WillowCats – How & when to fish them?

I am new to fishing willow cats. Have a couple walleye spots that I know have big fish in them, have caught them trolling. But I would like to try willow cats in these spots when the big girls don’t seem to want to bit. I have heard they are good for big fish, but I have just never really tried them. What are some rigging techniques for them and what are the likely spot to fish them. A couple of my spots have 5ft shallow bars infront of soem deeper 10-14 ft water. I have to assume the big girls come up on these bars to feed – that is typically where I pull them off when trolling, but what is the best way to fish a willow cat at these spots? Jig with the cat or a snell?

Little help here?

Thanks

OLETOM

Rig em..jig em..heck it dont matter you cant hardly fish them wrong. Just get them in front of the fish’s nose! Sometimes they will just blast these things and sometimes they want nothing to do with them. I sent you a private also.

Whats so good about willowcats is that they have a smell too them…so the fish just dont see them they can smell them too…The only thing i’ve caught on them too is smallies an walleyes…so theres another bonus……you dont have to mess around with those darn sheepies!!!!

Used to have people come in to the bait shop 30+ years ago to get all the willow cats we had. They used em for catfish. The big flatheads loved em. I think they went on a lot of bank poles too. But the majority went to the walleye fishermen.

Flathead’s just love the larger willow cats and its REALLY common to have to tangle with a few flats on a dam and get them out of the way before the walleyes even get a chance to look at the willow cats. Hougom and I have been faced with the descision to leave a dam or not during a tourney because all we kept catching was flats and it was chewing up too much of our time. Yet we knew this dam had some dandy walleyes on it. Point is, lots of species love them little critters. Pike, smallies (especially big pot-bellied smallies!)… saugers. They all scarf one if given the chance. Great bait if you can find and afford them!

Im also curious on this seemingly upper Miss. oriented pattern.My question is where do they come from?What areas of the country do they come out of? Are they seined have to be trapped or fished?Ive been trying since the weekend to find theyre distribution in the US, but cant find anything out about them.Got to say its got my eyebrow raised.Anyone can provide some info, I might get some sleep tonight.Thanks

prchjerker, I sent you a pm.

James or Steve,
by chance could one of you scrounge up a pic of a willow cat?

Here is a pic of a willow cat.

Here is some more info:

http://www.gen.umn.edu/faculty_staff/hatch/fishes/tadpole_madtom.html

Hey Hougie do those things hurt at all when they sting ya????

Flick, Be vewy vewy cewfull. heh heh heh heh! Some people even get sick when horned by them. It hurts like, well, it hurts. Best remedy is to rub slime from the willow cat on the wound.

Bob Veglahn at Tri-State bait in La Crosse told me that once.

Ive been stuck several times and Im am not certain that rub the slime remedy ever did anything for me…it still continued to sting like hell. One time I was stung so bad that my left arm from my elbow to my finger tips went numb for about half an hour. Willow Cats are nasty little devils take extra caution when handling them. James did a little demo one time where he held a large willow cat in his palm and it bit his index finger repeatedly! Their mean!

Steve, It may not work for everyone but it does for me. But then again not always. Maybe it depends on how deep he got me. Not sure.Might be why they call them Mad Toms, except it’s the fisherman who gets mad. Wondering if perhaps grabbing them by the dorsal with a pair of needle nose pliers would help prevent a wound? If anyone tries it let us know how it worked. I don’t have access to any down south here.

I have heard of a couple guys hand and in some cases arms swolling up pretty good. Worse than a good bee sting.

I have yet to get stung, but I am sure it will happen as I use them more often. Think of them like a tinny bullhead or cat, but instead of using your whole hand to grip them, use just your finger tips. I put pressure up on each of the spines so they are infront of my finger tips and then hook the little devils. Seems to work for me.

Just wondering how the rest of you hook them up?

Awhile back i seen a thing called a willowcat scoop that held the willowcat in a tight litte area so it was easy to hook them…it was a handy little scoop….but i have looked an i cant find them anymore….

I have 2 tips for handling–hooking willow cats. The 1st one is get yourself some kind of container that will hold “DRY” sand like a coffee can with a lid or tupperware,ice cream bucket etc. Fill it about 1/4 to 1/2 full of “DRY” fine sand. Use a minnow net to select witch cat you want to use, now throw the cat into the container of sand.The cat will flop around and will become immobilized when the sand sticks to it. Now carefully put him on the hook. It works!
The other way is to simply use a leather glove. I will wear a glove on my left hand to hold the cat with and hook him with my right hand with out a glove. Again it works for me. Later–V

Thanks Pro V, good idea!

Where to get them now? The La Crosse Area is out of them. tried 3 different spots last night. Seems everyone is using them. They are selling like hot cakes.

High water has created bad scoopping conditions for them. so there are few or none to be had, unless you count the 5 dozen in my livewell.

Randy, I use the leather glove trick too. I am glad you mentioned it. I am always embarrased when people see me using one. But I have NEVER been stung and don’t plan on it happening. I am a wimp.

Stizo (ZB)

You been scooping your own or just buying them off of Stacy like the rest of us guys do? I haven’t been in the need to buy up any yet this year but I’m interested in taking the time to learn to find my own. I know some guys that scoop locally for personal use and they do real well. That’s probably the way to go since those ‘lil devils are so darned expensive.

Curiosity just has the better of me (for the second time this AM) so I was just wondering!!

I don’t have enough free time to scoop anymore, I just buy alot from Brad when there are alot around, usually 10 dozen at a time. Keep the water fresh and cold in your baitwell and they will last forever.

Another great way to handle the lil’ critters is to carry a small pack of gauze along. Drop one from your minnow net onto the gauze. Take your nail clipper out and clip that lil’ dagger off, place it on your hook of choice, toss it in the water and hang on………

And if you cut yourself by accident you can always use the gauze to bandage yourself!

What in the heck is Spider-Man doing in that picture?! That is the funniest thing I’ve ever seen. Hope I can get to sleep tonight, since my gut hurts so bad from laughing……….

Mark

Has anyone ever tried fishing a small bullhead side by side a willow cat?Reason Im asking, is I know for fact, that walleyes love small bullheads like popcorn. This is especially true in a couple northern Iowa lakes.The other reason,is I talked to the head Fisheries Biologist for Iowa ,and he said that theyll fish the same.Are they so hard to come by because theyre scarce, or because not many trap them?From the research Ive done, it doesnt sound like an easy fish to seine.What is scooping?I may sound like a dumb hick, but to tell you the truth I cant find very many people south of lansing that have ever heard of fishing willowcats.Im intriqued by this presentation, and would like to add it to my arsenal.Thanks to Herb Im going to try some of our chubbing creeks to see if we can trap some madcats.They do live in the eastern 2/3rds of Iowa creeks, although not in any numbers. Anyone that can shed some more light will be appreciated.Thanks P.J.

I don’t know mwchiefs,,,,, Is that even legal what spiderman is doing in that pic ?

Is the spidey thing a general sillyness thing left over from the GTG? Gotta admit……………started chuckling the second I saw it……………..and I’m still chuckling minutes later! For all those old Adam West/Batman fans…………..it reminds me of when he was trying to be “hip” with the Cat Woman…………..it’s so ridiculous it’s funny!

Sorry for the banterous post……………just had to comment!