Anyone here like to catch cats with lures?

Love to get them in skinny water on spinners, regular bass gear, bass like strike, feels like a state record, fun. No sit, no stank, casting, fun.

Spinner baits? Or lindy spinners. Cause those are not that great to cast.
And I can say I never use stink bait ever.

One of the main reasons I catfish is that I can toss out a bait, kick back and put my feet up, fire up some classic tunes, sip on a cold beverage, and wait for the rod to get slammed over.

With my tennis elbow flaring up that sounds pretty good 3R. That said I love to cast, love to see a fish explode on or near the surface. BTW talking about safety pin style bass spinners.

they like jigging raps on pool 4. you can get some hellacious thumps when they snap the rod out of your hand…..good times!

3Rivers wrote:

One of the main reasons I catfish is that I can toss out a bait, kick back and put my feet up, fire up some classic tunes, sip on a cold beverage, and wait for the rod to get slammed over.

I agree 100 percent. Those are the best evenings

My dad catches them on chatter baits in shallow water on lakes and has a ball doing it.

All of my largest flatheads have been caught this way.

Last 2 cats that have come over my gunnels have been by accident while fishing worms – Wacky and Ned…

Interesting, what size chatter bait?

2 different groups have been getting them at a lake I fish for crappies, one group has been trolling with frozen suckers. DNR weed dude said the other group uses ‘artificials’ but he did not know what kind. Trolling a rattling crank might work.

Read an interesting artical in In Fisherman online about fishing for them with lures. Their hearing is 4x better than bass & walleye, they see well and can detect motion, so makes sense that they would hit a chatterbait. Might just roll for them next week with a rattling crank.

3Rivers wrote:

One of the main reasons I catfish is that I can toss out a bait, kick back and put my feet up, fire up some classic tunes, sip on a cold beverage, and wait for the rod to get slammed over.

100%

You could have that same plan for walleye and bass. Bass? find a point on a weed edge, a laydown in deeper water, shiner minnow, bobber, 6 of Bud. Live frogs next to thick weeds, Coors Lite.

tim hurley wrote:

You could have that same plan for walleye and bass. Bass? find a point on a weed edge, a laydown in deeper water, shiner minnow, bobber, 6 of Bud. Live frogs next to thick weeds, Coors Lite.

The secondary reason is that Cats will pull some drag off my reel.

I like it when channel cats are actively hunting. Caught my biggest channel on a 1 oz. CastChamp while just fishing for pikes and dogfish. I thought I hung up on a log but then the log started to struggle and swim away.

Totally agree Bob.

They sure do slam crankbaits sometimes.They are fun to catch but they can do a number on a shad rap- bending wire/breaking hooks.Have caught some big channel cats pulling a shad rap behind a few colors of leadcore on the Croix,they really fight!

Time to fish cats with lures again, great to have a 8lb kitty explode on a spinner in a foot of water. Any recommendations for lakes aside from the Horseshoe Chain? Thanks

A few years back I sold some Curado 300s to a guy in Virginia that wanted them for catfish. I told him he was nuts and then he sent me pictures of 40+ lb flats and 60+ lb blues that he caught on swimbaits.

Any scented lure will find them where there is a current. The Channel Cats are better than a Largemouth for pulling & duration. The Mepps spinner & rubber minnow are very good on Channels.

The biggest 2 channels I’ve ever caught were on crank baits around this time of year pulled fast at around 3mph. When they’re feeding, they seem to crush a variety of offerings.

Ohh I have that rubber minnow thing in my basement too. Yup while so many other species are taking things softly cats are hitting hard.

Cats are hitting lures, looks like something hit this guy too

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