Tim wrote:snip.early the other day I added some tippet..and guess where my
line snapped....right at the damn knot!...

My wife was so mad at me...I called her at 530am dang near crying cause I
lost the biggest fish I ever caught(even if he was a catfish). Now this leads

me to two questions...

What knot do you use to tie on your tippet?

Has anyone else caught a cat on a popper? I've caught on woolybuggers before,

even on purpose but I never thought I would get a surface strike from one.

Tim Apple

ps Big Dale, you prolly know the park, it's right off bethany in Allen

I seldom catch large fish at that park and I have been fishing it since it was
part of the old TI Rod and Gun Club when I joined it back in 1966. For knots I
use the triple surgeon's knot, but I don't trust it either.

Catfish in this area seldom feed off the surface other than around dawn or dusk
and not all that often then. About the only other time is those years when
there is an invasion of HUGE grasshoppers. Every few years there are reports
of channel cats weighing up 10 pounds working huge hoppers on the surface. The
newspaper reported one caught on a fly rod weighing 10 pounds a couple of years
ago, I think it was on Ceder Creek Lake. These are BIG DAMN HOPPERS matched
with flies tied on size 2/0 hooks. For some reason, I have never had much luck
at the lakes at Bethany Park. I have never understood that either. Seems like
the average size bluegill even in that parkthat I catch is about half my
normal size, and somehow 4 inch bluegill don't impress me much.

Glad you are having fun with the new Orvis rod. Have you met the new cool
flyshop dog that lives at the Orvis store at Preston and Royal? She belongs to
the new manager Monica. ( Monica denies this, but I still think they hired the
dog and Monica came along with the deal.) g

As for leaders, for the past five years or so I have standardized on the Orvis
Superstrong as I think they sell more leaders in the Dallas area than anyone
else and I figure they will be fresh. I seldom drop below 3x for my bluegill,
so I am not a good one to judge trout leaders. My bluegill don't require that
you go very light. I prefer knotless leaders for using in the waters around
here to cut down on the salad collected on each knot on each cast.

Have fun with those catfish. There are some big bass in that park,but as far as
I can tell they must have been planted cause they don't seem to eat anything.

Big Dale