Educate me. New to catfishing other than soaking bait in a pond. Trying to get up to speed on four season catfishing after fishing for bass/crappie my whole life. I probably fish Lake Leon more than anyplace else at the moment as we’ve recently set up a camper there at the lake to get away to. Any help is greatly appreciated!

Wow, that's an open ended question! Best advice I can give you to start is to take a deep dive in this page and do some reading. I have only been on this forum for a little over a year but in that time I can tell you there has been a lot of information shared about the how to of blue cattin. If you are going to start your journey into this great sport, this is a good place to start from!

Good luck and good hunting...

GB&TL

Yeah, JMT, Tim's right. I got into blue cattin in the last year and I started asking questions on here as well. I didn't realize that every one of those questions had already been asked and answered numerous times. I still catch myself doing that occasionally. Spend some time using the search on here. It's a little tricky at first but once you figure it out, you can find just about anything you need. Granted most of the info is gonna come from just a few of the guys on here but those guys know what they're doing. Do the advanced search and put in something like "drift speed" or "cast net" but make sure you highlight the catfish forum or you might get a lot of unnecessary info to wade through. Also, you can get a lot of info from Catfish Tim and El Gato Azul by watching their video's on Youtube. Tim's channel is Smith Family Fishing Adventures and Chris has El Gato Azul TV. If you do that, be sure to like and subscribe for those guys. If you need more help, PM me and I'll do what I can to guide you through it. Welcome to the only forum where you can get exact info including pinpoint fishing locations....just be sure to let anything over about 7 or 8 pounds back in the water to grow another day!

Check this thread out. Lots of good tips and techniques that should work on any lake

tips

I’m a boat angler so we do things completely different than what’s done in this bank thread. We use different rigs, different rods, different line, different hooks, different locations, different techniques, and we don’t use ghost minnows. All this stuff will work, just not how we do things on our boat.

Ask specific questions JMT and they will get answered by the friendly TFF family pretty quick.

And thanks Skeet for the kind words and the plug buddy!

Hey JMT!

I’m new to this as well, still in my first year of catfishing, and already enjoyed some success thanks to the knowledge shared openly on this forum.

If you can get baits on the bottom and drag them along at 0.5 mph, you will catch if you’re patient!

As well as searching the forum for stuff on dragging baits, round hooks, weights and floats, you would be wise to purchase the Navionics app to show depths and underwater structure. I have realized big baits for big fish, but not always of course, but generally true. Cut the tail off a 6 inch Shad, or hook on a big head piece or body section, and sooner or later you will be in business. Make sure you secure your rod(s) because the bites will often pull your arms out of their sockets!

Good luck and enjoy yourself.

I don't know Leon, but some basic rules that follow pretty much any lake you are on the bank. We do it both ways with the boat and on the bank.
Bank fishing like boat fishing get the Navionics app and look at your depth changes like places river/creek beds get to the bank, points, drop offs and the like. Then find out which way the wind is blowing, especially if it has been coming from the same direction for a day or so. If at all possible fish with the wind in your face. The wind blows the plankton, which the baitfish follow, the cats follow the bait fish.
Check out some long/surf rods, so you can cast farther when needed. Also, when possible you might need to wade out a little ways to cast. This is where a good set of waders will come in. For channel cats I use Zebco 888's and Berkley big game rods. They are cheap and I have caught ton's of fish off of them. In fact, I have heard Danny King sing the praises of the Zebco 808's. I can't cast them far enough on big rods for me, so I use Spinning reels in the 60-80 range, but for channel cats they hold their own.
Rigs: Blues: I prefer a three way rig most of the time, however have done well on Santee Cooper rigs at times. Hook size depends on your bait size. I prefer circle hooks still. I have had Team Catfish circle hooks hold fish for hours while I slept til the next morning. Doesn't hurt to have a mix out until you see what they want.
Channels: I prefer a Carolina rig with #4 treble hook and punch bait.
Make you some good rod holders that will hold big fish. I use 1 1/4 pvc held to the thicker metal stakes they sell in the concrete section, not rebar, it bends too easy. A fish over 20 will bend it and you have to catch your rod. Know this from experience. I use hose clamps to hold the pvc to the stakes. I have driven them in the rocks at whitney to the banks of Tawakoni and all extremes between Livingston and Texoma.
I am sure others will chime in, but this will get you started.

One more thing. When the bait is shallow in the creeks during the winter, don't be afraid to fish shallow water. You might be surprised what you will catch. In fact, you will see a lot of boats in that creek with you.

I'm nowhere near the level of some of the guys on this forum, but I can add a couple things on bank fishing.

I kept going heavier and heavier on tackle until things stopped breaking off regularly. There's a lot of vegetation in our cove. I run 80 pound braid and 50 pound Big Game leaders at a minimum.

I make rod holders out of 1-1/2" EMT conduit and 1-1/2" metal angle iron. This isn't too hard if you have a welder and grinder or metal cutoff saw. I have had these robust holders pulled nearly all the way over on two occasions when leaving rods unattended, so now I put in a safety stake with a few feet of tubular webbing and a big carabiner right in front of the reel as a backup.




Some people say baitcasters give problems when fishing into the wind. Maybe they do, for them. I don't have that issue. If I put 6 ounces on an ABU 6000 or 8 Ounces on my ABU 7000, I can throw at least 30 and possibly 40 yards into a 30mph wind with no backlash. This was the day a couple months ago when Twok looked like the Bering Sea, had a 6000 and 7000 out with no issues:



I agree with the comments about waders. If only for the mud, fire ants and potential need to get wet landing the catch of a lifetime. I have some breathable ones from Cablelas that do nicely.

Tight Lines!

OP never specified whether he was in a boat or bank fishing. I just offered up a thread that had good info. Obviously guys in a boat with electronics and are able to cover large amounts of the lake have different tactics. Bank threads are dead. Alot of us bankers look to the catfishing thread for info , tips and pointers.

Ill pm you with what to fish with where, which species, tackle and all this evening. Its varied but most all of pie impoundments and rivers have good populations of all three major species. Leon has great channel and flatheadcatfish. Never caught a blue out a there.
Are you bank fishing? Or boat?

I’m a boat fisherman

Sorry I didn’t specify…I fish out of a boat and have a full compliment of electronics on board. Thanks for any feedback!