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Fishing Stories from Ned Kehde |
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Submitted by Ned Kehde - July 18, 2000 During the last decades of the 20th Century, bass and walleye
anglers were the kings. Before that it was the trout fisherman's
world. Despite Gephardt's recent efforts, the catfish is still not held in high esteem by the rest of the angling world. Too many fishermen think of the catfish as a lowly bottom feeder living in the world's most roiled waters. Because of this prejudice, the catfish fishermen are given short shrift by the tackle and boat industry. Therefore, cat fishermen make due with equipment designed for bass, musky or salt-water anglers. Moreover, the outdoor press commonly treats the catfish and its anglers as quaint at best and at the worst as outcasts. Gebhardt said In-Fisherman magazine and television tried to change that perspective. In-Fisherman even launched Catfish In-Sider magazine about a year and a half ago, and it quickly became the piscatorial world's most innovative magazine. Thus, its readership soared. But Primedia, which recently acquired In-Fisherman, was overly influenced by the perils of gaining quick profits and closed down Catfish In-Sider, saying that the tackle industry was reluctant to advertise in a magazine devoted solely to catfish. Knowledgeable cat fishermen assert that Primedia wasn't patient enough, because it won't be long before the ardent cat fishermen outnumber the walleye fishermen. As a result, the sale of tackle and other paraphernalia for cat fishing will soar. However, Gebhardt says, until the tackle industry and the outdoors press become enlightened, cat fishermen will have to rely upon their own ingenuity to devise items for catching catfish. In fact, for the past 31 years, Gebhardt has done just that. As 20-year-older in 1969, he crafted his first fishing apparatus. It's a six-inch stainless-steel needle to thread bait on his hook and leader, which he still uses on every outing. For instance, when he pursues channel cats with nightcrawlers, Gebhardt doesn't affix the nightcrawler to the hook in a wad of loops. Instead he pokes the needle into the center of the crawler's tail and then threads the nightcrawler onto the leader and the hook; ultimately the hook's point and barb protrudes out of the crawler's tail, and the crawler is nearly as straight as a pencil. Gebhardt also uses a needle to thread fillets of carp or shad on the hook and leader. He says that any bait that that is threaded on the hook and leader catches more cats than a bait that is merely attached to the hook in a wad or chunk. This method also preserves bait; he has, for example, caught as many as a dozen channel cats on the same nightcrawler. In addition, Gebhardt has concocted scores of other tools for cat fishermen. One is an anchor that will hold in the swiftest and most difficult waterways. Another Gebhardt rig is a rod holder. Gebhardt said that there wasn't a holder on the market that suited his way of fishing. So he constructed one that allows him to employ six rods at the same time. This holder is so well designed that Gebhardt can set the hook in the jaws of a 50-pound blue cat without removing the rod from its holder. Gebhardt is so sure that the cat fishing will be the wave of the future that he is beginning a guiding service on the Missouri River around Glasgow, and as his guiding business expands, Gebhardt will gradually retire from the timber business, where he has labored for 27 years. Perhaps along the way he will even garner some profits from his anchors, needles and rod holders. |
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