River fishing Tips and Tricks...Catfish

[txhunter90]

Wanting to see what everybody uses/doing for catching big catfish on the rivers.

We mostly fish the Sabine river and use lines with a few diddy poles.

We try to find deep holes in bends to put our lines. This past weekend we did not have any luck catching anything big. Was told we needed to up our hook size to catch bigger. We are using circle hooks, but being they are on the smaller size I believe maybe 5/0.

Seeing what size hooks, baits, and any tips and tricks that others are doing to help a brother out.

We are catching plenty, just seems as if none over the 3-4lb mark.

[sharpshooter1]

Haven’t fished the rivers in a long time but when I was in high school and college we fished em quite a bit. We targeted yellow cats mostly and all we used for bait was live perch. The bigger the better. I don’t remember the size of the hooks but they were a decent size. Seems we caught the biggest fish at log jams.

[Duckologist]

I use 8/0 circles and fish with large cut bait and live bluegill. I fish sabine and calcasieu.

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[txhunter90]

Haven’t fished the rivers in a long time but when I was in high school and college we fished em quite a bit. We targeted yellow cats mostly and all we used for bait was live perch. The bigger the better. I don’t remember the size of the hooks but they were a decent size. Seems we caught the biggest fish at log jams.

Are you going directly on log jams? Before or after?

[txhunter90]

I use 8/0 circles and fish with large cut bait and live bluegill. I fish sabine and calcasieu.

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Ya I seem to think our hooks are to small for the bigger fish. Sure seems this way.

[Tshelly]

Bait


Bait, bait and more bait. We fish the Sabine for yellow cats exclusively so we don’t mess with cut bait but live goggle eye perch and mud cats are the best.

We don’t use circle hooks. Mainly a trot line style 4 or 6 ought. We will have 7-9 ought hooks on the bottom hook or one liners.

Stay out of swift water sets. Headed back to the Sabine next weekend for another run. We hit it during spring break but it was cold as heck and a slow bite. Biggest fish was 22# yellow.


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[Greenheadless]

Use muscats as bait.

Set lines up river of large snags/logjams/felled trees and undercut banks.

[txhunter90]

Use muscats as bait.

Set lines up river of large snags/logjams/felled trees and undercut banks.

The grape? lol assuming mudcats...

[Greenheadless]

The grape? lol assuming mudcats...

Yeah, that too.

[Drycreek3189]

First, you get an old crank telephone, then look over both shoulders…………….

[txhunter90]

Yeah, that too.

I thought you were setting me up for a good ole Snipe hunt but for fishing. lol

Bait, bait and more bait. We fish the Sabine for yellow cats exclusively so we don’t mess with cut bait but live goggle eye perch and mud cats are the best.

We don’t use circle hooks. Mainly a trot line style 4 or 6 ought. We will have 7-9 ought hooks on the bottom hook or one liners.

Stay out of swift water sets. Headed back to the Sabine next weekend for another run. We hit it during spring break but it was cold as heck and a slow bite. Biggest fish was 22# yellow.


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Do you seem to think along the lines of big bait big fish? We have trouble finding or catching bigger bait. I know for eating this is not what you are usually after. Our buddies this past weekend were using dang near 1 pound bait lol. Why no circle hooks?

First, you get an old crank telephone, then look over both shoulders…………….

haha

[muzzlebrake]

6" to 8" long baby mudcats is what we used to use on limb lines set up in the mouth of creeks feeding Red River. Best time is when the creeks are running bank full muddy water. Only thing we ever caught on mudcats was flatheads and some biggins too. No better eating fish than a 15-20 lb flathead.

[Tshelly]

I thought you were setting me up for a good ole Snipe hunt but for fishing. lol



Do you seem to think along the lines of big bait big fish? We have trouble finding or catching bigger bait. I know for eating this is not what you are usually after. Our buddies this past weekend were using dang near 1 pound bait lol. Why no circle hooks?





haha

Man I’m not real sure on the circle hooks. We do have a few that we use on bottom hooks or 1 hookers. Just most are a 4 ought straight trot line style. I’ve been going for twenty years off and on but don’t have my own lines. One of my best friends is who I always go with and the old pollock that taught him always used that style and size. Probably stuck in the old ways.

We usually run 15-20 3 Hookers and then 5-10 1 hookers.

Bait is usually the toughest. We have a few ponds we are loading up with perch. Used to be mud cat ponds everywhere but they are harder to come across now. I like big bait, you might ride the majority of them all weekend but it’s worth it when just one gets a fish because you know he is a good one. Our biggest fish last trip came on a jumbo mud cat.


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[txhunter90]

6" to 8" long baby mudcats is what we used to use on limb lines set up in the mouth of creeks feeding Red River. Best time is when the creeks are running bank full muddy water. Only thing we ever caught on mudcats was flatheads and some biggins too. No better eating fish than a 15-20 lb flathead.

How do you go about catching the mudcats? Rod and Reel? Or are guys setting out traps?

[Greenheadless]

We used to sneak traps into local stock ponds.