# Hard time hookin up.



## JimmyMac (Feb 18, 2011)

Went catfishin last night with my sister in law, we fished where the licking river dumps into the Ohio on the KY side. We were using live gills, rockbass, carp, cut shad and skipjack. We had a night loaded with action, bite after bite pretty much every 5-10 minutes. 

Somehow after fishing for roughly 5 hours, we managed to catch one small channel and 3' gar. I'm not sure what was going on, but we had sooo many runs but just weren't hooking up. Not your typical type of run either, I'm talkin these fish were making my bait clickers SCREAM, flat out haulin the mail... 

If there is one thing I pride myself on when it comes to catfishing, its my hook up ratio. I may not get the most action, but when I do get a good run at least 8/10 times I'm hookin a fish. Last night left me looking for answers, after the first few GOOD runs being missed, I started trying different hooks and rigs. I went from Team Catfish 5/0 circle hooks (tightlined in rod holders) to Eagle Claw Kahles (open spool with clickers set), Gamakatsu Octopus hooks, and Gamakatsu big rivers. Missing fish on every one of them... 

Only thing I could possibly come up with is that the majority of our action was coming from gar, as I finally did end up catching one. I know it wasn't the current or anything else fooling us, I was fishing 4oz no rolls and sitting pretty, plus each time we'd reel in our bait had obvious bite marks. 

It was a crazy night, haven't heard that many screamin clickers in a long, long time.


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## fishdealer04 (Aug 27, 2006)

Runs like that are from gar or white bass/hybrids. Since you caught a gar that is telling me it was probably that. When I am fishing a spot the moment I get a gar bite or a catch a gar I move. If cats are there you will catch them. If the gar are there you might as well move. I am assuming you were bank bound from where you were fishing in which case you have no choice but to hope for a nice cat to swim by.


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## JimmyMac (Feb 18, 2011)

fishdealer04 said:


> Runs like that are from gar or white bass/hybrids. Since you caught a gar that is telling me it was probably that. When I am fishing a spot the moment I get a gar bite or a catch a gar I move. If cats are there you will catch them. If the gar are there you might as well move. I am assuming you were bank bound from where you were fishing in which case you have no choice but to hope for a nice cat to swim by.



That makes sense. I don't have much experience with gar, I don't fish the Ohio often. Most of the time I've caught them it was just a random oddball during a night of catching cats. Yeah we were bank bound, I scouted that spot about 2 years ago and never got around to fishing it, seemed like it should of been a good place. I've always done pretty well where two bodies of water meet up, seems like a good place for cats to feed.


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## Salmonid (Apr 14, 2004)

the gar bite has been on fire lately, ( low flows and no current) so I agree that you were sitting in a gar hole, best to move or cast further out into the current. That spot seems like a better spot when the river has more current on it. 

Salmonid


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## JStone (Aug 24, 2011)

True, the gar have been busy lately. I caught 4 gar two weeks ago, but we were upriver by Meldahl. I'm hoping they've moved on to another spot cause we're going back on Sat.


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## ronj18 (Jul 21, 2011)

I had a similar situation today. Lots of runs and finally caught a 30" gar. There was a bigger one out there toying with my bait so finally tied a trailer hook to my cut bait hook and then never got a run again.


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## rustyfish (Apr 27, 2004)

Thats gar for you. Gar and flathead bites are easy tell apart. But channels and gar tend to bite the same. Just look at your bait you can tell who did it. In the scioto river i start with a 5 inch chub, 5 bites later ill catch one on just a head.


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## TClark (Apr 20, 2007)

Try this next time. Tie a length of yarn to your hook with the bait on it. If it's gar, the yarn will tangle in their teeth and you can bring em in for raccoon food.


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