June Fishing Sessions: 06/04 - Flathead Fishing the Non-Tidal Schuylkill River (Philadelphia, PA)

Hello, Blog Readers!

Today I'm bringing you my fishing session for June 4th:

--- June 4th, 2015 ---

Location: Schuylkill River (Philadelphia, PA)

Time: 6:00-10:00 p.m.

Fishes caught:

-- 1 Channel Catfish (Ictalurus punctatus)

-- 2 American Eel (Anguilla rostrata)

Video:

Below are the highlights for this fishing session:

The video is divided in three parts: (1) Introduction (0:00-1:05); (2) Setup (1:05-3:30); and (3) Fishing (3:30-10:45). Additionally, the video contains my friend Joe J. catching a nice Flathead from the River! Don't forget to watch it in HD quality (1080p50)! If you enjoy watching my videos, please support my YouTube Channel by liking and subscribing! :)

Goal:

Joe and Jake J. -- a.k.a Team Chatt Cats -- came up to Philadelphia all the way from Maryland and Tennessee for some Flathead fishing. Even though it was spawning season and our chances of landing a nice fish was low, we still decided to go for them! Thus, the main goal for the day was to land a Flathead Catfish (Pylodictis olivaris).

Setup:

I used two rods for this fishing session. The first setup consisted of a Cortland Endurance 9' noodle rod with a Shimano Symetre 4000FL and 12lbs Berkley Vanish Fluorocarbon line. The second setup was a heavy action Daiwa Samurai rod + reel with 20lbs Berkley Vanish Fluorocarbon line.

The first rod was rigged with a two Eagle Claw three-way swivels, size #4 hook and a 2 oz. River Sinker (a.k.a. a high-low rig). The second rod was rigged with a slip sinker setup: a 3 oz. egg sinker, an Eagle Claw snap swivel, and a snelled size 7/0 Gamakatsu Octopus hook. The first setup was baited with nightcrawlers whereas the second was baited with a huge chunk of American Eel.

Summary:

Not much to say about this fishing session, folks! I arrived at my regular Girard Avenue Bridge spot around 5:30 p.m.. Since there were some anglers fishing right next to the bridge, I decided to setup my stuff a little bit upstream from them. 

My friends Jake and Joe J. arrived on the spot around 6:00 p.m.. Meanwhile, I had some nice action on the nightcrawler, landing a small Channel Catfish and two nice American Eel. I decided to use the small Channel Catfish as bait for my Daiwa rod. I also released the bigger American Eel and kept the smaller one as future bait for Catfish. :)

For the rest of the night, we pretty much fished for Flathead Catfish. Sadly, the bite on the nightcrawler died around sunset...I finished my day with those three fish only (no bites on the small Channel Catfish); however, Joe J. landed a solid 13lber on a live Bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus).  

Photos:

Below are the photos for this fishing session:

A nice shot of my biggest American Eel from the non-tidal Schuylkill River (up to date).

My friend Joe J. from Team Chatt Cats with his Flathead Catfish. He is actually from Tennessee and he posts weekly videos on his YouTube Channel. You folks should follow him for some Chattanooga giants! Heh.

Best of luck to all of us,

Long Days and Pleasant Nights,

Sincerely,

Leo S.