Iowa Catfish

[ADC]

Hey RR what kind of lines do you use for catfish? Don't be leaving out all the juicy details either.

I need to know type of line, weight and length. Type of hooks, size ect... How much weight? Swivels? Bait? Locations? Your rigging? hooks per line? GET THE IDEA?

[buckfreak]

My last reply got lost in cyberspace somewhere As far as staking we tie to whatever is handy or drive a rebar if nothing is available to tie off. This usually occurs on the end of rockd**es. If you can lay your line down the current break where the main current meets the hole, theres usually a line of little whirlpool thingys. If you lay the line down this good things usually happen.
On the weights, the end weight is just like the rest of them on the line. The whole line is weighted between hooks and top and bottom ends.
One thing I forgot that is interesting is when you have a pound bullhead with about the last three inches of his tail "dissolved" that means down in twenty feet of water there is about a two pound flathead that thought he could eat that bullhead.LOL Many times they will hold on and spit the bait out right at the boat. Have also had them choke and be dead when you run the lines. Have also had the bullhead puncture the fishes gut with the spines and fish was dead. Lots of cool experiences that couch taters never get to see or do. I am just glad my boys like to fish, well maybe not because they like to go more than I do, and that is a bunch. Keep this thread going as it is very interesting. What do you guys use to get your bait with? Pole and line, seine, traps, or all of the above?

[ADC]

What do you guys use to get your bait with? Pole and line, seine, traps, or all of the above?

We catch our bullheads with spinning rods equipped with a split shot and a hook normally. We use night crawlers for bait. I know of several overstocked farm ponds that produce a bullhead about as fast as you can cast and real them in. I have heard if you use a large lead-head jig with night crawlers on the hook it helps keep the bullheads from swollowing the hook. I have two ponds that are good for green sunfish but they run a little smaller so we don't use them as often. I also set chub traps and crawdad traps. I use the chubs as cut bait and coon bait for trapping. The crawdads are coon bait too. I also seine a couple times a year more for the fun of seeing what you'll catch than the need for bait. We seine very small creeks some with only a couple inches of water except for where the holes are. It is always a suprise when we get a big fish or turtle ect...

[RiverRat]

Ok finally catchin a break. I perfer trotlines beacase of the way our laws read we can run more hooks usin them. I am guessing real close to the size of lines here but the main line is close to size 96 braided nylon an the droppers are maid from size 18, sweivels are size 3 brass barrel sweivels. Hooks I use mustad circle hooks size 12/0 mostly but when I get the hankerin to run big baits I run up to a 14/0. The circles are just a bit to close so I open them up a bit. I like to have my hooks no closer than 3 ft as I have lost bigger fish if they are closer than that. I like to set the biggest deepest holes I can find. dont like alot of brush or things to tangle on. location any place I think i can catch em lol places where they feed ect.. My main lines vary in lengh 10-20 ft. my droppers are bout 12-14 inches. the line is dbled. # of hooks is usually now less than 3 up to 15. Rerod stake on bank widow weight on the end toss tight down river that way I got bait at all water levels. once in awhile I will set a ditty pole or logline but it anit often as Id rather have 4-5 baits there with the chance for more fish.

[RiverRat]

As far as catchin bait , i use a hook an line for all fish, but siene crawfish if I want them. I have run baitshops and found out real quick you can get em faster with a line than any other way. I do run traps now an then but its mainly for last min. trips with no time to go fishin for bait just check the trap an go. I forgot to mention in above post I perfer green sunfish , but will use chubs in a pinch, the other day I ran bullheads for the first time. I did get bout 4 lb flathead an lost 4 hooks off my line due to a snag. I like them all 4-6 inches. I had to dive bout 5 feet to get that flathead in. went down even deeper to untangle my mainline hooked myself an suddlenly relealized sp ?I had forgot my knife I got unhooked an came up for air. One should probly sp? never dive in while alone but I will if I have my knife really scared me for sec or two. Dumb move. I got scars to prove why you shouldnt almost cost me my life once but my cousin got me cut lose.

I been thinkin bout setting some ditty poles on one hole, its a great spot but its full of snags too much to run trotlines. Thought of tryin to float one but anit sure how it would work.

[buckfreak]

Amen to the jig heads. Will virtually eliminate swallowed hooks. Even go as far as crimping the barb down to make em barbless. Catch em fast and get em into a cooler of fresh water. The less you handle them the better. For bait skip the worms. Well take a couple and use them to catch a bluegill or sunfish and then fillet him off and use a piece of fillet for bait. They hammer them as good as worms and you can catch half a dozen on one piece.
Riverrat you scare me ;D The fish are supposed to be the ones hooked up underwater. Unless you got gills I wouldn't recommend your style. Could cause greyhairs to your mom if she knew you were doing that kind of stuff.
If you are fishing out of a boat or can get a boat in the hole with the snags tie a line between two snags like a clothesline. If the water ain't real deep set it about two feet off the bottom. If it's real deep fish the line parallel to the bank and on the bottom. If it's the only hole for a ways the fish will stack in it and be hungry. Leave enough slack to get the line up in the boat but not enough to tangle on the snags.
Use alot of bait traps too. Bait them with the cheapo chicken flavored catfood from walmart. The dry catfood and just put it in a cheesecloth bag. Use lots of bait.
Have to use traps or pole and line because all the places that were seinable got wiped out by other seiners or dried up.
Anyone else got any tips or ideas? or is there a bunch of sandbaggers out there lurking about

[RiverRat]

Riverrat you scare me The fish are supposed to be the ones hooked up underwater. Unless you got gills I wouldn't recommend your style. Could cause greyhairs to your mom if she knew you were doing that kind of stuff.

LOL yeah she knows what I am doin she grew up watchin gramp do the same, no I don't have gills but dont let a little water get in the way if I can get down to em. I am like a fish in water. I know its dumb but I been doin it all my life an anit gonna quit now, mom use to tell us not to get wet when fishin after school, we get a big one hung up , an I would strip down to nothin , ma never knew I been in the creek cuz my clothes was dry LOL

That set I was tellin ya about I used my boat to motor up to the middle rerod stake on bank an a window weight on the end fish tangled around some concrete that fell off the bank. I am gonna try that parrel line set you talked about. For seineing bait one thing we do if its a great spot is clean the brush out a few days ahead of time I have at times sold bait both wholesale an retail I need all the help I get then , cleaning your holes out can really help.