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

.

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 ...

Soap works, and well.

Also, dead groundhog.... left to "ripen" outside overnight and at least 6 hours of daylight.... cut into chunks, thread on the hook like the soap, and toss the stinkin' mess (and it will be) in a deep pool. Groundhog is tough, and stays on the hook, and it's greasy/oily for a good smell distribution.

I think I'll stick with soap....

Some great advice so far. Don't forget peeled crawdad tails if you can catch them.

MtnHtr

bought some zote today. will try tonight.

Probably not in time for your tourney but anyways.

Fresh cut fish is far and away going to be your most consistent bait. Forget the rotten stuff and novelties. You can run a siene thru the milk to get goldeye and plains minnow. You could also buy creek chubs at the bait shop and ice them. They key to catching lots of cats is to fish hard and fast, especially on a small river like the Milk. Concentrate on the deeper holes and don't overlook riffles. I typically use a basic bottom rig (lindy rig to a walleye man) but will also use drift rigs with floats or just split shot.

If cats are in a hole you usually will have action in minutes. Don't stay in one spot for more than 20 or 30 minutes unless you are still catching fish. I would float long sections of river with a canoe or small flatbottom. Just have your buddy bring his truck to drop off at the end of your run. I have fished cats a lot on the smaller rivers in eastern SD and have been very successful this these techniques.

Wife had company this weekend and took them across the border for the mexican tour. She and the guests brought the typical stuff but I ran into the zost soap for 35 cents a bar and me and $2.40 parted ways. Guess I can always use it in the bathtub or something.

Sounds like your priorities are in order....

So, how is the zote soap working? Any of you guys catching anything yet? The wife and I caught 10 channels last Sunday, and, another 9 yesterday on Sonny's Blood Dip Bait and a dip worm. Most were around 1 1/2 - 3 pounds, good fillet size. I did catch a 7 pounder yesterday.

Reference the crawdad tails, years ago a guy swore by peeled shrimp for bait. I tried it several times and couldn't keep the turtles off the hook. Would you have the same trouble with the crawdad tails? I haven't beaten a good dip bait and worm with anything yet.

i caught six cats this weekend on zote. might have to move my trotline. not getting the action i think i should. stuff smells pretty good to me, and i was wash up with a piece of bait after running the line.
how's that for efficiency?

Here in Arizona, I've caught countless channels (and some flatheads, too) using SUNFISH as bait. We use cane poles rigged with a number 6 baitholder, baited with a mealwork, to catch small sunfish. We fish the sunfish (dead, alive, or in pieces) on the bottom. Works every time, better than any other bait I've tried.

In some states it is illegal, but in others, it is legal to use sport fish for bait if you catch them yourself. You can net your own blueback herring or shad to use for striped bass or hybrid bass. You can catch a panfish or a trout on a hook and line, and then use it for bait for big catfish or striped bass in rivers like the Congaree and Savannhah.