Thread: Structure for catfish also?

I catch a few under dock and around submerged standing timber. I used to fish an old stump flat in a clear lake growing up. You could see those cats swim out of those hollow stumps when you got close

Good luck with the structure. I go for catfish on purpose at times also. i usually hit the main river channels around drop offs. I have noticed I do catch a few around docks and other structure when hunting crappie. The cats will feed on the panfish, so I think what you are planning will work great.

I catch some along rip rap shorelines also.

We used to be river rats most weekends. Fished tournaments on the Red River close to Shreveport for years. Now we are over an hour to the Red and Ouachita rivers either way. Claiborne lake is wide open and kinda a barren landscape above the water. There are some stump fields. Just kinda hard to even know where to start. 8 mile long lake. Crappie right now are deep and easy. Will have to branch out soon.

Won't be too much long and they should be headed to the banks and shallow flats to spawn

Howdy catfishtoon !

From what I understand about catfish, the love hiding places. Tires, drums, corrugated pipe, anything big enough that they can fit into (most of which you will want to find similar objects to avoid the bad materials in the water like rusting metal). The placement would be tricky. I say tricky because there are channels, blues, flats, bulls, etc. and have similar yet different places they like to be. I would research the habits and traits of the catfish in your water and build from there.

I do not know how true this is, so please research: I have been told by other anglers that a high population of catfish in a lake will decrease some other populations because some catfish are predatorial and eat small fish. This was the reasoning that my HOA used years ago to justify not stocking catfish in our ponds. Again I have not personally validated.

Originally Posted by N1X

Howdy catfishtoon !

From what I understand about catfish, the love hiding places. Tires, drums, corrugated pipe, anything big enough that they can fit into (most of which you will want to find similar objects to avoid the bad materials in the water like rusting metal). The placement would be tricky. I say tricky because there are channels, blues, flats, bulls, etc. and have similar yet different places they like to be. I would research the habits and traits of the catfish in your water and build from there.

I do not know how true this is, so please research: I have been told by other anglers that a high population of catfish in a lake will decrease some other populations because some catfish are predatorial and eat small fish. This was the reasoning that my HOA used years ago to justify not stocking catfish in our ponds. Again I have not personally validated.

Matured catfish like live bream and crappie as vait

Y'all are correct. There is a misconception that catfish are bottom feeding scavengers. They are predators. Often they are the apex in a given ecosystem. A ten pound blue can eat a two pound fish easy. Imagine what an 40lb flathead can eat. I have caught 12-15 lb blues off of huge bream fished live. On the other hand I caught a 54lb blue on a half of shad. If you ever want a true battle hang a hand size red ear on a 7/0 circle hook and get it close to a tree top on the edge of a river. On a huge bobber. Hold on, there is no telling what you are gonna hook into.