Catfishing

[Teri C.]

I've been told the lake where my cabin is is very productive for catfish. I don't usual target catfish and I don't have alot of experience fishing for them. I used to have "Friday Night Fishing" where we would go out in the middle of the lake, drop anchor, put on a nightcrawler for tightlining and drink. Didn't really matter if anyone caught anything. Usually didnt catch anything but a hangover. ha!



I took the pontoon out over the 4th and parked in a cove and used nightcrawlers for awhile. Not a bite.



Is there a certain structure I should look for, water conditions, tiem of day, any bait besides nightcrawlers? Need some pointers in case I am stuck fishing from the pontoon.

 

[Teri C.]

I just did a search and read the post on catfish baits.



A babybird or babychick, JR? How could you do that? There is a certain line I draw when fishing.

 

[Buzz Bouvier]

Chicken livers that are left in the sun too spoil work well.



Buzz

 

[Staci Matheis]

Teri -



Besides the river fishing I've done so much of recently.....



I used to do a lot of catfishing on a lake that my father lived on. I'd use a commercial stink bait on a treble hook with a spring wrapped around it to hold the bait. Just wad the bait around it and throw it out. I can't remember the bait but I'll go by Wallyworld and find out what it was called and let you know; they still have it there.



Catfish in lakes will cruise the shorelines looking for a meal and are ready targets for any of the commercially prepaired baits with lots of "stink".



me!

 

[JAMES MOORE]

Catch a few small sunfish or bluegills and use them for bait. Work best if you cut the head off and let them sit in the sun for a day or two. The smellier the better.

 

[Staci Matheis]

Teri -



It was "Bee Jay Catfish Bait".



me!

 

[Staci Matheis]

P.S.



If you wanna really have some fun.....



Get some Wheaties and crush a handful into a ball. Hold it down in the water for a few seconds to get it good and wet. Squoosh the wet Wheaties into a ball. Let the ball sit for a few minutes to let the starch get all gummy and bind the flakes together. Mold it around that same treble hook and cast into the lake.....



Carp love Wheaties!

And they put up one heck of a fight!!







(Some people add a bit of strawberry jam to the mix.)

 

[TrepMan]

Wife and I had this discussion last weekend with no answer 'cause I wasen't gonna filet it.



Is Carp good to eat???

 

[Staci Matheis]

I have had pickled carp and it was deelishiousamafull!



But I sure wouldn't wanna try fileting it - they are such a boney fish. Just figure that they're one heck of a lot of fun to catch, Michael - then release them!

 

[Texas Transplant]

Trep - you now have to relinquish your King Tin title. Catching carp is one thing, eating . . . .



As others have said, just get a commercially prepared catfish bait, generally either blood or cheese 'flavor'. Mold it around a treble or one of the 'cling to baits', weight to get it near the bottom, and then wait. It won't take all that long if you are around them at all.



Best size is the 2-3 pounders for eatin'.



Tex

 

[Dennis Hamer]

I like using Chicken livers doused in garlic and left to sit in the sun for about six hours.

 

[C C]

Cats are not the brightest fish and you have gotten plenty of advice on catching them. Now Carp are a whole other story and lots of fun if you can get one on a hook. Use the same bait for Carp as you would a Cat but you rig up differently: use a simple #2 or #3 hook with a 1' of line tied to a swivel on the top side of the swivel put a slip hole sinker on. Load the hook up with your stinky bait and toss it out in to the water. Leave the reel bail open so that line can continue to spool off sit back and wait. When the carp takes the bait let it run for 15 seconds then set the hook, don't rip the lip their mouth tears very easily.



Carp have sensitive mouths hence why you use the slip weight they run with the bait and your hook and they don't know anything is wrong until you start reeling and then they have sucked it in far enough they won't get off.



Good luck!



Cass

 

[Staci Matheis]

Very true, Cass!

 

[TrepMan]

Actualy Tex, and don't tell the DNR folks, but I netted the sucker!! Kids/Beka were at the beach, I beached and tied the boat up and there in about 1 ft of water was a 5lb carp (weighed him later) he was just causualy swimming around, so I grabbed my net and he swam right into it!!! LOL



Showed him to the kids and beka said "Hey he's HUGE, throw him in the livewell for dinner!" I said "EVERYONE told me that are NOT eating fish" but she would have none of it, so in the livewell it went. Well, we hit a gas-dock later and I asked one of the ladies working there and they said "EWWW NEVER eat those things, we feed them cigarette butts and trash!!"



So back to the lake the sucker went...



Do I get to keep my title???

 

[Staci Matheis]

All hail King Tin!!

 

[William H. (Bill) Barham]

A lot of people eat Carp though I am NOT one of them...

Everyone eats crabs and you don't WANT to know what they eat... I hope this doesn't upset anyone but in my younger days with the fire department we would be called on to drag for a body. There was always someone in the boat who would holler, "Who's got the crab net?"



Bill

 

[Tom Major]

Teri, I am gonna tell you how to have a ball catching catfish. BLUEGILL!!!!!! The bigger the better. Find the deepest part of the lake and in the late evening up to and including night time. Flatheads are undoubtibly the most fun to catch and they only bite on LIVE bait and they will get huge. Use a big enough sinker to keep the bait down on the bottom and wait. You won't get a bite a minute but, when you do you almost always get that sucker hooked. A couple of poles baited like that and if you want to get bites quicker then put chicken liver on another pole for the channel cats or even stripers if there are any there. Flatheads are spawning for now but should be ready to bite any day now. First of Aug. is usually the best time. I guarantee these methods if there are Flatheads there. As far as the stinky stuff mentioned earlier. It would be a shame if you had to sink that pretty yellow boat just to clean out the smell.

 

[Staci Matheis]

A ...uh... "former member" of this site with flatheads caught on bluegill in the Mississippi River..... There is still one more in the livewell.







They were released, unharmed, in the lake on the apartment complex property.



The lake had so many bluegill in it that their growth was stunted - you'd never see one over about 4". So, the "former member" would go down to the lake in the morning with a minnow trap, collect bluegill, use them as bait during the day and then bring back the catfish to be released in the lake to thin out the bluegill population.



The fish in this picture ranged from about 5 to 20 pounds. The one in the livewell was about 3#.

 

[Teri C.]

Who is that?