Very new to fishing for LMB in Texas. Took my 10 year old daughter to Bethany Lakes Park today with no luck. We then hit a little park pond on the way home just for kicks. She was throwing a little pink spinner bait with no luck and I was throwing a Texas rigged dark purple worm. Just as I was thinking it was time to go, I hooked up. Would have been my first LMB in Texas... but no... I get it to the bank and this catfish is looking up at me.

Still fun, but I had no idea a cat fish would hit a worm. Last catfish I caught were on chicken liver and sitting on the bottom of a huge lake.

Is this a common occurrence?

Also wondering if I'm wasting our time at Bethany Lakes or if there's better places in the Allen/Plano area?

I have caught many of catfish on a Texas rigged worm. Channel cat, flathead and blue cats. As for Bethany lakes I have no insight on that.

Caught many catfish on artificials. The most wildest I threw out a lizard and as soon as it hit the water the catfish was all over it. The biggest about 10 lbs.

Way to go Dad! and welcome to catfishing !

There are a few of them in that pond. At least one pretty nice size.
There are several fish including bass in the ponds at and near bethany park.
Are you hooked now?

The ponds at Bethany hold plenty of bass. Many of them are smaller, but my all-time personal best LMB came from one of the back ponds during the spawn in 2017. Just under 8 pounds - there are some decent ones in there!

Literal king of the pond. Way to go Bassin33.

Thanks and congrats. I recognize that pond and will confess we walked right by it on the way to the other side of the park without even casting into it once... next time though for sure.

From experience, catfish will hit my bass/sunfish baits more than my actual catfish baits.

It's not common in my experience, but it definitely does happen!

I've caught channel catfish on spinnerbaits crankbaits and several times on plastics as you did.

Catfish will eat anything and hit moving baits pretty frequently. A couple of friends and I were fishing a pond at night in northern Virginia in the '90s and my buddy was throwing a huge black jitterbug. A 10 lb catfish sucked it down. We thought he had one hell of a bass on the line and were pretty stunned when he finally landed the thing. A few years later I caught a small catfish on a jitterbug on the Shenandoah river at night and for a few seconds thought I had hooked a PB smallmouth.

I’ve been catching cats on all kinds of wacky stuff lately. Rapalas, spoons, crappie jigs, worms. I usually fish for crappie or bass and sometimes end up catching more cats than the species I’m targeting on baits not meant for catfish. Pretty wild. I’ve only had that experience here in Texas. I’ve fished Kansas, Missouri, Georgia, Minnesota, South Carolina, Wisconsin, and plenty of other states and haven’t had that experience anywhere but here in this state.

I have also caught my personal best biggest fish (a channel catfish) here in Texas in a Trip when I was fishing for stripers.