cat fishing

[procraft]

i would like to catch some cats small enough to eat dont know much about catfishing or where to do it i am some what knowledgable about nick can u give some adviceemoScratch

 

[outcaster]

If you have a boat.. Get out to the nuclear plant on Chickamauga Lake at sun-up. Stay to the red bouy side of the channel. Use a heafty rod with 20lb line, a 1oz bank sinker, 6.0 octopus circle hook tied about 12inches up from the sinker. Use large live or dead minnows 3-4 inches(some guys are using cut raw chicken breast meat) Drop your line to the bottom. Drift around... you will get bit.

 

[Liveliner]

procraft - 8/23/2007 6:25 PM i would like to catch some cats <font color="#ff0000">small </font>enough to eat dont know much about catfishing or where to do it i am some what knowledgable about nick can u give some adviceemoScratch

</p>

As you are saying "dont know much about catfishing".  First thing, keep the pale blue/ light gray ones and not the brownish to gold looking ones.  Blue cats have a much better taste.  As far as size "small enough"  is not what you are looking for.  The fish you keep should be from Four to Twelve pounds.  That size is easier to dress and you get the most meat for the same amount of labor.  On small catfish it is hard to fillet off the red side meat and still have enough meat to eat.</p>

Fish just downstream of the old Hales Bar Dam building where the water eddies around and also just downstream of the blue bridge on the Haletown side.  Use your sonar and you will find an old creek channel that runs parallel to the road.</p>



You should load up in those two places....Good luck.</p>

 

[Guest]

Raccoon Mtn is also a good area to fish as well as the river right at Mullins cove. If you are looking for eaters only use chicken liver, hotdogs or raw medium shrimp. Minimum 20 pound line with a 1 to 3 oz sinker and a 4/0 to 6/0 circle hook.

 

[fish]

Just a note, there is an advisory on the catfish at Nickajack. These fellows have given you some great tips. I hope you catch a bunch.

 

[polo-dog]

The best way to catch the blue cats that liveliner was talking about it to find steep drops off the main channel in whatever lake you are fishing. Look for where the last two deepest topographic lines are found close together on your maps and there should be fish in the right depth range for this time of the year and for most of the year in general too. Fish with live or fresh dead baits if possible but chicken brests, hot dogs and even spam can be used for bait and do well for you. Use a sinker that you can feel the bottom well with but isn't so heavy that you hang up in the rocks all the time. I tend to use the lightest one that I can get away with depending on the current. If the current is moving fast, greater than 30,000 cfs at Chickamauga dam often I have to go to a 1oz sinker to hold bottom well enough. Usually I can get by using a 1/2 oz sinker. If you can throw a cast net you can catch all the bait that you want late in the afternoon when the schools are on the surface but until later in the year you will have to use a 1/4 inch mesh otherwise the baits will slip through the mesh. Everything is eating those little threadfins and you can catch all the cats you want on them. I have about a half gallon of frozen threadfins that I caught last fall and the cats eat them up like crazy. If you know how to catch skipjack and you have the time to catch them you can put in below the Chickamauga dam and usually catch them all day long down below the wing wall in the eddie there. Good luck and hopefully you will have a lot of fun and have some good meals too.