Catfishin report...

[rdneckhntr]

Last friday night and sunday night me and a few friends went catfishin on the river. Friday night we had a LOT of bites(just two of us) but we only managed to hook up with one 20" channel cat. The only bad thing was I didnt get to get a pic(the night my phone finally died on me...)

Sunday night (4 of us) we didnt have as many bites but it was really fun... We didnt manage to catch anything but we ended up having one of the best and funniest fishin trips ive been on for a while.

Bait was chicken liver, chicken legs(with the bone...just cut it off works as good as chicken liver but stays ON THE HOOK..., goldfish, carp, and hotdogs lol...)


Now Ive been trying something new and they havent really been working out...circle hooks... I cant seem to hook up on anything. I believe ive been using a 8/0 and 5/0 circle/octopus hook. Ive tried everything from just reeling in to setting the hook and still nothing seems to be working... Any tips?

 

[Captain Ahab]

You are catching smaller cats at 20" so go with a smaller circle. They will work, but you have to make sure that the hook is exposed as much as possible. I fish them with my drag locked down in a secure holder (make sure the catty cannot drag your rod into the water) and they fish hook themselves.

However, a good Kahle style hook still cannot be beat .

Try using live sunfish and perch - we catch all the monster channel cats on live bait, smaller fish on cut bait or liver

 

[rdneckhntr]

I went lastnight but forgot to buy bait so all we had were nightcrawlers...didnt catch anything but Im goin tonight too. We're settin the minnow trap so we should have some good size chubs to take...

 

[Captain Ahab]

iF YOU HAD CRAWLERS YOU SHOULD HAVE USED THEM TO CATCH A FEW SUNFISH AND USED THOSE!

 

[rdneckhntr]

we wouldve but we didnt get to start until atleast 11 to start with...


we went again lastnight out in the middle of nowhere...had a few bites on chicken livers but no hookups...the lantern started to die after about 2 1/2 hrs so we booked it outta there(we forgot all the darn flashlights...)...

 

[RnRCircus]

I never use anything larger than a 3/0 hook and mostly use 1/0 for channel cats. I have brought several over 30" including one 39" monster on size 1/0 and like you I use chicken liver frequently.

 

[rdneckhntr]

How do you keep the chicken liver from sliding back down the hook and covering the barb on it??

 

[RnRCircus]

I let it cover the barb, in fact I prefer the whole hook be covered. I do not get many runs without a hookup so it seems to work.