The wonderful world of SPLAT fishing. Have a couple questions for those who frequently splat fish. My way is to look for active roosts(birds in tree) and troll up slowly to them. Usually catch 1 or 2 and then move to the next tree, sometimes theres only a few active roosts around. This past weekend we tried to tie off to a couple trees that were active, throw out some cattle cubes and a little bit of maize and wait thinking if theres more fish around they would come in within 15-20 minutes, but it didnt work out. Do yall normally just target active roosts, or fish the trees that have been whitewashed regardless of whether or not birds were recently on them? Also how long will catfish stay around an tree or area after the birds have left?

For me,
I just target the trees that have been "whitewashed" as you put it. Maybe 2 - 3 cast and if no bite I'm off to the next tree.
Depending on how close the boat get's to the tree and how deep the water is, about 3 fish is the max per tree usually.
As far as how long the fish stick around, I think sunlight plays a big role in that. Thick cloudy morning I can catch a little longer. Clear blue bird sky, my catching is done early.

That's just for me and with the water I've done "splat" fishing.
I call it turkey fishing.

The sun being out make sense. Me and my brother tried just working tress but our tree to catch ratio was about 10/1 so we focused on just the active roosts with birds. Thanks for chiming in!

We pretty much fish active roosts, but we always add a little of our own chum (Sour Chix Scratch and Range Cubes) to keep the Catfish in the location. You might try changing depths before moving to another tree. Almost every trip, we find the Cats moving up in the water column during the day. If you're fishing 25' FOW, it's not unusual to be catching fish at 10' off the bottom before the trip is over. Also, just a handful of grain every once in a while to keep the pump primed is helpful. This time of the year, we're catching a combo of Blues and Channels and it's not unusual to never have to move over a 4 hour trip. We use only Danny Kings Blood Punch Bait as it out fishes anything we've ever tried on RC. Guessing the bigger reason is that Richland Chambers is just FULL of Catfish. Makes everyone look like a better fisherman than he/she really is! Good Luck! Royce www.gonefishin.biz

For me, the calmer the day, and the earlier in the morning the better. And I try to fish the active roosting areas myself. In calmer waters, IMO, the plop of the bobber mimics the sound of the "splat".

RC is full of great catfish! Thats where ive been doing my splat fishing! The cove by pelican island and up north around the island then back down the Chambers arm just getting into the timber in the coves. The deeper trees we tied off to we didnt try up shallower, usually just a couple or 3 feet off the bottom. Will have to experiment with that more next time. Need to make up some more chum and give it another go, this time make my way deeper into the black forest. Pops sure had a fun time a few weeks ago up in there. Appreciate the pointers, ill give them a shot next time.

Thats what ive heard, those round weighted bobbers sure help out.

I miss splat fishing. There is no standing timber left on the Tennessee River. Lavon, Ray Roberts, and Lewisville were all my old favorites.

Nice fish.

That sucks buddy. I love splat fishing! My most favorite way to catch fish. Pulled up about a 12-15 pounder on medium action spinning gear last weekend. Biggest one I’ve caught doing this.

pretty cool.

Early morning for me a foot or two under a cork works and later in the morning I go to a weightless rig and let it free fall to the bottom and it works really well. As stated above cloudy days extend the bite . Also some roost are man made like high line towers. Squid works well for me and stays on the hook real good.

Thanks for chiming in. Im gonna have to try a weightless rig. I aint using no squid though!

Big catfish also hang around where they splat..... Caught several big ones over the years

They will pick up and swim with it and sometimes swallow it just let them load the pole good.
Squid is pretty cheap at the Asian market and better than throwing a castnet when it’s 30 degrees 🤣