Hot Doggin For Cats

blue catfish, potomoac river ,micah dammeyer
The Catfish King … photo by Micah Dammeyer

Most people who know our family know that fly fishing is more than a hobby at our house. Even my wife who doesn’t fish appreciates the recharge that a day on the water gives everyone under this roof. Our 3-year-old is hooked and can cast a fly rod and tie a mean crane fly. Even the dog can sit patiently on a rock watching for a trout to take a dry fly and leap up barking once the ring appears and the line tightens. You could say that fly fishing is the glue that keeps our roof on.

But then there’s catfish. With catfish everything goes out the window. There’s no fancy scotch and cigars, no fancy wading outfits, no life savings spent on rods and reels. When it comes to catfish our family gets up early, grabs the donuts, and hits the river with a pack of the best hot dogs we can get. That’s right, ”hot doggin’” as we call it here, is a special event for us. We can bring mom, the dog, even the diaper clad baby brother and hang out down by the river for the morning.

While discussing the fine art of hot-doggin’ with my father and brother talk turned to a You-tube video my father had seen showing how to make a whole-dog rigger. In a nutshell it’s a tool to thread your leader through a hot dog. Of course I was intrigued but splitting time between family and the trout stream meant that I would put off this new craft project for a while. If you’ve never seen it you owe it to yourself to watch. This guy has really thought this out though it requires no specialized tools except for the coat hanger and some basic home improvement gear.

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The Catfish King ... photo by Micah Dammeyer
The Catfish King … photo by Micah Dammeyer

Fast forward a few weeks and there I am on a Friday night, before a planned hot-doggin’ trip, having a Eureka moment around midnight and thinking “I’ve got to make this for tomorrow!” Wearing only boxers and a t-shirt with Southern Comfort in hand,  I made my way out to the garage and started hammering away on an old coat hanger; it was quite a scene I assure you.  Now I found myself lacking a vise and an anything like an anvil but I found that I could heat up the coat hanger till it was red hot and pound away on the concrete floor. The floor took a bit of a beating but I was able to achieve a flattish shape. In the video “WillCFish” manages to create quite a blade out of his hanger. Mine was just flat enough that I could get a notch in it with 3 or 4 passes of a hacksaw. I smoothed my edges with a Dr. Slick hook file and wrapped the “handle” with a good layer of electrical tape.

Just knowing that I had this tool in my arsenal and a pack of Hebrew Nationals sweating away on the front porch (I like them a day or so old for catfish bait) was enough to keep my imagination going all night. I’m not sure I slept at all. Armed with donuts and our finest bait runners, Luke “The Catfish King” and I headed down to the Potomac first thing in the morning. We got to work rigging up our rods and dogs with our new tool and let them fly out into the river. In the time it took to eat the good stuff off of a donut Luke’s reel started clicking! I set the hook and set his 10-footer back down against the rail where he could straddle it and crank the reel. After we landed our invasive friend, Mr. Blue-Cat, I couldn’t help but notice that the hot dog had slit neatly up the leader and was ready to be put back into service after we’d snapped a few photos.

We landed a few small blue cats and proved that our new tool was a worthwhile endeavor. honesty I think the excitement of this new gadget held my 3 year old’s attention longer than we’d ever achieved at the river together. It also helped that we were hooking up.  I can’t wait to get home from guiding this weekend and get down to the Potomac and spend some time with The Catfish King. Maybe we’ll head out in the evening and have cooked hot-dogs for dinner!

Micah Dammeyer
Knee Deep Fly Fishing, LLC

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