Haven't been catfishing since the early summer and have never cat fished this time of year. Deer activity is slow and painful and I have a long weekend coming up so I thought I'd go run a few lines this weekend for a fish fry this sunday. What I'm gathering based on everything I've seen on here and by talking to a few people, I need to be fishing pretty deep (15-25+ ft). Is this accurate? I don't really have deep water trot line spots on my tiny little lake but found a good looking area the other day I was wanting to try. Also, whats the bait recommendation right now? I have an unlimited supply of bluegills or should I buy frozen shad or shrimp? not really looking to target channels, blues, or flats specifically. I like to eat them all. Any advice will be appreciated fellas.

I'd go fresh over frozen any day.

jmh004 thats what i was thinking too. just wanted to get other opinions since I've never fished this time of year.

thanks

shad if you can catch enough. bluegill if not shad. minnows if not bluegill or shad. frozen shad as a last resort imo. i've NEVR had a bite on frozen shad, unless maybe it was frozen fresh from your own cast net. the little ones at the store are worthless.

thanks for the the advice catcrap. we never had really good luck with frozen shad either. baits got picked really really easily and they are too brittle. nice to know someone else thinks the same.

Go with jug lines and those blue gills. You can set your jugs as deep as needed. Set them up with trotline clips at the depth needed.

Throwing my trotline out tomorrow on Conroe in the back of the house, up against the bulkhead in 8 ft of water using no. 6 treble baited with bream and chicken livers. Have done decently there at this time of year. Usually get 6 to 8 fish each time it's baited. Channel cats mainly from 3 to 5 lbs average.