I am looking for a place to catch some good cats here in the DFW area. I noticed that Joe Pool has Excelent list on cats for this week. Joe pool is right near my house. I have been on the lake before but have not fished for cats out there. If anyone fishes out there for cats and has good luck and would be willing to share some information i would greatly appreciate it. Any infor on where, when, and bait type would hep.

Thanks,
Hardline

We were out last Saturday morning and had good luck fishing the rip-rap on the dam. We used punch bait about 18 inches below a weighted float with a split shot sinker about two inches above the bait. Fish about the 6 to ten feet from the bank, where the water is about two to three feet deep. We threw a little soured wheat and a few range cubes out to keep them interested and they kept us busy for about two hours. After throwing back the little ones, we wound up with eighteen nice keepers. Good luck.

Well I stopped by Lynn Creek Marina(Joe Pool) Sunday night on my way home from work and chummed a spot with some rice and corn that were left over from work. I was fishing with bread in hopes of nabbing a few Carp. My buddy and his daughter were fishing next to me and they caught 2 Carp on Crappie jigs so I figured I'd be into them soon.

I ran out of White bread so I was freelining Honey Nut Wheat bread. It was quite a while before I had any action, but eventually I hung into something that gave a strong pull. After hooking up, it ran straight under the dock and I knew I'd get hung up. I was pretty lucky and we missed all snags. With the way it was pulling, I thought I had a small Carp; but when it finally surfaced, we saw that it was a good-sized Channel Cat.

We weighed it in and took some pics. It was 5.38# and 22.5". There is no registered record for Channel Cats, so I processed the paperwork to get something on the board.

In all, I had 3 keeper cats Sunday Night and 3 more Tuesday night. I finally got my Carp Wednesday night - 10.95#.

Good Luck all!

Chad

Nice cat! Even nicer it's a record hehe.

nice fish!

OldYeller,

I suppose you mean the rip rap on the damn breast just away from the intake. So if one were in a boat comming from the Oasis Marina you would go just past the intake and fish the rubble tward the state park side of the intake?

How close to the intake were you. I have a map that shows rip rap along the damn breast for just a bit past the intake but others have told me the whole brest is covered in it?

Hey badchade -- we are thinking of going over to Joe Pool - were you fishing 'under the bridge' as everyone keeps talking about?

Ever tried corn on the bottom or you always freelining (I keep thinking of the term mainlining and its making me laugh) bread?

Sorry - I know its the catfish section...but I have been wanting to try out Joe Pool and wanted to find a good bank fishing section that we can hit both catfish and carp from....

Old yeller
what type of punch bait did you use to catch the catfish? if you walk towards the bridge area,where about were you fishing?

all the catfish on joe pool decided to move to anohter lake. They got tired of being run out by all the hydrilla on the lake. They all got together and decided that it was a bunch of BS that all the bass got to determine how the lake hydrilla problem was handled, so they moved...sorry fellas...no more catfish in the lake

The bait I was using..??? I was cleaning off the shelf in the garage and found the left overs from about four different brands of bait that I have collected over about ten years and there was a little in each tub. I stirred it all together and it looked and smelled about right. As I was making this mix, I thought "What am I going to do if it works?" We took the bait that was left to Lake Palestine this weekend and caught eight on Friday night. Saturday morning we went to Wally World and got some Danny Kings blood bait and went back to the same spot that night. Caught 22 on the DK. I guess I'll leave the bait making to the professionals. Anybody know where you can buy Danny Kings around Arlington? I'm looking for a gallon.
The spot was next to the dam about 1/2 way between the center of the dam and the state park. The wind was out of the south that day and the waves were breaking on the rocks pretty hard. The fish were feeding on the moss that was washing off the rocks. If Dwclark is right, I guess we caught about the last cats in the lake... Maybe we need to teach the few that are left to eat the hydrilla????

OldYeller,

You can get DKs right at Joe Pool. Since you shared your spot with me I should share my local supply of DKs with you.

Walmart has a better price but ONLY carries the little jars. Just go to the store at the Oasis Marina at Joe Pool an they have bigger jars. More like a quart of half gallon but not the little tiny Walmart jars.

If you pick up one of the bigger jars at Joe Pool that should hold you long enough to wait on a gallon by mail. You can order a gallon online here http://grishamland.com/catfishbait.html

I have found DKs to be awesome! Not really any better at getting bites then other baits but much better at not falling off, getting stolen, etc. I think if you put stinking, bloddy, shad filled gunk in front of cats they will bite it. The big thing with DKs is you can't seem to get it off the hook even when you want to,

Jack

I stop by the Marina on my way home from work about 3 or 4 times a week. I fish at the Barge; but for more specific spots, you'll have to ask me "In the Analog World". 2 more keepers last night and I hooked into something nice that I thought was a Cat similar to the one in the picture(hook flew out at me), but action is slowing despite reports of tons of surface feeding cats. Cat enthusiasts need to head out there around 9 or 10 (after the Carp have left) to see the swarms of big Cats out front.

Chad

Well thanks to old yellers advice I have finaly nailed some nice cats on Joe Pool. 9 Keepers with the biggest over 19 inches. About 20 or so odd dinks just under 12 and lots of misses. So I found em (with help) for now, I just need to figure out where they are going to go when they leave the rip rap and finish spawning.

It is fustrating to try to learn this lake stuff. Up north fishing the rivers I was the cat master. These lakes have been kicking my butt but I am learning with a lot of help you from you guys here at the TFF,