So I have tried pulling a goldfish across the bottom of Lavon several times but never had a taker, anyone else have any luck on Lavon with goldfish?

-Shawn

If your fishing for blues use fresh dead shad. When fishing for catfish you first determine which type of catfish you are fishing for and then you get the bait for that type of catfish or I should say species of catfish.

Yeah the guy at the bait store keeps insisting he has luck catching blues on goldfish drifting but I am thinking thats because he is selling the goldfish. I was just looking for anyone else out there who might be able to confirm or dismiss this idea.

I've read post from others before that have used goldfish and caught fish but when shad is 90+% of a blues food intake then i'm fishing with shad. If I was fishing for channels I would fish with punch bait or a dip bait. Fishing for flattheads I would fish with a live bait maybe gold fish.

so in general would you classify
channel cat - scavenger, eat everything
blues - semi-predatory semi-scavenger
flathead - predatory...eat only live fish
??
I imagine flatheads probably eat small/med carp too right?

Some lakes Goldfish don't work so well on Fairfield is one. Lots of catfishermen use Goldfish on set lines because they stay alive for an extended amount of time.
Next trip cut those Goldfish up and try em as cutbait.

Fresh dead shad is your best bet for drifting Lavon, in my opinion, and for what that is worth.

gibby4 likes to use goldfish on Lavon every now and then. Maybe he'll see this and respond.

ccabal
No to all. Shad is 90%+ of a blue cats diet so any fisher person that regularly fish for blue cats will tell you fresh dead shad for bait. I say fresh dead because a blue cat will kill his fodd before he eats it most of the time. A lot of times you will catch a blue cat in the belly or tail end of the fish. This is because a bluecat will most or a lot of the time swat the bait with his tail to kill it. Thus hookups in the tail or belly area. Worms,punch bait, cheese bait are my go to baits for channels. I dont care for channels that much so I rarly fish for them. As I said earlier flattheads like live bait. Eating carp? Now there is another bait. Called cut bait. I catch a ig drum he becomes cut bait which a blue will eat also.