Want to try something new for cats this summer?

I was watching the IDO Fishing Video from Season 3 Episode 8 “Draggin Jigs for Mid-Summer Walleyes”. If you haven’t watched it go up to Videos on the IDO Bar at the top of the page and click on videos and take a few minutes and watch that video.

I know they are catching walleyes but pretend every fish is about a 34″ channel cat because I am pretty sure that same application will work for channel cats. If you listen to James and Jason they were always wondering if the fish would be a cat or a walleye. Guess why – they get quite a few cats just dragging leeches and nightcrawlers. I will learn new things from anybody and those guys created a learning experience for me when I watched that video. I fish a ton of water just like they were fishing when chasing cats so I should be able to replicate their experience just for cats instead of walleyes. Instead of dragging a leech or a nightcrawler hang a nice chunk of cut sucker, cut bullhead or cut creek chub on that jig and I have a feeling you are going to be on some cats.

I ordered up about a half dozen Draggin Jigs immediately after watching that video. Those jigs would work perfect for cut bait. I’ve got the draggin jigs in my cat box waiting for the first opportunity to give it a go.

Yep….we caught a LOT of cats dragging jigs on the Miss. Mostly channels but a couple of small flats too if I remember correctly. I stick a bunch on Wissota every year dragging jigs too, so this is not a technique that is confined to the big muddy. Maybe next year we’ll do a cat dragging show where we declare every fish a walleye and get disappointed if a 30″ class cat isn’t in the bag of the Beckman.

All of the cats I catch while dragging jigs are caught during the day. No need to fight the bugs. Pull some live bait on B-Fish-N tackle draggin jigs and catch all the daytime cats you’d like!

Very cool. I have heard of people doing this behind lock and dams before. They were bottom boncing cut bait for cats. They said the head works best or if the bait is small just cut the side and scale it to let the oils out. Good luck and let me know how it works out.

So there I was on the lake last year trying to do this no weight drifting tactic I’ve heard so much about on the croix and miss, but I found that to get a bait down 30 feet in the lake with wind and current as a factor didn’t do me very well. So I just happened to have a bunch of BFT jigs along and reinvented this wheel on my own and much to my surpise I found that if I did that with quarter or more oz jig and if I also tied a sonny’s worm on that with a 3 way swivel. Similar to the Dubuque rig. They sometimes eat that over the cutter and I think will follow the scent until they are hungry. I am targeting the thermocline though not the bottom so much. If you have a perfect day with very little wind you can run this rig and it looks like a spider rigged crappie boat. I intended to do this more last year but ended up with not as much time as I would have liked with the conditions necessary to do it.

DRAGON JIGS~THEY’RE NOT JUST FOR WALLEYES ANYMORE!!

The thing about a bait on a jig, is you have total feel and control. Precision.

I got a few 1/2 stand up jigs, with 1/0 hooks that should work perfectly for channel cats. Haven’t given them much of a try, should be perfect for tossing cut-bait right up into cover…

I’ve also used a jig below a float to fish cover in ponds. Easier to lob right next to branches and stuff without getting hung-up. If there’s big cats, be sure you have a decent hook that won’t straighten too easily.

Shawn