Hi all,
so far in my fishing career, I have only targeted white bass, but since I use shad mostly, I do get the occasional cat every now and then.

so this morning the bite was slow after the sun came out and I was snagging every other cast so I got tired of rigging with my fluorocarbon leader and just looped 2 hooks 16'' apart and tied a sinker at the end. i decided to cast and stick my rod in the rod holder and just sit and enjoy the beautiful day.

the bite came pretty quick but most are either one big strike and no more action or it's subtle strikes that I couldn't set the hook. about a hour with this way I managed to set hook on a small hybrid and 2 channel cat. the larger cat was a 2 pounder and fight much harder than any sandie i ever caught.

what I noticed was that my bottom bait was untouched while the top bait was torn to pieces and the hybrid was the only thing that strike the bottom bait. I always thought cats are bottom feeders why are they striking the higher hook instead of the lower one? I also see most people fishing cat during night but I always seem to catch them after the sun comes out and when the sandie stop biting.

anyways, catching those cats was fun this morning and Im thinking about expanding my targets for more fun while out at the lakes. hope the pros can give me a few pointers

thanks

Cats are not at the bottom right now. They are sucking small fry on top water.

It's a common misconception that catfish are strictly bottom feeders, they feed and chase bait near the surface much like any other fish. It's not uncommon to find catfish sucking grasshoppers off the surface during summer either. I catch them 3-4' deep over 7-10' of water during the spawn all the time.

I agree with crappiecatcher. Some of the biggest cats I've caught were 18-24" off a bobber at night.