Thursday, April 24, 2008 9:16 PM CDT
Some love lowly catfish
Anglers planning big gathering on Rend Lake in June
By the Associated Press
INA (AP) — An underappreciated fish is getting plenty of love from a southern Illinois club.
The Illinois contingent of the Brotherhood of Catfishermen will hold its second annual gathering June 20-22 at Rend Lake in Ina. The event is open to anyone who has an affinity for the catfish, a species often ridiculed for its size, appearance and — believe it or not — its taste.
“I think they do get a bad rap,” said Aaron Lands, an earnest catfishing angler and BOC member from Lebanon. “Part of the stigma is that they are everywhere and people don’t appreciate it as much. Most of us in the club are pretty serious about it.”
The BOC is a national organization of more than 16,000 members who communicate via a Web site — http//brotherhood-of-catfishermen.com — that is billed as the largest resource for catfishing tips, techniques and “just about anything you can think of related to the fine sport of catfishing.”
The BOC does not divide its members into chapters. Last year, nearly two dozen members who live in Southern Illinois decided to gather at Rend Lake to fish, eat, drink and talk catfish.
“It’s not just catfishing,” Lands said. “That’s the primary focus of it, but there’s a little bit of everything. Last year was kind of a last-minute deal. We probably had two dozen people show up and really didn’t advertise it very much.
“This year we’re expecting a lot bigger gathering because we’ve spent about a year preparing for it.”
A 1994 graduate of Mascoutah High, Lands teaches health and physical education and is an assistant wrestling coach at Belleville East.
Much of his spare time is devoted to catfishing, which makes him an ideal BOC member. He also likes to fish for largemouth bass and crappie, but Lands said 90 percent of his fishing efforts revolve around landing channel, flathead or blue catfish.
“I like it probably because it’s laid back and you need a minimum of equipment,” Lands said. “A lot of these types of fish you chase, you need specialized equipment and need to invest a lot of money. If somebody wants to fish for cats, all you need is a pole and a some bait.
“Sometimes guys that fish from the bank do as good or better than guys that are in $25,000 bass boats.”
Lands said his favorite places to go after catfish are Carlyle Lake and Rend Lake during the spring and summer and Baldwin Lake during the winter.
“But it seems like everywhere you go, there’s some decent catfishing,” Lands said. “You don’t have to go down to Florida or go to some distant place.”
Stories of monster blue and flathead catfish weighing more than 50 pounds were numerous in southwestern Illinois last year.
There was Waterloo’s Scott Schifferdecker, who hauled in 53.45-pound flathead while jugging on the Kaskaskia River near New Athens in July. In August, Adam Duncan, of Hecker, landed a 54.86-pound flathead at Baldwin Lake. In August, David Asaro, of Godfrey, hooked an 85-pound blue catfish in the Mississippi River by Alton.
“I’ve always fished for channels, but now, I’m definitely intrigued by the flatheads and the big blues,” Lands said. “The goal is to catch a 100-pound fish, which is possible here in Southern Illinois.”
For more information about the BOC, visit its Web site or e-mail Paul Furry, chief organizer for the 2008 Rend Lake gathering at deerhunter4@frontiernet.net.
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