Home Forums Fishing Freshwater Channel cats........................tips?

a good friend and i both recently bought houses so funds are low.....he usually joins the walleye tourny's up at the lake during the summer but prolly isnt going to this year do to being short on funds.......he came across a fishing tourny for the first weekend of next month....entry fee per 2 person team is $50 so hes jumping on it like a starving dog on a steak but the issue is its fishing for channel cats over on the Milk River.......neither of us have ever intentially fished for catfish and neither of us have fished the Milk River.......but for $25 per person we said what the hell sounds like my wife and his soon to be wife will enter as a team aswell.......

we've both caught catfish before, on accident, while fishing for walleye and saugers....not sure what he was using but i was generally floating a minnow about a foot off the bottom.....with 2 catfish to my name in 15 years that cant be the ideal setup......so any pointers? the Milk is a small river. we are going to make a couple scouting trips this month but not sure if we will get to do much pre-fishing.

Scout for some deep holes, whatever "deep" may be there, with very little current. Use a bottom rigged system(tightline) with some sort of stink bait. They have commercial stuff, but chicken livers and hot dogs work too. Many times, night fishing is where it's at for the big cats. If you are keeping the fish, use a treble hook with the weight about 18" above the bait tied off like a carolina rig. The treble hook should be completely buried in the bait, and its easier to cut the hook off and re-tie a new one with a new "leader" than it is to wrestle the hook out of the fish. The "leader" material can be a commercial wire leader, but we use 14-17# mono for the main line, and 25# mono for the "leader, below the Carolina rig swivel. Hope this helps...

if y'all's river harbors shad, get yourself a castnet, learn to use it, and use live shad and cut shad. if state law allows, use small, live native bream, too. ya might wanna put some cheap dried dogfood in a weighted bag, and hang from underneath your boat a little upstream from where you're fishing. kind of a nose chum.
get on the 'net for tips from up your way. catfishing is getting bigtime now, and there ard sites galore with what works in various regions.

channel cats will take dead bait chunks, stink baits, as well as live bait. even live shad have an oily copper penny aroma that really draws the fish.

Catfishin is where my Lady and I disagree on things. She's a diehard chicken liver user. I like using either live or cut baitfish. I use whatever I can get, bluegill, shad, herring. But we do agree on a nice summer night with some cold brews in a cooler.


Now that I think about it, the largest channel cat I ever caught was on a 4in Purple Blue Flake Gizit tube fishin for bass.

so basically be ready to try a few different things maybe this wont be so much different from fishing for walleye.......some of the bait just smells worse thanks guys

I don't buy that one. I always use fresh bait. When I was a kid I tried makin some bait with recipe I got outta outdoor life. I was just about run out of the neighborhood and really didn't catch that many fish.

ZOTE soap is the best channel cat bait you can get. I didn't believe for years and have been a dyed-in-the-wool catfisherman all my life. If you have a mexican market anywhere near there they'll have it.

How do you fish the Zote?

The two best baits I have found are Sonny's Catfish Bait (Stink bait) fished on a sponge or ribbed worm with treble hook. Anchor above a drift/brush pile and cast just upstream of pile. If you haven't been bit in 10-15 mins, pull anchor and move cuz they ain't there. This works best in light current, heavy current requires rebait after several minutes. My favorite in heavy current is shad guts. We caught over 100 head of Channel Cat this spring in just over a 24 hour period using these methods. You will catch all sizes and will have to cull to you get the biggest that your limit allows. The Sonny's is made in Iowa and is the best stink bait I have found.

CK

I like Sonny's Blood Dip Bait on a ribbed worm with a sponge treblehook.

I've been trying Sonny's but haven't had much luck. I guess I have to find a spot with more fish!!

I perfer the original Sonny's, but the Blood does work also.

CK

I guess that I'll have to head down to South Omaha and see about buying some Zote. I've heard that Ivory soap works well too!

Jeff

How do we use that stuff? Is the pink Zote best or the white?

I know we toss it in the water and when the cats come to wash up we dip them out with a net. But won't they be slippery with all that soap on them?

Grins,

Jim

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Now THAT'S funny!! I don't care who ya are!!

ltppowell shot me this via PM and I thought it was very informative so I'll put it up here...

Thanks, Nebraska

We just cut the Zote into little cubes and thread it onto the hook? Sounds simple enough, I'll try it tomorrow.

Is there any difference in the White and Pink Zote? For fish bait uses.

Jim

Jeff - just hit a Family Dollar store. I just picked up five 14oz (yes 14oz) bars of Zote $1/ea!!

i'm a trying some this weekend, i hope ...