Clear Lake Trophy Channel Cats 2001 - 02

For starters, let me just say that I won't pretend to be an "expert cat fisherman". I know there are thousands of great catmen who have tons more experience than I do, and can catch both numbers and size, in many different times and places.  However in the Winter of 01-02, while bass fishing on Clear Lk. California, I stumbled into a concentration of giant Channel cats which was simply incredible (purely a lucky break) ! Afterwards, I personally caught and released well over 4000 lbs in 18 consecutive trips ! I seriously wondered if this kind of action had ever been experienced by anyone on Clear Lk. before. Some very well informed locals told me that this had never happened to this degree.   In-Fisherman did an article for the 2002 Catfish In-Sider magazine, in which I was a major contributor. I thought it came out really great, and was proud to be a part of the best multi-species fishing organization on the planet. But the part that really struck me most was when the pro's at In-Fisherman gave there opinion of this awesome cat bite: "Fish Chris" Wolfgram has long used ultra-light gear for trophy bass on California's Clear lake, but last Winter he experienced the hottest west coast Channel cat bite ever documented" !!! Whoa buddies ! I kinda' thought maybe..... possibly..... but now that In-Fisherman tells me so, I guess I gotta' believe it !   Cat fishing will never be the same for me again !

	Another awesome Clear Lk. Channel cat, which fought very hard on micro-light gear. This beauty (remember, beauty is in the eye of the beholder :-) went 24.4 lbs.

	This is my buddy "CatfishED" with a long, strong 21.1 lb'er ! This fish made a run about half way across the lake when it was first hooked !   If you haven't already seen it, CatfishED has a really cool web site based primarily on Clear Lk. cat fishing. Check it out at: catfishED.com

	This 23.1 lb'er was one of those hard fighting males, with the leaner bodies and the bigger heads.

	This is my buddy Mark Casey with the biggest Channel cat of his life. This monster went 23.7 lbs !   Marks biggest cat before this trip was less than 10 lbs, but on this one trip he caught a 13 lb'er, an 18 lb'er, and this 23 plus hog (in that order) !!!  Good job buddy ! :-)

	Here's my buddy Dee with the biggest cat of an   awesome trip. This beauty went 20.2 lbs ! On this trip, Dee and I caught and released over 800 lbs of Cats and Carp on this trip (about 50/50) all on ultra-light gear !

	This fat momma kitty was not that long, but still weighed 24.1 lbs !

	This is my fishing buddy JohnWBass with an awesome 20.7 lb Clear Lk. Channel cat. John and I caught and released over 500 lbs of Cats and Carp on this trip !!!

	Another fat headed cat. Almost certainly an old male. This was a 20.5 lb'er, which bit right at the base of the boat ramp behind me......... Boat ramps are almost always hot spots for cats or bass !

	This is "was" my new personal record for Channel cats (my last record below, only stood for 1 week and this one stood for barely two weeks itself). This trophy Channel cat  went 23.8 lbs and fought very hard on ultra-light gear !

	This "was" my  personal best for Channel cats. This awesome fish went 23.2 lbs and fought very good on micro-light gear. Nice Christmas present, huh ?    Amazingly, I hooked a fish right before this one which felt literally twice as big ! I would like to think that one was foul hooked, because otherwise, I lost an 50 lb'er ! Oh well........ it's still there waiting for me :-)

	All day long my buddy Dee caught the small ones while I got several "teen" fish. He kept saying he was saving up for a hog. Then finally on the last stop of the night, he went and did it ! This toad of a Channel cat went 24.0 lbs ! It was caught on silverside minnows at Clear Lk. Ca.   Good job buddy :-)  What a monster !

This 27.8 lb trophy Channel cat was the largest of 71 fish which my buddy Dee and I caught on this trip, for a total weight of 935 lbs !!!   Dee's total weight was 500.2 lbs. I was slacking and only caught 435.6 lbs :-) Although no one keeps specific records for total numbers or weights of catfish caught on a single trip, this quite possibly could be the most total pounds of Channel cats caught by two guys in one trip....... ever ! By the end of this 14 hour trip, my arms felt like it too !

This is my new personal best Channel cat which went 30.2 lbs. and was caught from Clear Lk. Ca. on micro-light gear.    This fish looked very youthful, which means she could probably get much larger ! She could easily be a new lake record in a short period of time....... as the Clear Lk Ca. record Channel cat is only 33 1/4 lbs.    On this trip, my buddy JohnWBass and I caught 55 cats for 775 lbs total !

	This was a diagram of my gear, which In-Fisherman did in there article "Trophy Cats on Light Tackle". I thought they did an awesome job...... it's dead on !