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Fishing Stories from Ned Kehde |
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Submitted by Ned Kehde - July 25, 2000 In total there are 66 Schmidtleins in Topeka, led by the patriarch, Ben, and the matriarch, Louise. Both of the elder Schmidtleins are ardent anglers, which is why fishing is often a family affair. On July 15, for instance, four boatloads of the Schmidtleins probed a large main-lake hump at Pomona, where they tangled with scads of fish. At heart the Schmidtleins are crappie fishermen, but from July 4th until Halloween their fancy turns to channel catfish. During the late 1990s, they have become so proficient at catching channel cats during the heat of the summer that they have won two tournaments and finished second in two. They catch big catfish too: a 17-pounder at Clinton and a 16-pounder at Pomona. Here's how Schmidtleins have caught them across the years: When they first began pursuing channel cats in the 1980s, they drifted the mud flats, using shad as bait. When employing this method, they caught a fair number of cats, and a few of them were large. But since the Schmidtleins were crappie fishermen, they were accustomed to catching more than a 100 fish an outing. Once anglers become addicted to catching large numbers of fish, it is difficult to be satisfied with catching 20 channel cats even if some of the cats broach 10 pounds. Thus, the Schmidtleins experimented with a variety of tactics, hoping to find a method that would allure more fish. Eventually, they determined that chumming a strategic spot with ferment soybeans was more fruitful than drifting a vast mud flat. At their chumming sites, they used a variety of baits: nightcrawlers, congealed blood, chicken livers, redolent dip and punch baits, leeches, etc. Even thought these baits caught channel cats galore, David Schmidtlein wanted a better bait. So in 1997, he began experimenting with some ingredients, which included fermented soybeans. Ultimately David perfected a doughy concoction that he calls cat candy, and the channel cats in the reservoirs around Lawrence relish it. In fact, there are spells in late July and early August when the Schmidltleins can entice a channel cat to smack David's cat candy every 30 seconds. What's more, this bait is easy to use, and it isn't messy like blood, livers and dip baits. To affix the bait to a hook, the Schmidtleins take a small dab of it between their thumb and index finger; then they form it into a ball around a No. 6 treble hook. A No. 7 split shot is affixed an inch above the hook on 14-pound-test Berkley FireLine, and the line is spooled onto a spinning reel, which is affixed to an eight-foot fly rod. The baited hook is the dropped over the side of the boat, and usually placed from two inches to two feet off the bottom. The Schmidtleins prefer to fish main-lake humps and submerged roadbeds in 12 to 20 feet of water. They mark a lair with a buoy, and then they toss a few fermented soybeans into the water. On each outing, the Schmidtleins use only a gallon of chum. It's the Schmidtleins' contention that too much chum overfeeds the cats, which makes them difficult to catch. When working a spot, the Schmidtleins prefer to use an electric-trolling motor rather than an anchor, opting for an anchor only when the wind howls. The trolling motor also allows them to work a spot from a variety of angles and depths. And that's how David and Jeff Schmidtlein caught and released 109 channel cats in five hours on July 15 at Pomona. |
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