will the swarms of sailcats be back again this year?

[keakar]

what are your predictions on those damn sailcats for this years season?

last year I couldn't hardly get past them to catch any real fish? all my favorite spots had to be abandoned because of them.

it was just so unreal , they were so damn hungry they would chase off the specks to get to my artificial baits.

there were times I felt like giving up because I had to catch 7 or 8 sailcats before I caught a small school trout and there were trips I caught around 40 sailcats and "maybe" 2 or 3 keeper specks.

I don't know why they were so bad but im guessing the oil spill took away their food supply so they swarmed deep inshore looking for food but I hope it was a one time thing and we don't see the numbers of them we did last year.

I never use any form of "meat" live or dead so I can only imagine how bad it was for those using live bait and catching that trash in such numbers.

[meaux fishing]

I didnt really notice a difference. Where were you fishing?

[redaddiction]

I hear ya. It was horrible in cocodrie last summer with those cats.

[swamp snorkler]

Tell you what, I'll take all the ones that you don't want. They just as good to eat as a freshwater blue cat.

[BuckingFastard]

like a gaftop?

[Trout rivers]

Yea we eat a few gaftops too

[AubreyLaHaye458]

Hell at this point, I'd be happy to catch a bunch of gafftops.


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[swamp snorkler]

Gafftop and Sailcat are the same thing.

They aint no Sac Aux Lait but they okay to eat. Taste like a small blue or channel catfish. They just slimy so folks don't like to mess with them.

[Mako19]

Not much meat on them either.
We kept and cleaned them before.

A 5 lb fish yield very little meat. They are mostly all head.

[keakar]

Originally Posted by meaux fishing

I didnt really notice a difference. Where were you fishing?

out of golden meadow PAC

didn't matter if I was cork fishing in 8ft of water or swim baits on the bottom my arms got tired dragging them damn 24"-30" sailcats in all day long.

in the last 15 years I have been fishing thee I never caught a single sailcat ever until last year.

I have kept and ate the blue or green colored ones before when I was hungry (not bad but I wouldn't compare them to blue cats) but not the grey ones (they aren't very good and taste like mud IMHO) I just cant stand sliming everything up so bad and im not the biggest fan of catfish to start with.

Originally Posted by Mako19

Not much meat on them either.
We kept and cleaned them before.

A 5 lb fish yield very little meat. They are mostly all head.

yep, they like drum, half the fishes weight is all in the head, like you say a 5 pounder will get you around 2 fillets at about 1.25 lbs each

[MathGeek]

We've been catching good numbers of them the past few years, but last year was especially strong. Most of ours were not too skinny, meat yield was ok. About as good as any other catfish for yield and taste.

The key with the slime is to allow a mix of cube ice and water in the ice chest. The motion of the boat on the ride will slosh things around and yield relatively slime free fish come cleaning time.

A cooler full of gafftops is a great day fishing. If life hands you lemons ...

[lil bubba]

use clear sparkle beatles with plain lead heads and spit 3 times before every cast and they won't touch it.......

[keakar]

Originally Posted by lil bubba

use clear sparkle beatles with plain lead heads and spit 3 times before every cast and they won't touch it.......

heck I tried walking around the ice chest 3 times, standing on one foot, wizzing only on the left side of the boat, holding my tongue pointing to the east, and even fishing left handed but nothing seamed to stop them from biting lol.

[duckman1911]

Always thought it was funny how fast someone will call a certain fish trash. You can make just about anything taste good if you're good enough in the kitchen.

[duckman1911]

Not that im debating the meat to effort ratio for some critters and fish.