Yep, you’re seeing things correctly….no need to see an eye doctor or run a virus scan on your computer. This is by accounts my first ever catfish report on IDO. What is the world coming to….?
My coworker Shane has told me he’d heard of a Catfish bite on Pool 7 last week. Throughout the week we tried to secure plans to make chasing this rumor a reality. Fortunately today was the day and from what I saw, we picked a beauty of the day to chase these fish.
The real gem to this fishing spot is the fact it’s quite difficult to fish by boat. The real way to capitalize on this spot is to walk in by foot and fish from the bank.
I haven’t fished from shore in years. All the spots I used to fish as a kid are still good, but it’s running up & down the river in a boat that gets me going. To be honest, fishing from shore tonight was a real treat. There’s something about kicking back, watching your rod leaning up against a rock waiting to see a bite take place.
It’s incredibly therapeutic.
The standard river rig we used this afternoon is the same one that worked for me 28yrs ago. Although today the hot bait happened to be chicken liver. Crawlers produced a laundry list of bottom feeders but no Catfish. I can’t ever remember a time when I’ve used chicken liver for bait. Maybe that’s because I rarely get the chance to chase Catfish. Not sure the War Dept. will want me storing a cache of chicken liver in our fridge. LOL!!
I like to chase a wide variety of fish on Pool 7. It’s really a crying shame I don’t devote more time to pursuing Channel Cats and Flatheads. They truly are pillars of the fishing world. There’s not many freshwater fish that pull harder and peel line off the drag like a Catfish.
Special thanks go out to Shane and his family for allowing me to spend the evening with them chasing a tough fighting Catfish. I hope to do it again and this time I will bring my Thermacell. Not sure I can afford to lose that much blood again in the short of a time frame.
Do you give lessons?
Nice report Tom! I’m not sure what this mud is going to do for our cat fishing up this way.
PS when the skeeters start sucking your blood and it’s getting low in your body…does your hair turn gray?
Looks like a lot of fun Blue!
Here’s 2 more pics I forgot to add last night.
Lessons….??? Nope, I’m just a fiddler in the catfishing universe.
The high water should help this spot. Loss of water clarity might not help though, then again they are feeding off scent.
My hair is already grey….I guess the next evolution would be for it to fall out.
Nice fish Fleck, in fairly shallow water?
Nice fish crew, great read a pics Blue
Great report and pics!
Nice story
and you’re right nothing more therapeutic than fishing. Can’t wait to get up there next week!
Yep. 6ft or thereabout.
Great report Tom. Looks like a blast.
And don’t try blaming your gray hair on your kids, they’ll eventually figure out that it’s just because you’re old. 
Thanks Mike. Bret and I hit the water and after getting him some ‘gills for a fish fry, we slipped the boat into the catfish spot and put 4 nice sized cats in the boat. We did get a few of them on the camera to share here. The biggest was 24.5″.
That was a blast dude. I make a good net man. Ast least I did get to wrestle with one of them whiskered critters
Here kitty kitty kitty !!!
You sure do make that look like fun Tom !!!