Cataouatche always good stop before a fish fry

My brother, C.P. "Bruh" McDonald and I decided to try and fish Lake Cataouatche last week. Usually, a fisherman can go out and catch bass, bream, sac-a-lait and catfish without any problems, but we only managed to catch a bunch of catfish.

Still, it was enough for a nice fish fry.

We started along the cuts on the north shoreline with earthworms on the bottom. Catfish like to gang-up in these areas because of the flowing water from the Davis Pond Diversion. The diversion was running around 1,500 cubic feet per second, which is the normal flow.

Reaching the cut before the La. Cypress Canal, I positioned the Kenner VX 50 yards down current from the cut and dropped the anchor. Each rod was rigged with 65 Power Pro line with a ¾ ounce weight Carolina style and a No. 6 long shanked silver hook.

We baited the hooks, threw the lines out and set the rods in the rod holders.

Before we could take the slack out of the lines, one of the rods bent over with a good catfish. C.P. grabbed the rod, set the hook and began fighting the keeper catfish to the boat.

"Is it like this all the time?" he asked me. "This is unreal how quick the catfish took the bait."

We caught 18 more catfish before we pulled up the anchor and headed for the bulkheads in search of bass, bream and sac-a-lait.

We drifted along the bulkheads throwing brush hogs in junebug and watermelon red. We also used the Bandit 200 series Tennessee shad crank bait and managed to catch one bluegill.

Our next stops included the Umbrella Tree Canal, the Tank Ponds and the La. Cypress Canal. Only bluegill bream were caught at those locations. Moving into the La. Cypress Canal near the West Canal, the water was gin clear. Throwing the Bandit Tennessee shad, I caught one small bass while C.P. began catching bluegills on the red/white/chartreuse mini jig under a cork.

We drifted with the current towards the lake and managed to catch two sac-a-lait fishing around the lilies and small grass beds along the banks.

Around 6 p.m., C.P. said he had enough and called it a day.

"We have enough catfish for a good fish fry," he said. "I know this was not our best trip but Lake Cataouatche is a great place to fish."