Catfish in the slow water areas in my area.

Boy the last two days we’ve been fishing with dittypoles and have we caught the catfish.

We started fishing shallower areas thinking the catfish were up close to shore eating their fill of night crawlers but we were disappointed.

We moved out along the rivers edge in water that was 2′ to 8′ deep and that’s where the pre spawn females were. The bite was so good last night that my fishing partner and I had 10 poles out, 5 each and they were set behind log jams, brush piles, root systems and the bite was so good that after we came into the area we took a fish off our first pole and rebaited. Out of 10 poles we had 7 fish on, and then turned around and went back to where we started. As we took fish off the first run we went back down and there was already fish on that we had just rebaited, some just within 3 too 5 minutes.

We brought our fishing poles just incase the bite was slow but it was so good that each trip up and down this area, and just after taking fish off and rebaiting we had fish on, we couldn’t fish with our poles.

In two hours of just slowing running up and down this area checking dittypoles we caught 19 channels last night before we left for home and this early morning we checked our poles again and had another 12 nice channels, a few just after we took fish off and had just rebaited.

I had to go to work so I filled the 48 quart cooler with last night and this mornings catch an put ice over the top to keep them fresh. I’m going to be cleaning fish here in a few hours.

If anyone is looking for a good bite on channels check the shallow areas because the females still have their eggs and their ready to be layed. Now’s the prime time of shallow water dittypole and trotline fishing guys.

We got two close or at 10 pounds, about 6 to 8 around 5 or 6 pounds and the others were from a pound to 5, all good eaters. The total of 3 hours fishing was 31 fish and all were gotten in shallow water and out of the current.

Finally starting to warm up ey.. That’s great to hear Mossy, now you got me pumped up for tonight. umm what were you using if you don’t mind sharing

Sounds like a blast.That river has been a catfish factory for decades and I can’t believe the number of folks that come up to Pool 4 to catch cats and pass right by as good or better fishing spots.
Catfish,fried potatoes,baked beans and a big slice of Ma’s homemade bread smeared with strawberry jam for dessert.

You got that right Stuart, Mox you don’t have to be so polite to me, We were using small 2″ bluegills and the smaller channels were taking them off the hooks so we switched to bait shrimp. They were hooked so good that my fingers are sore from working the hooks loose, they were hooked so good we only lost one. We use a net and don’t take chances anymore but the drawback to that is the net gets wound up around their fin bones. Anyway their hitting very good right now and there’s a lot of blood on their eggs so their close to spawning soon.