Home Forums Fishing Freshwater Catfish Biting

It's that time of year the catfishing is good. Wife and I caught 20 Monday and 27 today in 3-4 fow on nightcrawlers and a few on hotdogs. Will go again Monday next week wanting to put at least a 100 in the freezer before the heat of summer.

River fishing?


Last year i sat out about 25 catalpa seedlings.

This year still got about 18. Some knee high or better, bushing out.

Hopefully I’ll have enough worms for one trip.

Dave we were fishing False River it's à old Oxbow.

this weekend here on Clearlake is the annual Catfish Derby with over 500 folks entering it from all over. numbers don't count but its the biggest fish that counts.

Wife and I got on the water early this morning. The bite was slow cleaned 12 all were caught using nightcrawlers in 3-5 fow. Plan on going again Wed. Morning will try a different area seen a rip rap shoreline that could hold some catfish.

They're turned on here now, rivers are up to about 70° locally and the levels have dropped down nicely.

I was fishing redhorse yesterday and picked up a couple small-ish channels and a baby flathead as bycatch on little nibblets of crawler.

Do you pickle your Redhorse?

No, neither me or the wife are really fish eaters, so unless someone is with me and wants them (which is extremely rare) everything I catch goes back in the drink.

We were on the water early this morning fishing was good caught a bunch of small ones, kept 11 for the freezer all caught on nightcrawlers in 3-5 fow. Going to take a few days off will maybe go Monday morning.

I'm in coastal SC and have about a 3-acre pond behind my house. It's loaded with big bluegills, fliers, shellcrackers (Red-Eared), and nice Pumkinseeds. Bass appear to be large and healthy but most my fishing has been with the grands for panfish. Weeds are kept in check by some huge grass carp that excite when they grab a cricket by mistake. I knew we had a few cats but didn't realize how much and how big until this past full moon, when they were cruising the panfish beds. The one in pics is just over 40-in and according to my fish scales, just a hair under 40-lbs. That's my saltwater 30x22 net that I used to use mostly for cobia and big reds; as you can tell it won't hold all of that old fatty. His head was 11-in wide and his mouth was 8-in wide. The sad thing is he's the little brother to the one I just lost on ultralite - he just peeled off the 4-lb test to other end of the pond and there was no stopping him. That's when I went and got a bigger rod with 10-lb line but used the same bait: crickets - put three on a 1/0 hook and in less that a min this one was on. Still he about whipped my ass. Anyway, I weighed & measured him, took his mug shots, and let him go. You can see why they named them Blue cats that's for sure.

I guess elephants do eat peanuts . . .

you using circle hooks?


ive switched to circle hooks ( 1/0 or so) and the catch % has gone up.


they'll hook thmselves.

Dave I use circle hooks on juglines, This time of year I use a bait holder hook with a slip bobber on rod & reel.

RiverC, are most of yours Blues or Channels?

Offshoreman, All channels now that may change when we run our Juglines with cutbait Gonna catch some bream soon and keep some for bait.

ya'll ever catch motts / opps ( coonass terms), we call em tabby's ?

jaw/throat meat from big tabby's is delish!

I sent a summer running a couple of commercial lines on Lake Marion and the primary catch was Blues, followed by Whites and only the occasional Channel and very few Flatheads as we used dead bait.

We were on the water early this morning the bite was slow today cleaned 10 for the freezer. Most were caught on nightcrawlers and a few on raw shrimp in 3-4 fow. The wind picked up about 9:00 a.m. with white caps gave the Terrova 36v a good workout the spot lock is really nice on those windy days. Going to stay off water till next week to many crazies will be out this weekend. Last Friday night 2 bass boats collided head on both drivers were killed and 2 injured.

RiverC, do you ever use stink bait. I use it here up north , but only when it gets hot and the water is low. Did you all ever notice that the more turtles on the logs in the river the better the channel cats bite? As for me, I mostly smoke them. They are magic for my arthritis in my back. I smoked 6 Whitebass Sunday morning and ate one Sunday afternoon. I let them sit on a plate and a bunch of oils leaked out so I liked it right off the plate. It was darn smoky and salty , but I can feel the difference in one day , how much less my arthritis bothers me.

Not too often with stink bait I mostly use nightcrawlers for the size catfish i like to stock the freezer with. Last week wife used nightcrawlers caught 13 I used raw shrimp and hotdogs and caught 3 the smaller channel cats where i fish love nightcrawlers.

We got a pretty good flathead Saturday at the river.