I'm heading out Friday with the family to (choke) and would like to catch a few catfish. The problem is the only way that I know HOW to fish for cats is on the bottom with liver or stinkbait. I'm an intermediate Bass fisherman and I don't seem to have a problem locating or catchin' em(with the exception of last week), but I have NO IDEA on where or how I can locate cats. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated and could possibly save me the embarassment of getting blanked with all my family there to witness...THANKS!!!

Kenlan21

Here alot people talk about punchbait like Danny Kings. Dig thru the strings in this section. Lake may be different but the technique is probalby the same.

Catch some shad if possible..they love it. PJ is right...look up some older posts..lots of info for sure.

I have some stuff on my site that might help you out a little. It is still rough but its a start...

http://www.[censored]/cat_fish.htm

ScottB

I agree with Nautilus that fresh caught shad will catch you fish most of the time. As far as finding the fish...If you can find the shad there should be fish close by. I am thinking you should be able to find cats shallow early and moving deeper as the sun comes up, which means you need to look for places where shallow water has access to deeper water. If you have the option of fishing the windblown side or the calm side fish the windblown side, especially around rocky shorlines and shorlines that have sandy or gravel bottoms instead of mud and muck. Hopefully for you somebody will confirm any of this as I am still pretty new to fishing myself lol

That's some good info. Emphasize "windblown banks". Was fishing Lake Fork Tuesday in search of big channel cats. Took the advise I got on this site to fish the windblown banks, especially points, and points with underwater grass or grass-like moss (coontail, etc). It paid off big time. It was mostly cloudy, the wind was howling and the waves were pounding the shorelines. Had to use 2 anchors & nose into the wind to hold the boat. The cats were in 2-3 ft water on windblown points with shallow flats nearby, especially where the wind blew across the point. There were shad there too. Structure was a plus (stumps, large rocks, etc). Fished in the muddy water where the wave action had it stirred up on the point. Boated 13 channel cats in about 1.5 hrs, 6 were between 5 and 7.5 lbs, 2 were females with eggs. Lost 2 ten pound blues at the boat. Didn't have shad, but shad would have worked great. We used regular crappie minnows (dead or alive) and earthworms fished 12-18 inches under small corks (always use a barrel swivel 6-10 inches above hook for cats). We had to worm the the minnows onto a 1/0 Kahle hook to keep cats from stealing them and to increase hook ups. Had a great outing. But, the wind laid and the bite fell off dramatically. My point is, the wind is your friend for big and small channel and blue cats, at least this time of year. It will concentrate the fish. I learned that from this site. It works! Now, the structure in Lake Fork is a lot different from that at (choke), I'm sure, though I've never been to (choke). If there is shorelines with large broken rocks, or riprap (STRUCTURE), from main lake back to secondary points, those can be hot areas for spawning channel cats this time of the year. Use similar approach, adjust the depth to suit and use your favorite bait. Backoff and don't crowd the fish. Move when bite slows. Wind just makes it better. I apologize for the long comment. Good luck.

Great comments!

ScottB

The bass also like shad, if you can find the bass, just fish the same areas with fresh dead shad & you should find some cats. We have caught plenty of good bass using fresh dead shad on carolina rig while fishing for cats. Find the areas that you would normally spinnerbait or crank while trying to locate bass. Worm you a fresh dead shad on a 4/0 or 5/0 & squeeze him from top to bottom so the belly pops. Fish a carolina rig with 1oz or 2 oz weight. If you have a baitclicker set it & you will be detect any movement if you are stationary.

Also, cats favor the same type of structure as bass. In water over a few feet deep, just about any type of structure that will hold bass will also hold catfish: flats with woody cover or grass; channels; stumprows; holes; humps.