Catfishing on the St Lucie Canal

Prized among catfish, the St Lucie Canal offers some really good channel cat action.  My average fish is 18-24 inches, and provide some quite tasty meals.  They are also pretty good fighters and hit like a freight train on various baits from chicken liver, to minnows and even on leftover squid from salt water fishing.

l Cats from the St Lucie Canal

The besty times for catfishing are right as the sun is coming up, or around sunset.  They also hit at night, but you have to compete with the alligators in the canal, so I don't really bother with night fishing, since my lights attract the gators.  I'm safe enough, where I fish in my secret catfish hole, because of a vertical 4 foot concrete wall the gators can't climb, but they keep eati g the fish before I can get them landed. 

Also, in the canal, is a veritable panoply of panfish, from big sunfish to bluegills that make a midwestern boy like myself, as happy as a clam with their sizes.

Bluegill and Redear Sunfish from the St Lucie Canal and Port Mayaca Retention basin

From my experiences up north and down here in Florida as well, nothing fights like a Bluegill.  I'd love to see what a 10 or 15 pound bbluegill would be like, I'm not sure you could land it on light tackle, actually. 

7/27 Fish Report

I fished the St Lucie Canal, and the current was strong.  I used a bottom rig with a 3 oz bank weight and a 30 pound test mono leader.  The bite was off today, but what did hit was too big for my rig.  Since I was using the heavy weight, I was able to cast out into the canal a lot further than I usually do from my "secret hole".

Hook was a 1/0 Hahke hook, and my bait was some truly stinky chicken liver.  When I took the hit, my rod tip just bobbled a bit and line started running out.  I had the drag set light, so that's not a surprise.  When I picked up the pole and started applying the drag, the line still kept running, until I had the drag nearly tight enough for a big Cobia on the beach.

I now have a really good idea that I have a pretty good sized fish on, since as of this point, my medium heavy rig is seriously bent, and I'm fighting the fish hard.  It took me about 40 minutes to work the fish in to the seawall to attempt to land it.  Good point:  I got to see and identify the fish.  Bad point:  I didn't have a landing net with me since I biked it to the hole, and didn't expect a fish that big, anyway.

Anyhoo, what I got to the seawall was a BIG flathead catfish, between 40 and 48 inches long.  This put the fish in the 35 to 50 pound weight class, and I'm rigged with 30 pound braid and a 30 pound mono leader, so I'm not shocked that the fish snapped the line right at the end.


Now, I would have released this fish anyway.  When a Flathead gets that big, they aren't good eating, first and foremost.  Also, when they get that big, it means they are a superior fish and desirable breeding stock, so we want to return these monsters alive if possible.  If this was a big female, she lays millions of eggs every time she lays, so it helps maintain the stock of superior fish.

The takeaway lessons here are that
1)  Always have a landing net.......period.  I could have at least gotten a photo trophy if I'd had my landing net.
2)  There are some really big cats in the canal, and I think I know where to start looking for them, and I may do some drop line fishing with my heavy rig and 80 pound test running as a freeline and live bait, and a big hook, and see what I can land.
3)  When you hook a fish that big, even if you lose it at the very end, it
s still a fun fight, and so what, the fish won today, maybe you will on your next encounter.

Tom Stormcrowe ©2013, all rights reserved