Curious

[england]

I' m little curious about the catfisherman that post here.
I have not read a whole lot about winter catfishing. I used to chase catfish year round. I have been hung up on crappie fishing for about the past 7 or 8years, so I dont catfish much anymore. I dont even chase those giant flatheads in spring anymore either, but I'm not completly done. When the month of December rolls around I put up the perch jerkin poles and break out the cast net and catfish poles.
I live in North Mississippi, so I fish these flood control lakes that we have here. In the winter the Corps draws the lakes down to winter pool wich reduces there size alot. My partner and I have 5 or 6 areas around my home lake where the old river channel swings in close to the bank with shallow flats about 3 or 4 foot deep on both sides. We will start the day getting fresh shad then drive around to these spots and check the wind. The wind is the main factor on where we decide to fish. It needs to be a stiff wind blowing into the bank at a angle, parallel is fine also as long as its blowing from deep water to shallow water. I guess what this does is blow the shad onto these shallow flats, and it also blows the scent of my bait down wind as well. You would think that the river channel would be the place to catch the fish, not so, not here anyway. Those big blues will be sitting on those shallow flats in that cold water gorging them selfs on shad, its wild I love it.
You know you are fixing to catch a load of fish when you cast your bait out and shad fly everywhere when your bait hits the water. I use four poles to get started, but more times than not I have to go to one because of the fast action. Its amazing that we can catch 10 to 25 pound fish one after another. We do release most of these.
The best thing is hardly no one else does this over here, not on my home lake anyway, I'm curious to know if anybody else does this in the winter.

[Rookie12]

OK, here is what I have found out about blues in the winter. You can go over those textbook spots, ledges, creek channel bends and the like and mark fish like crazy. Here is how to tell if they are feeding. From what I've found is when you find a lot of big fish in one small area and tight to the bottom, then you will be wasting your time. Those fish are not feeding. Where the ledge comes up on the flat is where you want to fish at. If there are any active fish around, that is where they will be. And the wind thing is true too. Although the wind doesn't actually blow around the baitfish (shad). The wind blows the plankton into a corner and the shad go feed on them. I fish certain areas of the lake when the wind blows a certain way. It helps if the wind blows that way for a few days though. I just fished a tournament that was won in less than 10 ft. of water in 43 degree water because of this. Usually the fish are bigger. It seems only the smartest fish know this and they will go shallow. When blues are this shallow, they are almost always active. When you have good current, the textbook areas are a better bet. Cats wait in these "funnels" for food to be washed to them. You're doing right, keep it up. This works year round too, although in the summer, sometimes the fish suspend over deep water and you got to use slip floats. you should try that too! see ya