I'm heading out to a private lake in the hill country on Thursday with my Dad, uncle, and cousin for a small family reunion/men's retreat. The lake in question has some big bass in it that I will be targeting most of the time but I want to get into some cats as well. The farm use to be a catfish farm. There are numerous small "holding tanks" that they use to raise the catfish in. As I understand it, if they go too big for their buyers, they would throw them in the larger lake which is about 25-30 acres. The lake is DEEP for something that small. It gets to almost 40 feet near the dam. It is spring fed and the owner claims there are some real monsters in there. I've catfished many times over the years but it is definitely not my specialty. I'm wondering about what bait to use, cut bait, fresh perch, prepped baits, etc. I'm also wondering where catfish are most likely to be found this time a year. There is a boat there so I'm not restricted to the bank. My plan was fresh perch and/or cut perch, deep water, anchored up near the dam. What are your thoughts?

Any help would be appreciated.

Live bait-big fish, prep bait-smaller fish. It really depends on what your looking for.

Catch some big gizzard shad around your local boat ramp or shallow grass a day before you head down there (go catch them at sunup with your cast net). Put them in a gallon ziplock bag and store in some ice. Use bigger circle hooks and fish with the heads and fillets.

So do you catch the big cats in shallow water or deep? I understand to use fresh bait for big one's but not sure where to fish for them. We usually target a couple feet of shallow water but catch only 3 lb'ers and less. Want to put the kids on a BIG one!

the big cats will be where ever they want to be. They will run out the smaller fish if they want to stay in an area.
I would fish the midrange area (8-10') and work deeper as the day goes on.

Big yellow grasshoppers.
They can't resist.

they most likely won't be in the deep water when the water is hot because of the thermocline ... once a thermocline gets well established during the hot weather then there's little to no oxygen below the thermocline and the water spoils due to the bio material on bottom. the water will get a strong sulfur like smell to it and sort of like rotten eggs smell under the thermocline so fish can't live down there. channelcat don't like direct sunlight so they're going to be in the moss and stuff during the daylight hours but at night they'll come up in the shallows to feed on bluegill and green sunfish so that's what I'd use for bait. get yourself a bucket and one of those bubble aerators and spend about an hour catching your bluegill before it gets dark and they'll stay alive in your bucket all night just as long as you don't overload it ... the ideal size of bluegill would be about 2 to 3" max for the large channelcats and you can scale them just a little and fish them under a float near the upper end of the pond where the spring feeds it and you should do really well up there. the shallow waters will hold a lot more oxygen during the summer so that's where the baitfish will be and also the catfish.

Ive found a good starting spot for big cats is the channel. Look for channel bends and breaks..maybe a small drain into a major channel.

I was gonna suggest small, live perch...cuz thats what channels mostly eat in smaller lakes and ponds...but tiny beat me to it! agree totally with what he said.

When you get there, try to find some info on where the springs come up. The cats will be feeding in that bubbling area on the bottom. They will stay close to this area, one reason, Texas spring water is cold. Plus the bubbling from the spring gives off oxygen at all times. With a spring feed lake that is that deep, try to catch your bait from that lake. Take a cast net and search for your bait. In some cases, worms are a great bait for these types of water. I've seen big cats caught on worms. Myself, I would use a good stinkbait. The cats will follow their senses to the bait. If you can get shad, use them. Shad is a super bait for cats anywhere. But I would make sure I use bait I caught in that spring feed lake. We got strip mines that are spring feed around, you are in for a treat. Some big cats in those type of waters.