Hotspotoutdoors

Your one stop shop for tips, tricks, hot topics, and threads of interest. Feel free to bump any of these topics back to the top with any new questions or comments you might have.


Catfishing for Beginers by Chris Hanson



Catfishing tips of the Day by SteveD

Frisbee Cutting Board

5 Gallon Bucket Rod Holder

Boat Night Lights

Bullhead Bait Tank

Threading a Bait

Cut Bait Tutorial

Home Made Snag Buster

Cat Leader Holder

Water Level Prediction Service

Slip Rig Options

Poor Man's Driftsock

Truck Bed Rod Holder

Cat Bait Harness

Keep Mosquitoes Away


Channel Catfish Pictures

2009

2008



Flathead Pictures

2009

2008



King of the Cats Contest

2009

2008

2007


Other discussions of interest

Learn more about bait tanks here

The Wall

Tips on Handling a Large Catfish

Tackle Discussion

Possibly may want to add the 2009 Catfish Tackle Discussion thread as there is some great stuff in there about what people are using.

I've been having a heck of a time trying to catch any size cat. I only get a chance to fish from shore so that limits where I can go, but I use stink bait and cut bait and only had 1 bit but missed it.
I usually go on the southern side of the Coon Rapids Dam to about fridley area, I use a circle hook with a worm with stink bait on it, sometimes cut bait, and I launch it out about 50 ft. from shore with a 4oz weight 2 feet from the hook and let it sit. I refresh the bait fairly often.
what am I doing wrong?
I have read that great article that hanson put out, really informative and have been doing pretty much whats in the article.
Does anyone have any tips that might help me out? it will be greatly appreciated.

from my experience over the years stink bait will not work in either(sp) of the two major rivers we have in minnesota( the current is just too fast) The stink washes away too fast. Try cutbait(suckers, bullheads, sheephead, fatheads or any legal cut bait) or live bait(bullheads, suckers, creek chubs or any other rough fish you may catch). Try a regular hook( a J hook size 7/0-9/0 and just set the hook. You may not be doing the correct hook set with a circle hook. As where you just reel down till you feel tension then pull up on it(that works for me anyways). It could be any number of things. Until you switch one up you will never know what one it is.

Thanks Dtro for putting this thread together. I for one use it all the time and it much easier than searching back page by page.

quack,
thanks for the tip. I'll try cut bait and see how that goes.
I did notice that after about 15-20 minutes, I was putting stink bait back on. cut or live seems like the way to go.
Thanks

Stink bait does work in the minnesota and the mississippi rivers here in minnesota- I have used it many many times and have had great luck with it, I mainly use live and cut bait but a person can not give up on the ol trusty stink bait, thats what I started with when I started catfishing 20 odd years ago and it still works so dont give up on it.

I just bought a cat fish setup after going out once and getting a small one. I can't wait to study up on here and possibly get some bigger ones!

KTapper, Yes it is unreal the information you can get. There are a lot of great cat fisherman who put a lot of time on the water and spent the time sharing it with others. Take your time and read all the information these guys have given us so that we can get out and catch some great memories and great catfish. I don't thing THANK YOU is enough for all the information these guys have shared with us but THANKS guys and hope Karma rewards you all with your PB catfish time and time again............

I am sure many of you have either seen or thought of this but I do a lot of shore fishing and instead of wandering down banks and through the woods looking for that perfect Y stick I went to the hardware store and bought a 10' piece of 1 1/4" PVC pipe and cut it up into 2.5" sections and cut a 45 degree angle on one end. Slides into the bank really easy unless the shore is really hard and dry. Holds the rod perfect! Thought I would share for anyone who does some shore fishing!

Nick

when shore fishing in sandy areas ,I use a 5 gal bucket lid with a hole in the center (to mark the location of hole in sand and to keep sand from my reel.)

when shore fishing, instead of using my rod end to make a pole hole in the ground, I bring a dog tie down (the metal screw kind), I use it to dig a perfect hole.

I did the same thing this year. Now if I can just remember to bring it. It would have worked nicely the last time I was out.

Someone mentioned to me that you could also cut it so that you have a lip that leads to the 45 degree angle. That might help in some conditions or at least work as a shovel/scoop to dig a hole that you then could put the pipe in and fill in.

thanks for the tips, I will give you one good tip that I like on cutbait for flatheads here in Ky, DON'T THROW AWAY THE HEADS!!!lol. You guys up north have some great flathead fishing.

welcome to HSO demetrius!

I love the heads too

hey Dtro, I am a crazy Kentuckina who can not figure out how to post pics on this website, please help an ignorant Kentuckian out.LOL. I want to prove that I am not just on here to invade your state and take flatheads illegaly. I know it could be tooken that I was, I would like to post some pics of some decent bluecats and an occasional mediocre flathead. Thanks.Cool site, seems to be some diehard flathead guys, which is hard to find these days.

try this demetrius

http://www.hotspotoutdoors.com/forum/ubb...s_h#Post1219014

did dome one say diehard cat guys well I know a few of them demetrius and this is the place to be.
Oh and welcome to HSO
I spent some time in Kentucky where abouts you at

Cut bait for me seems to work well if you take a stick or somthing similar and you tap the fish all over before you cut it. Basically creates a Bruise and fills the flesh with blood so when you cut it you have nice bloody peices of meat and then just let em sit in the sun for about 30 min and they will firm up a bit so you dont have to worry about it falling off or use a trebble hook and wrap a piece of your wife's nylons around it and your bait will be sure to never come off

Thanks for taking the time to make these links incredibly useful.

Cowhead, I see you are from ND, but since this is a Minnesota Fishing Forum I must point out that using a treble hook in Minnesota is illegal.

I know during my time of lurking and occasional posting in the catfish forum I have seen the catfish length/girth weight tables a few times. Where is that thing, I am having a hard time finding it. I searched around the internet and plugged some numbers into various calculators and got back answers that ranged from around 10 to 20+

DTRO, could you put a link those tables that you direct everybody to all the time in the OP? I think that's a good place for a link.

Ask and you shall receive.

http://www.kingofthecats.org/Flathead_Weight_Conversion.xls

Whats a good lake to bow fish carp in southern MN

You might have a better chance at info about that in the Bowfishing Spearing forum
http://www.hotspotoutdoors.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/forums/119/1/Bowfishing_Spearing