I started fishing with my dad and little brother at about 4 or 5 years old. We had a pond that was well stocked with bass
and catfish and pretty soon with dads help , I was well on my way to being hooked on fishing. I became apparent that I was
partial to cat fishing pretty soon (as was Dad , like father like son ) as that soon became all I liked to fish for . We had
a lake lot at Warsaw ,Mo and spent a lot of week-ends there fishing and boating. When I got to go with dad and our cousins
on trotline trips ,that did it ! We also started going to Montrose Lake and dad, Mike and I caught lots of cats on both
limb lines and rod and reel. They used to rent jon boats there and we would just take our motor with us and use their boats.
They came with oars so soon I learned to row around in the coves and before long I would go out with my brother Mike and
set a few lines in the coves of my own and dad would just watch and smile. When I started to catch my own fish I was really
hooked. We fished a lot of years together until dad finally passed away.
Everything he taught me though stuck with me. I got good at running lines and pole fishing for cats. When I moved to Osceola
Mo is when the worm turned ! I met my long time fishing buddy Rocky Self and learned a ton of good tricks from him ! He had
lived on the Osage for years and spent a great deal of his life perfecting his cat fishing. We entered several local tournaments
and won all we entered ! I moved a little farther away later and we didn’t get to fish as much together but we both
kept after them on our ends. Since then Rocky passed away too , but the knowledge he gave me lives
on and I have only improved since. I did some guiding on Pomme de Terre and did a trip guiding a TV fisherman on the lake
that ended up on the outdoor channel on satellite. Since then I have continued to have great success with the cats catching
many, many trophy sized cats. My largest blue cat weighed 72 pounds and my biggest flathead was 68. Now our latest project
is this new website for Cat fishermen including our very own catfishing forum called Catfish Outlaws. We are trying to
educate people on the fast upcoming sport of cat fishing and trying to pass on some useful information to those who want to
learn more and to have a forum for all of our catfishing friends to share their knowledge also. There are several pages of
different topics to look through and to also join in and comment and even to post your own catfishing pictures of your latest
catch. So we hope you enjoy our site and get something out of it you can use to put you on a trophy cat. You never know when
you’ll teach someone something they didn’t know.
Good day , good fishing and God bless. Earl Knapp Jr.
