Posts Tagged ‘Blue Catfish’

Oklahoma's fishing report

CENTRAL

 Draper: Elevation ½ ft. above normal and clear. Channel catfish good on cut baits and stink bait. White bass good on medium-diving crankbaits, jigs and sassy shad, look for surfacing activity.

Hefner: White bass and walleye good on cut shad.

Overholser: Channel catfish fair on stinkbaits.

Thunderbird: Elevation ½ ft. above normal and clear. Channel catfish good on cut baits. White bass good trolling off humps and points on inline spinners, medium-diving crankbaits and sassy shad. Saugeye good off points at 6 to 10 ft. sassy shad, medium-diving crankbaits and jigs. Bass good on tandem spinnerbaits and plastic worms in coves over weed beds.

NORTHEAST

 Bell Cow: Elevation below normal, water clear. Bass fair on plastics. Catfish fair on doughbaits. Crappie fair on minnows and jigs.

Birch: Elevation above normal, water 76 degrees and clear. Striped bass hybrids good on live shad at 16 to 25 ft. near the dam. Channel and blue catfish excellent on cut shad and stinkbaits. Largemouth bass fair on buzzbaits late in evening. Crappie fair on minnows around structure at 8 to 12 ft.

Carl Blackwell: Elevation normal, water 80 degrees. Striped bass hybrids fair on live shad and trolling crankbaits. Catfish fair on cut baits and punchbaits.

Chandler: Elevation below normal, water clear. Bass fair on plastics. Catfish slow. Crappie fair on minnows and jigs.

Hulah: Elevation 5 ft. above normal and murky. Crappie slow on minnows and jigs near submerged structure at 10 to 14 ft. Channel catfish good on cut shad. Blue, flathead and channel catfish fair below the dam on live or fresh cut shad.

Kaw: Elevation 23 ft. above normal. Channel and blue catfish good on worms and cut shad in the upper portion of the river from Trader’s Bend north. Striped bass and striped bass hybrids good on live shad below the dam during generation.

Oologah: Elevation 3½ ft. above normal and rising, water 80 degrees and muddy. Blue catfish good on juglines and trotlines with shad on the north end of the lake. Crappie fair on minnows and jigs at 10 to 15 ft. around brush piles. Blue and channel catfish fair on shad below the dam. White bass and crappie fair on jigs below the dam.

Skiatook: Elevation 1 ft. below normal, water upper 70 degrees and clear. Crappie fair on minnows and jigs at 12 to 15 ft. around stumps in the back of coves and creek channels. Largemouth bass fair on soft plastics over brush piles. Striped bass hybrids fair drifting live shad over open water.

Spavinaw: Elevation 1 ft. above normal, water 75 degrees and dingy. Crappie fair on jigs and minnows around the dam. Largemouth fair on crankbaits.

Webbers Falls: Elevation 2 ft. above normal, water murky. Largemouth bass fair on spinnerbaits and crankbaits in creek channels and riprap. Catfish good on cut baits and stinkbaits on bottom. Crappie fair on minnows and jigs under bridges and around brush structure.

NORTHWEST

 Canton: Elevation 1 ft. above normal. White bass and striped bass hybrids good trolling crankbaits and drifting shad and slabs. Walleye fair trolling crankbaits. Channel catfish good on shad.

Fort Supply: Elevation normal, water clear. Channel catfish fair on stinkbait all over lake. Report submitted by Mark Reichenberger, game warden stationed in Harper County.

SOUTHEAST

 Arbuckle: Elevation 2 ft. below normal, water 81 degrees and murky. Crappie good around brush piles and docks. White bass fair chasing shad in the dam area in evenings. Bass fair using topwater lures, Carolina-rigged lizards and dropshot over moss beds. Channel catfish slowing.

Blue River: Elevation normal, water 70 degrees and clear. Smallmouth bass fair on soft plastics and shallow running crankbaits. Spotted bass good on inline spinnerbaits and soft plastics. Channel catfish fair on worms, minnows and stinkbaits. Flathead catfish slow on live sunfish.

Eufaula: Water rising due to rains. Largemouth bass good on Texas and Carolina-rigged soft plastics in black at the upper end of creeks along the influx of new water. Catfish fair on juglines and trotlines with cut baits. Crappie fair on minnows and jigs along hooks over standing timber.

Hugo: Elevation 1½ ft. above normal and rising, water 83 degrees and muddy. Largemouth bass good in brush with rising water. Catfish slow on lake and good below the dam. Crappie fair to good on minnows in brush piles.

Konawa: Elevation ½ ft. above normal, water 70 degrees and clear. Largemouth bass good on plastic worms at 3 to 8 ft. in weed beds and cattails.

Murray: Elevation normal, water clear. All fishing is starting to pick up due to cooler temperatures. Largemouth and smallmouth bass being caught. White bass fair trolling crankbaits early and late when schooling topwater. Channel catfish fair on chicken liver, stinkbaits and worms. Crappie slow on minnows and jigs at 15 ft. around brush piles. Walleye slow.

Pine Creek: Elevation above normal, water murky. Bass good in the mornings on topwater baits. Anglers arriving early can find largemouth bass schooling for some good fishing. Crappie fair on blue and black jigs fished at 8 to 12 ft. Catfish good on bait shrimp at 10 to 15 ft. off the bank.

Texoma: Elevation normal, water 82 degrees and clear. Largemouth and smallmouth bass fair to good around the riprap at Burns Run. Striped and white bass fair to good on live bait from Platter Flats south. Channel and blue catfish fair to good on live bait and cut baits from the railroad bridge south. Crappie fair to good on minnows north of the Hwy. 70 bridge. Sunfish good on worms around fishing docks.

Wister: Elevation 11 ft. above normal and murky. Largemouth bass good on topwater lures early and late. Crappie good on small spinners and jigs. Channel catfish good on earth worms, cut shad and liver with jugs.

SOUTHWEST

Altus-Lugert: Elevation 17 ft. below normal and rising. Fishing poor to fair. River is running high, bringing in a lot of mud and debris.

Ellsworth: Elevation below normal and murky. Catfish good around Goose Island. Crappie fair at Fisherman’s Cove. All fishing slow.

Foss: Elevation ¼ ft. above normal, water temp in the low 80 degrees and clear. Lake level ¼ foot above normal and gates closed. Walleye slow. Striped bass hybrid slow. Sand Bass fair. Catfish slow.

Lawtonka: Elevation below normal and clear. White bass fair to good at the pipeline on minnows.

Waurika: Elevation normal, water 76 degrees and murky. Catfish good on punchbaits.

What is the Best Bait for Blue Catfish

 Click Here To Get 80 Time Tested, Easy to Prepare, Catfish Bait Recipes

I am going to make this plain and simple; your best bait for Blue catfish is cut bait. That is if you want the big ones, the trophy cat. They can and have been caught with other baits but nothing will perform as well as cut baits for the trophy size blues.

When they are young Blue catfish are very similar to channel catfish. They are not finicky eaters and can be caught on anything you would normally use to fish for channel catfish. Earthworms, shrimp, chicken livers, hot dogs, cheese baits, blood bats and many other varieties of homemade baits all make good choices. You may even catch a few good size blues with these baits.

If you are trying to get that trophy catfish your chances of catching a big blue are slim with the above baits. As blue catfish grow and get older they get more selective in their eating habits. They become much more of a predator and much less of a scavenger. Cut bait and live bait both work but the fluids seeping from the cut bait make for powerful attractants.

If you don’t know what cut bait is the simple definition is a live fish that has been cut into pieces. The size of the catfish you want helps determine the size of the pieces you make. To give you and idea I will cut a bluegill the size of my hand into three pieces not counting the tail fin as I will discard that. My favorite piece is the head. I will put a 6/0 hook though the top part of the fishes mouth and out through the bottom of the head.

Any cut bait will work but the best is from fish native to the waters you are angling in. Also be sure it is legal to do so. I know that in some states you can not use bluegill for bait.

Good luck on your next outing. Visit Catfish Bait Recipes to get more great homemade catfish baits.

Catfish Angling For Channel Catfish

Catfish angling for Channel catfish is easy and fun. They are North America’s most numerous catfish species. They are among the three most common fish stocked in lakes and ponds along with bass and sunfish and can be found in every river and stream. They will eat just about anything and put up a great fight when hooked.

Channel catfish closely resemble blue catfish. Both have deeply forked tails. However, channels have a rounded anal fin with 24-29 rays and scattered black spots along their back and sides. They have a small, narrow head. The back is blue-gray with light blue to silvery-gray sides and a white belly. Larger channels lose the black spots and also take on a blue-black coloration on the back which shades to white on the belly. Males also become very dark during spawning season and develop a thickened pad on their head.

Channel catfish have a top-end size of approximately 40-50 pounds. The world record is 58 pounds, caught in the Santee-Cooper Reservoir, South Carolina, in 1964. Realistically, a channel catfish over 20 pounds is a spectacular specimen, and most catfish anglers view a 10 pound fish as a very admirable catch. Furthermore the average size channel catfish an angler could expect to find in most waterways would be between 2 and 4 pounds.

Channel catfish can be caught on a variety of natural and prepared baits. Catfish have even been known to take Ivory Soap as bait. Channel catfish possess very keen senses of smell and taste. At the pits of their nostrils are very sensitive odor sensing organs. In addition channel catfish have taste buds distributed over the surface of their entire body. These taste buds are especially concentrated on the channel catfish’s 4 pairs of barbels (whiskers) surrounding the mouth. This combination of exceptional senses of taste and smell allows the channel catfish to find food in dark, stained, or muddy water with relative ease.

Channel catfish can be caught at almost any time of day but the best times are from dusk to dawn. Because of there keen sense of smell they have no trouble finding their prey or your bait. I prefer to use cut baits because I have found that you are much more likely to catch the big one using them.

Cut bait is fish cut into chunks. Channel catfish just love cut baits. When you use cut baits the fluids from the bait seep into the water leaving a very enticing trail for the catfish. I am more concerned with the size of the catfish I catch than the size of the catch so I use a 4/0 hook with a good size piece of cut bait. If I am getting a lot of tugs at my bait but no bites I will gradually reduce the size of the hook and the bait. If I were going for a bigger catch of catfish I would start with a 1/0 hook and increase the size as my stringer filled up.