I have never fished for cats before now that I got a boat I want to try it. I know this is a river forum, but there is a near by lake that have decent size cats in them. What should I use for bait and tackle. Flavor, type of food, hook size?
Thanks
Are we talking lakes or resevoirs? When it comes to catfish, the two are night and day different.
Cattin’ in lakes has always been a problem with me. The current in rivers does three things for me:
1. Keeps the line taught to the bait – forktails are notorious bait thieves. If you’re using enough weight to keep the bait from drifting in a lake, then there’s probably just enough slack line that you will miss about 1/3 of the fish.
2. Easy location – River current will stack up log jams and other cover and make it easier to eliminate a whole lot of water that won’t hold fish.
3. Decent current keeps the turtles of my line when I’m fishing with liver.
On lakes, I’d stick with crawlers, cut bait, leeches, and crawdads. Leeches and crawdads seem to get the bigger fish for me, but you might end up with a lot of rough fish (like walleyes and bass) playing tug-o-war. Chicken livers will get bites, and land a lot of good eater sized fish, but keeping the turtles and the fiddlers off gets to be a hassle.
On resevoirs, I wait for high water (right now, for instance) and drift in the current. Cats are in traditional ambush spots like cove mouths, points facing the current, eddies, etc.
great posts !!!!! ” but you might end up with a lot of rough fish (like walleyes and bass) playing tug-o-war”
In Texas I did a lot of lake fishing for cats. Did it all from shore too. Big bonfire and lots of beer. Big hook, giant gob of liver or shrimp and a lighted bobber. Always caught fish. Bobber fishing is a lot of fun but hard to do on the river. At least I haven’t found any place to do it. My biggest problem was keeping the water moc….. snakes off of my stringer of catfish.
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