advice for me, a cat newbie

Hi folks,
I am wanting to start catfishing here in MN. I live in Bloomington, close to the MN and MS rivers. I have a bunch of fishing equipment, including rods for muskies. Would some of you kind sirs please give me a basic lesson of where and how to start out for cats in the area? What type of tackle is optimum (lb. test in particular/braided or mono)? Are there good spots within a hour drive of me (please share general areas)? Is it safe to anchor in rivers at night, or might I lose my anchor (should I just pull up to shore with the boat?)? Should I just look for trees hanging in the water, or logjams? Consider me a student in Cattin’ 101, as I’ve never done it outside of saltwater before. Is it easy to catch bullheads anywhere, to use for bait? Any0 basic, or advanced tips, would help me out a bunch. Thanks!

OK, nevermind, I didn’t really want any help.

Patience grasshopper. You made your initial post Friday afternoon when all the cat guys were chomping at the bit for a night on the water and the rest of the weekend is for fishing or trying to convince the ladies to let them go! All the cat guys will be back sunday night – monday and be more than willing to help and you’ll be able to get after ’em next weekend with all their million dollar cat catching advise and wisdom.

Hey Fishface – Sounds like you are looking for the Cliff Notes for Cattin’ 101. I don’t think there are any. Cattin’ 101 is an elective course and the normal semester runs from late April until late September and involves a lot of on the water experience. I can recommend a couple of good text books. Go to this website: http://catalog.catfishconnection.com/ This is one of many catfishing websites. They offer two books I would recommend for a new catfisherman; “Channel Catfish Fever” put out by In-Fisherman Inc and costs about $9; “Fishing for Catfish” written by Keith Sutton, cost is about $17.95. You may be able to find both these books at Gander Mountain or Fleet Farm. There are also a number of excellent In-Fisherman videos available. Both the books and the videos will provide you good beginning information to help you get started. They provide good information on equipment, terminal tackle, rigging, baits, how to find catfish in rivers and lakes, etc.

As far as where to fish that is something you are going to have to learn by following this website and getting out and on the water learning your own spots to fish. You have some great catfishing within an hour of the Twin Cities; the Minnesota River, the Mississippi River, the St Croix River. Send some Private Messages (pm’s) to some of the people on this site and see if you can get a seat in a boat. There are a lot of serious catfisherman that post on this site and they share a lot of information. Stay on this forum and look at the historical posts listed. Go back in these posts and read some of the information that has been shared. All of us started where you are at and we keep plugging along learning more on each cat fishing trip.

Very good advise C.
Fishhead…(not to be confused with Fishface) guides on the MN river. You might want to look him up for a half day sometime. I went on a guided ice trip with Turk last year on my home water and learned more in a few hours than I could believe.
I’ve been out with Fishhead…you won’t be disappointed.

Ps there maybe others that guide on the MN river too.

Almost forgot! If you mention that you are a member of In-DepthAngling.com….I think you get a discount

But I wouldn’ t mention my name….he might charge you more!

Your muskie tackle will suffice for flatheads for now. Forty pound Berkley Big Game or 80 lb. Power Pro Braid would be good flathead choices for line. 7/0 – 10/0 hooks for flatheads.

Channel cats would require about 17-20 lb mono or a 65lb.ish braid. Heavy bass tackle will work for now. If you decide you like ths cat’n stuff you can specialize your tackle later. Hooks – 3/0-5/0 straight or cirlce hooks. I prefer circles. DON’T set the hook with circles. Just let them hook themselves. Cut up chunks of sucker or chub for bait. Maybe some crawlers if you don’t mind catching other stuff.

Here’s a pic of some of the the weight styles and the rig that I use 98% of the time. It’s basically a giant lindy rig. I use 1-3 oz. for cut bait and 4-5 oz. for flats.

Thanks. I guess the grasshopper (me) was chomping at the bit. When I see big fish pics, I want to catch big fish…now. I got my first fix this year with a 47.5″ muskie out of Minnetonka last week on a spinner. I still had the winter rust going on. Now it’s shook off. I think we’ll try the Minnesota River upstream of I-35. I’m willing to go about 15 miles up, so I’ll see what goes down.

fishface
Send me a PM and I can help you out.