channel cats

[smokum]

Take some garlic oil with you for cats. One night, years ago while cat fishin, the bite was a bit slow so I was going through my box and found my little bottle of garlic oil and figured it couln't hurt to try. Instantly the cats were going crazy. So I've used it ever since and always had great results. You can put it on just about anything and they will take it. Best of luck to you, I'm jelous. I have fond memories of the Snake from my childhood.

Gonna do just that with the Garlic oil and add it to whatever I drop down to the Cats.

Making memories is realy important on this trip 'cause my grandson lives with us and is becoming a fish-a-holic at nearly 12 yrs.old! He's been wartching these posts and giving me updates daily.

He simply can't wait to get there and hook up with those Cats. Thank you all!

[swedefish4life1]

Stink is great but the natural Crawler:-$ big is better will always sport a fish on!

Fishaholictaz is Crawler Climb on!! Fish on!:-$ :chef:

[fishaholictaz]

Stink is great but the natural Crawler:-$ big is better will always sport a fish on!

Fishaholictaz is Crawler Climb on!! Fish on!:-$ :chef:

Thanks Swede:cheers:


1 thing I forgot to mention is that when you are using 1 or 2 crawlers per hook and fishing 2 hooks you tend to go through a lot of crawlers up to 10 doz. per person per day:-" We bought 100 - 200 doz at a time from a local distributor before our trips and kept them in a big cooler :rambo:

[returnofthefish]

Can channel cats be caught around the bonneville dam. I plan on going to go catch shad pretty soon. It would be great to pick up a channel cat or two. Thanks

[mav186]

Hi ROTF...I believe the river is too fast in that area for productive wisker fishing. They like things a little slower.

[fishaholictaz]

Hi ROTF...I believe the river is too fast in that area for productive wisker fishing. They like things a little slower.

Very true but so do shad to a degree so try to find a nice slow eddy off the main channel:-"

[Jake Dogfish]

I have heard of people catching channels below the Bonneville dam later in the year, with less flow. You will probably hook more sturgeon though, and I would not fish the area directly below the dam where you can't fish for sturgeon legally because you might get cited by wdfw even if you say you are fishing for cats...

[smokum]

there IS an open seat in the motorhome and boat!

We are leaving on Friday the 19th @2:00 from Hobart and plan to come home the following Monday afternoon.

I have a 17' Crestliner w/bow Mounted MinnKota, 9.9 Merc and a new 90hp Evinrude E-Tec.

Need someone to share cost of gas, camping at Lyon's Ferry and moorage for a FUN trip------------------------

Any takers, please let me know asap. E-mail addy is in my profile.

BIG Cats, walleye and smallmouth Bass to be had.

[zen leecher aka Bill W]

Just got back from the catfish trip. It's around 250 miles each way over to Lyon's Ferry. Campsites are clean, but smallish (standard KOA sites). Docks are ok and the launch is about 1.5 boats wide but offers good traction.

Saturday afternoon and night we spotted what we thought were carp rolling in this one set of river flats. Found out the next afternoon that it was the catfish hotspot we should fish. We tried a bunch of other spots including below the fish hatchery which used to be the local spot. Turned out those fish moved when the hatchery ended their salmon carcass dumping.

We had the boat in about 3-4 feet of water casting up on top the nearby (shallow) flats. I had a hook set up about 2' below a bobber and caught about 10 cats from 3-5 pounds. I thought the biggest ones were around 7 when I had them next ot the boat but by the time I had them in the fish cleaning sink back at the launch they had shrunk down to closer to 5 lbs. My buddy caught 5 or so cats, a couple of walleye (in 3 feet of water) and two bluegill.

We caught cats on chicken livers, worms, turkey hotdog chunks, and shrimp. The shrimp and worms seemed about the best two baits but the worms also attracted walleye and bluegills. Sometimes using shrimp the bobber would splat down on the water but not pop back up to the surface. The cats were on the bait that fast.

Also, when we were motoring thru the flats the first afternoon we hit what we thought were sunken logs with the prop. Turned out those were catfish which were really numerous.

I slept in this morning so my buddy went out by himself. In an hour of fishing he landed 5 cats and lost a few at boatside.

A picture to follow in a couple of days.

Take along a good filleting knife and sharpener when you go, along with some good SPF sun protection. It was in the low 90's there.

[mav186]

Nice job Zen...sounds like a good trip and glad it worked out for you guys...wallys a BONUS!! I'm sure you fired up the Smok too!

[Pradeep]

Nicely done Zen and great info on the baits used. Can't wait to see the pics!

[smokum]

WOW, Bill, GOOD trip and thanks for the info!

Question: what type, size etc. of shrimp were you using and how big are the walleye?

Gotta LOVE fresh wally fillets, ya know?

Goin on the 19th and cannot wait!

[zen leecher aka Bill W]

Smokum, I sent you my phone number as there's too much info to pass on. I'm home right now

[BentRod]

Thanks for sharing the results! Glad you had a good and successful time. 3-4 feet of water, crazy.
Look forward to the pictures.

[zen leecher aka Bill W]

3-4 feet was where the boat was positioned. We were casting up to 2 1/2 feet or shallower of water.

We hit some catfish with our prop while motoring thru the flats.

[smokum]

Zen/Bill, thanks for the phone call and info, can't wait to get there and get me some cats!

For everyone else, I still have space in the boat and motorhome for the trip with Bobberboy ( 11 yr. old fish-a-holic grandson) and me, we're excited to be going someplace new and catchin Channel Cats for the first time. Gonna be a FUN trip.

We'll be focusing on the cats, but will also target walleye and smallmouth with the possiblity of some bluegill as well. Gonna get in as much time on the water as time allows, can't catch 'em if yer in camp!

[f1sh1nf00l]

That sounds like a trip I would LOVE to tag along on, but it happens to be the same weekend of our big Riffe lake trip. There's about 15 of us going, it should be a blast. Riffe just happens to be next to one of my favorite cat fishin' holes, Swafford Pond, so I'll be hookin' up some kitties that weekend as well. Hope you guys have a great time, be sure to take some pix.

[linesider33]

im a fisherman form texas with over 22 yrs fishing for channel cats, yellow cats, and blue cats and ill tell u, they will bite on anything. i have used(and yes these have worked) hotdogs, chicken liver, stinkbait, shrimp, worms, minnows, oatmeal balls, and jerkey... shrimp is the best.

[fishaholictaz]

shrimp is the best.

At times maybe but we were fishing shrimp and worms and 9 out of 10 were on the worm hook:-" Maybe the shrimp scent brought them in but they ate the worms:bball:

[smokum]

back to the top.
Still have an opening for our trip to Lyon's Ferry. 32' motorhome, 17' fully-loaded Crestliner.
We'll also be hitting the Tucannon Bridge area for Crappie as well.

Any takers??? My e-mail addy is in my profile. Or PM me with a phone #