat's how you don't give up.way to stick it out.nice job

[23cardinal]

Glad your ok-
Def a good night fishing - once u started -

What did the kitties/stripes eat?

[AndyS]

Glad to see you got out ! There are some really good headlamps on the market these days

[AVA67]

Andy, I have a wonderful 200 lumen LED headlamp... but unfortunately it was buried in the back of my she'd in my hunting stuff. I guess a banged up knee is the price of being lazy.

All fish ate salted chicken liver. I will have to take a trip back out there this week with some swim baits and see what else might be lurking at this unlikely spot.

[kcritch]

Nice come back...I hate when things start off like that. But at least it didn't end like that. That's even worse. Glad you got some nice fish to help the healing process. Gotta be careful out there....especially at night.

Just curious how did you lose all your slip sinkers? Snags , line failure or something else?

[AVA67]

All snags, not a whole lot of structure on this spot, but I was fishing round eggs, and they were just rolling in the current enough to find something to snag under/on.