Channel Cats and Leaches.

Whats up with the channel cats and leaches? Pitching jigs and leaches for walleyes this last weekend on pool 2 and the channel cats would not leave them alone. 1st spot we got into them was on a nice step 10′ deep shoreline with plenty of bait around. Then it was off to some rocky day markers with decent current on them. Not sure if those cats where keying in on the jigs hitting the surface or what but in most cases it didnt take very long for them to find our jigs. The last day mark we fished must of pulled 12 decent size channel cats off in 45 minutes to a hour. This was middle of the day to.

Not sure if this was just a fluke bite we got onto or if there is something to it. Anyone else pitch jigs for channel cats?

Sorry for no pictures of the cats. Maybe next time.

I have read about spots on the Miss where huge numbrs of channels will congregate over sandbars where leeches are emerging. Never saw it myself, but I guess they are used to eating the stupid things!

I found the pattern here on the lake when my friend wanted to go leech fishing for walleyes. After 9 cats and no walleyes I began to ponder how good the catfishing would be if I targeted them using what I learned over the years fishing for cats on the river. The moral is anything that is edible a channel cat will eat if they are hungry. I’ve seen them so full of bugs they couldn’t eat another mosquito at times. I’ve used dragging jigs with great success in the spring using a crawler and a jig.

I would think the best part of fishing channel cats with leaches is not having to use stink bait. That stuff stinks.

So do dirty diapers if you smell them. Trouble with leeches is they don’t smell enough and those darn bait fish keep pulling down my floats. Leeches also cost a pretty penny compared to prepared baits. There are times when stink bait outperforms everything and even when it is not I keep one rig with that out all the time because it calls fish into my cut rigs.

I’ve gutted young channels for dinner that were full of cotton(wood) seeds. Tough to string those on a hook.