Help for a Catfish Newbie?

Hey guys! Great forum. My father-in-law (Walleye guy) sent me here after bugging him about Catfish. It’s one of my goals this year to catch one. I’ve been out several times in Bloomington on the River fishing with stink bait on a single hook, weighted with a 2 oz and haven’t caught anything yet. I’m going out again tonight down by Shakopee with my dad. Any advice or hot spots to look for for a newbie? Thanks.

Ashman,

Generally I don’t touch stink bait until the last week of May and sometimes not even then. You would probably do better with cut bait right now. If you are fishing from the bank, throw out a gob of night crawlers on one pole and a good sized 1 to 3 oz chunk of fish on another. Thow it in any deep hole and you should be in business.

Great! Good to know. I’ll pick up some crawlers. I also forgot you can use two poles on the river. Thanks for all the help. One more question… is there any tricks to finding ‘holes’ if you fishing from shore?

The outside of bend should provide deeper water…

Cattin_Addict

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Generally I don’t touch stink bait until the last week of May and sometimes not even then.

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I only used stink bait when I was first starting out as a catman. Haven’t touched it in over 8 years. Cut bait!!!!! enough said.

Hey AshMan – you can only use two rods on the river border waters with Wisconsin. If you are fishing the Shakopee area you can only use one rod. You don’t want to get caught using two rods – the penalty is stiff.

Wow – you guys are a huge help. If… WHEN I catch when tonight I will take a picture and post it asap. Summary – 1)cut bait over stink. 2) Outside bends of river. 3) Stick to 1 rod on the MN side. (close call). I’ll use crawlers for now because I haven’t read enough from this site yet to understand here or how ot get ‘cut’ bait. Thanks.

Ash,

Sorry about that I did not see the Minnesota part. They have fishing regulations for their regulations. I would suggest moving to the nice side of the river. Cut bait is simply a fish that is cut into peices. I generally use suckers. The gob of night crawlers will no doubt produce at least one sheepie or sucker you can cut up. Don’t forget that cats bite much better at night and make sure you secure your one pole or you will have no pole. Cats are famous for yanking poles off boats or shores.

Here’s one way of using cut bait. Most people like the center or head section with lots of guts hanging on…but you should get the idea from the picture…good luck!

Had alot of luck last weekend down by St. Peter on the Minnesota. We used cutbait after our suckers were gone, and it seemed as though mooneye worked about the best. Wound up with a 9 pound channel that bit on a 2 inch chunk of mooneye stomach meat. My other buddy was using berkely powerbait, swears by it. He didn’t even get a bite. I’d say stick with the cutbait, or live suckers. The suckers really help weed out those tiny little pesky cats.

I still use a lot of chicken liver for catfish. It works well for me.

Gator Hunter

most of the cutbait i use is suckers, either catch them or buy the big ones and cut them into thirds. bullheads work good as cutbait as well, just catch a few of them and cut them up and use them as well. From my experence, stinkbait is good for catching small kittys, under a pound, and thats all the luck i have had, cutbait getting you bigger and more of what we are looking for.

good luck,

Cattin_Addict

oh yeah, as far as the one or two rods go, correct me if I am wrong , but you can use two rods if you are fishing a boarder water ie. river seperates two states. doesnt matter what side of the river you are fishing from. i know this is true on the red river that seperates MN & ND, and would assume that to be true between MN & WI.

Cattin Addict

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oh yeah, as far as the one or two rods go, correct me if I am wrong , but you can use two rods if you are fishing a boarder water ie. river seperates two states. doesnt matter what side of the river you are fishing from. i know this is true on the red river that seperates MN & ND, and would assume that to be true between MN & WI.

Cattin Addict

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If you are from Wisconsin and are fishing the WI side of the border waters you can use three rods.

Gator Hunter

Any suggestion for line weight and hook size?

I use 65 pound test power pro. 1.5-5 oz weight and a big old circle hook or a 10/0 Gamgatsu. Cats are not hook shy. Use the biggest ones you can get away with for the bait you are using.

Do you need a leader with catfish?

for my cat fishing i use 50lb power pro, and depending on the current use a 3 oz no roll sinker, tied to a barrel swivel, then a 8-12 inch mono leader 20-30lb and a 10/0 hook for flats or a 6/0 for channels. very basic setup but also very effective.

Hope this helps,

Cattin_Addict

oh yeah, mealy….which is the secret way to put on no rolls? small side up or down

Cattin_Addict

ps, i really hope more people dont find out about this

I use 80lb for Cats, and 50lb for BASS… ….

JC on the other hand, uses 80lb for BASS, I could only imagine what he uses if he fished for Cats…

JC? wait,,,he’d never do that

I’ll get JC out fishing cats this year even if it kills me. Strangely enough, I’ve been doing very well catching flatheads on crankbaits. I had a true giant in a tourney a month ago. It was as long as the lid on JC’s rod locker. In a 20ft Triton bass boat, that’s a LONG rod locker.

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secret way to put on no rolls

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No more secrets for you CA! And I’m certainly not going to tell you my secret way to attach the hooks…

( I can’t believe you said that!