Just curious...can you guys tell me what I am looking for when trying to catch yellow cat in a lake... on a flat beside a channel...how deep should the flat be... or is there a better location?

I love flatheads! With that being said I will say I'm still learning but through years of doing it wrong I finally am starting to catch them more consistently and do it right. Infisherman has some excellent books on the subject by the way you if you are up for a few good books!

I was always taught flathead catfish love cover and are predominately found around boulders and if you arnt fishing around cover you are making a BIG mistake. I'm starting to think whoever told me this was trying to waste years of my life!!! I fished around rocky/boulder drop-offs for years religiously throughout the year and rarely caught any. Of course, they are there in spring/early summer when they spawn, but after that, they are gone for the most part. I finally thought I'm going to go put my trotline out on a mud drop off where I have caught blues on my jug lines in the past and sure enough, had two flatheads on with basically no cover in sight but a contour change. This has happened several times for me. I'm still experimenting but my point is, don't be so cover oriented as many have taught to me because it just never paid off consistently for me.

I was told by some that the flatheads love creek channels and if they find a creek channel that comes next to the bank or a shallow flat with some cover then you are golden! Flatheads from what Infisherman books have taught me prefer shallower depths than many fish do. In summer they are likely to be in less than 10 feet of water, spring/fall they mostly concentrate in 10-15 feet, while in winter they typically found in about 20-25 feet. There are exceptions but GPS studies showed this to be a good pattern according to there books.

I hope that gives you a few pointers.

The main thing is the bait .... Flatheads like live bait best, usually brown or yellow bullhead is good as is live bream.
There is a little blue bream we call "slicks" (probably a green sunfish) that are the best type of bream.

Just a minute for a brief. You did not note the method you were using, be it R-n-R, jugline, throwline, limbline, or trotline. As variations must be figured in. Some use bream, or what we call perch, aka sunfish. As one of my two yellowcat teachers would say- "goggle eyed poich". The blue-green variety is what I use the most. Some use cut-up perch. I have nnever had any luck in cutting them up to catch anything. Some swear by shad, live, strung, or cut up. As for me, I have never had any luck with shad, anywhichaway. If I castnet some shad, I hand them over to someone who uses them.

And of course, I go by my Catfish Calendar, as to knowing when they run. See the thread- Lynn's Catfish Calendar. As for Yellows, there are two angles to key in on- the YC days (one of my 4 sigs), and the PYC (my Personal YellowCat days) which is the pattern according to their roam-feed circuit switch (nature's way of kicking them out of the house to go roam for food).

One who uses the Catfish Calendar on Lake Conroe, now only goes for Yellows on the YC and/or PYC days, as they decided to quit wasting time, if they wanted volume & consistency. If not mistaken, they use a spoon or slab with R-n-R method. Another uses them on several lakes around Granbury & D-FW area, be it by R-n-R or set lines (such as trotlines). They too use the Catfish Calendar for consistency. See the 2018 thread, as they had a few posts & pics. Access to previous threads are listed up in January or initial post for each year (and previous years back to mid-2010) of "Lynn's Catfish Calendar".

OK, that's all I have time for at the moment. Let me know the method or methods you are using & I can be a little more specific as to where. I'll add more this weekend.

i always use live bait for yellow cat and have no problem catching them in the river below the dam.....my questions is how to locate a prime spot in the lake, i cant imagine the method matters.... more important is where the fish are

On the Tennessee River, I use my side scan to locate a debris field on a sunken river ledge. Boulders, sunken logs, etc. I then anchor upstream and cast 4 rods into that area. Two on bottom, two with the bait suspended. I use live perch or cut skipjack. If no bite after 30 minutes, I move on. But if I'm losing gear, my bait is not in the right place.

Back when I fish for them religiously I used live bait and fish flats 8-10� deep that joined river and creek channels. A little structure was good also. Dark nights with most fish caught by 11pm. Also lots of fish from about two hrs before sun up to sun up.

You noted you were wanting more info, as to lakes, as you catch Yellows below the dam on rivers. But you still did not state which method you are focused upon.

Simply put, there would be 3 major areas. on the river or creeks, below the dam of a lake, and on the lakes in general.

In a lake body, there are general areas to concentrate upon as to location. In general, a Yellow will seek an area (apartment or region) that they can pounce upon unsuspecting prey. Examples are a floating log, stumps or trees, or brush piles.

However, there are exceptions like drop offs, holes, ledges, and changes in the contour of the bottom similar to these.

And then there is what I refer to as "paths" or others as "trails". The larger & older Yellows tend to follow this designated path in a lake. A river is slightly different, as the bottoms tend to change a lot due to flooding. For us trotliners, if you have your line set in some manner of cossing a "path", you will consistently catch Yellows much more than if you catch one from an "apartment", as another will come in to replace it, but that happens in time.

It seems that the paths consists of a hardened bottoms, meaning not muddy or sandy. Olen (one of my YC teachers) used to tell me that when you catch one from his apartment, eventually another will move in to take its place. He also used to say if you were on a path, and caught a big Yellow, you might be on a path. Never deviate your line more than 10 feet or you will be out of the path.

Some have shared that if you haven't discovered a path, you can use several methods to find the likely "paths" or "trails". One is to take a metal pole (possibly rebar, or metal pipe) & tamp the bottom to find hard ground. Not sure if it needs to be solid or hollow. Then expand from that point, until you find which way the hard ground extends. Once you have a bearing on that, continue until you have mapped a little of the YC "freeway". But also realize that the path may take a slight angle or even a 90 degree right angle turn. The pattern of the path on "The Giant" of my first encounter suggests that area as straight, then a hard right (90 degree angle), straight, then veers left (either a 45 degree or curve) and looks to be headed towards where I caught a 57# Op right near one YC area that I have caught others in. So I can safely assume they were taking the same path or had apartments on, or beside the path.

Others tell of using rope tied to a window weight, and ease around slowly to find hard ground. If I recall, you will either be able to hear the sound of the dragging change (of what the bottom is made of). Another indicator is the rope or cord, it may vibrate differently. And you can always check it dragging for mud or none, from time to time. Hang on, let me check to see exactly what I had in my notes from what I was told in April/May 2017 at RB of what one was told by his uncle. ... Hmm, still searching ... Found it. I had it in notes jotted down in late May 2018 & shared those notes in the June 2018 Calendar posting:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
If you recall (some of you), what I refer to as "paths", some call them "trails", as to YellowCats or Flatheads. I heard another way of searching for them, while at Running Branch Marina & Campground the weekend of May 5th/6th. I was told that my next door neighbor (there in the camping spots) had heard of something akin to this, I'm thinking he said it was his uncle. He spoke of using window weights. For those that do not know what a window weight is, it is a cylindrical (round) ingot of iron about 1.5 inches in diameter. The length could vary from 6" to 12" Your older wooden windows had rope on the side that attached to this weight. And there were wheeled pulleys. It acted to help raise & lower windows.

Anyway, my neighbor shared that you tied some rope to the window weight, lowered it & let out some slack. Then you travelled out some. I assume with motor running at a low & steady speed. You watched the line as to how the weight reacted to the bottom it was being dragged on. If it was smooth, chances were it might be mud. Maybe a little rougher in sand. But if you went over very hard to a rocky bottom, it had a definite look in how the rope reacted. In other words, it vibrated or shimmied a lot.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<

You noted dark or darker nights. I never had thought of it, but my boss a few years back, spoke of having his best luck with Crappie near the New Moonm, when nights were the darkest. And he asked me if it was the same for catfish. Hmm, I got to thinking about that & realized that when I caught the most Yellows, I recalled very pitch black nights. I had never even thought about it, until his comments.

In the larger oulook, big Yellows run the bottom so regardless of method, usually you want to fish deep. This is because of them running their path or trails. Another tip is to utilize my Catfish Calendar. I have two angles to key in on for Yellows. One is the Calendar targets which of my 4 "sigs" is the strongest pull for that given 24 hour period, being YC for YellowCats. Second is my PYC days. This is according to the underlying pattern of the Yellow's "roam-feed" circuit or "in-born" instinct. This is Nature's way of kicking them out of the house to roam for food.

Also noted in my KEY for the Catfish Calendar, is that Gator Gars also run the same "roam-feed" days as the Yellows. But they run a few hours earlier than the Yellows do. For this reason, I have shared that if you run set lines, bait out later, as Gator Gars will take your bait or you will catch them instead of the Yellows. For running set lines, a good roundover as to time is about 11 PM. Of course if you have baited earlier & no Gator Gars are in the area, then hopefully your live perch will still be there awaiting.

As per Rod-n-Reel, as mentioned, one who uses the Catfish Calendar on Lake Conroe realized that it seems they have best results (volume) on the YC & PYC days, and now do not target Yellows except on those specific days, or related Bleedover (which can run up to 12 hours ahead or behind). So they do not waste their time on other days.

Now the Calendar focuses upon the largest target volume of Yellows, Blues, and Gator Gars that run this "roam-feed" circuit. But not all follow it. My best estimates is that it applies to about 66% to 75% while the others run "rogue" (my term for those that do not follow the main "instinct").

Then there are also other figures to take into account. For instance, last weekend, one large group fished the top end of Lake Limestone running set lines. However, even though the Calendar was showing ZIP for all those days, due to other factors, they did very well using big perch. In my opinion, these were the factors which were working in their favor- rain, low pressure fronts, lightning & thunder, water level slowly rising, winds, and the first spawn of the year (Spring). At the north end of the lake, many Yellows tend to make their run to the river (that feeds into it) to spawn. There were multiple fronts coming in which brought sporadic items such as winds, lightning & thunder, rain, as well as low pressure. Plus due to rains, the water level rose up to a foot by Sunday. During a slow rise on the rivers, it triggers prime feeding, but a fast dramatic rise or fall, kills their feeding. This seems to work the same on the upper regions of lakes as well. Catfish go crazy with these factors. They are very pressure sensitive. Down at the bottom of the lake, they can sense certain items such as them opening the gates big time which can create certain pressure & sound that will literally kill their feeding, even though it may be prime time according to the calendar. So they caught a great amount of Yellows & Blues, even though the Calendar showed ZIP for the days of their trip. By the end of Friday (just before Midnight), they were up to 18 Yellows and 36 Blues. 48# was the biggest Yellow. Their ending count was: 32 Yellows, and over 100 blues. They took photos and released the 34, 37, 41, 41, and 48 pound YellowCats. They had to keep up to date on the local weather in order to avoid being caught on the lake during the treacherous fronts, which featured rain, lightning, thunder, and high winds at time. Lake Limestone is in general a NNW to SSE lake & north winds can bring 4 foot to 5 foot waves at the bottom of the lake. I can vouch for that, as I have been out twice and do not care to make a third time of that. But during that, the Cats will literally go into a ferocious eating spree on set lines that are out during that period.

I recall back in 2010 or 2011, during the Spring spawn, Jeff & James (my two prize YC & Catfish Calendar students, who have added further input to the Calendar research), were fishing the top end & one group they saw, literally almost had a pickup bed of Blues mostly, as to when fronts & rain contributed to the haul. Jeff & James did pretty good, also. They had one big Cat that was messing with them in 2011 & Jeff asked for help (in June 2011) come 2012 to set them up with one of my "Planter" trotlines in order to catch it. Sadly, in January 2012, after the 2011 Summer drought (which dropped Limestone by 10'), I suffered extremely High BP & heart problems. And Jeff & his 2nd wife were brutally murdered near Mart, Texas so we never got the chance to pursue that big Cat. Meanwhile "The Giant" still roams just out of Running Branch, to which they first encountered & James (Jeff's son) was the only one to see its head & tail, as to how huge it is.

Another group about 16 years ago on Lake Limestone used to target either the Spring or late Summer spawn & set their lines either just above or below the bridge (FM 3371) in order to catch the Yellows as they migrated towards the river feeding into the lake. But one of the group watched me & knew I had some system as well, due to my consistency in catches (which was the Catfish Calendar).

One guy I ran into at The Bait Barn here in Bryan a few years back, maybe around 2009 to 2011, we were discussing Yellows & I was telling him of my Calendar. He noted that there was definitely a pattern on Yellows, as he used some sort of pressure system with a jug, that when it did a certain thing, the Yellows bite real good. And it was doing that, so he was about to go YellowCat fishing. As was I with my Calendar that weekend.

Looking back, as to Lake Conroe R-n-Rer ... OK, finally found it from 2015 after a 15 minute search in my massive archives ... Unedited ---
QUOTE>>>
1st note-
I live on lake Conroe and wanted to ask if you had ever fished here much? Ive been recording my catches before and while using your calender and having my yc catch rate go up significantly while using it this year.
2nd note-
I'm fishing by r/r only and with the calender ive had more successful trips out for yellows and not wasted time during those off days. I have also found them by accident while bass fishing and am consistently catching yellows in the 20 lb range on silver and gold 2.5-6" flutter-spoons during mid-day trips. If you ever get a chance to come to lake Conroe give me a shout, I fish everyday and would be more than happy to have you with.
<<<UNQUOTE

Most of my Yellows in Lake Limestone are in the No Wake Zone coming out of Running Branch Marina & Campgrounds, of which features target depths running from 5 feet to 15 feet. Mostly around the areas of stumps or crossing their "paths". Further out in the lake, I target just in from creeks, or looking at contours of the lake, such as the old riverbed. Some I have caught possibly off of dropoffs near the bottom of the lake. Some target them with jugs just out from the dam. You know the legends- the Yellows are stacked up near the dam, which may actually be true (or have truth in it).


OK, that should help you some. Just remember that I do not suggest getting on the lake during a storm, high winds, and such, if you are a R-n-Rer.

Forgot to add, Yellows also like ledges. On the Brazos River, where Newt taught me his bit on Yellows (my other YC teacher), he was fishing an area that the river had a dropoff ledge which was undercut. The Yellows would lay waiting under the ledge undercut for two reasons, to lunge at food unsuspecting of them there out of sight. Another was that Yellows cannot spend great amounts of time in swift waters, as thir gills are too pliable. They can drown or suffocate by keeping their gills wide open or clamped shut. So it would be safe to assume that dropoffs & ledges, or fast contour changes can be prime feeding areas for Yellows. If food is seen or sensed overhead, they can literally shoot off like a rocket, and eat their prey. I had two Yellows tied up once, on each side of the boat with 1/4" nylon solid braid rope attached to loop stakes (3/8" rebar bent with a loop on one end by using a trailer ball hole on a HD P/U bumper or the eyelet for the camper). After showing one kid the 14# Op on one side, I tossed it back into the water making a big splash. On the other side, the 57# Op shot off like a rocket headed straight for the splash. But stopped abruptly, as if perhaps saying, "Oh, it's just you".

One added note is that Yellows tend to dive down when caught. Twofold reasons are in place here. One is that there is some instinct which tells them to dive hard, to get out of danger, so they will either dive for cover or leverage, be it under a limb, stump, rock, or burrow into the mud to create a suction cup. Second is that big Yellows do not really want to come to the surface, unless by their own will. Perhaps it is due to daylight, but if at night, then what else might cause that instinct to dive for safety.