Need help fishing this pond. (detailed and with pictures)

[andrewpzim]

ok, so me and my buddies have been going to a pond for a few weeks now, and the owner swear there are some monster catfish in it. I usually don't believe people when they say this, but this pond is MASSIVE. depths reach 20-25ft, and every 5 or 10 years a major river floods the entire area, trapping the fish in the pond for years. And yes, there is ton of food for the catfish to grow fast.

So far: we've been fishing off the point shown in the picture diagrams, and so far all we've caught are polliwogs(bullheads). We have missed a couple fish that have made the clicker go crazy. About the third time we fished there, we finally caught 2 channel catfish that were about a pound. this was a great relief after only catching 10 or so polliwogs each trip.

Our bait: cut up frozen shad.

Rig: a circle hook with a sinker about a half foot or full foot below the hook. we sink it to the bottom and turn the clickers on.

My questions:
1. should we be fishing in the deeper water to the left of the point? if so, how deep?
2. is the rig we are using ok? and is the bait good?
3. should we throw some burlap bags full of cattle cubes etc. around the drop-off?
4. any tips\ advice\ pointers you can tell me about where we can fish, or about the land in general.
5. any thoughts on the pond or your opinions on the fish in it, and if the polliwogs are good or bad, especially with how many we have caught.


its about 90 degrees during the day time, and about 75 at night when we fish. we usually fish 8pm-12 or 1am.

[Smoothkip]

First off welcome to the site! If I were you I'd try using some live bait such as bluegill,crappie etc. that should help with catching the bullheads.

[andrewpzim]

Thanks! And I should have been more clear, I'm wanting to catch more channel cats and less bullheads. And also, any idea if there could be flatheads or blues in the pond? I'm not too familiar with catfish living in ponds

[Smoothkip]

Mature channel cats have no problem taking a good sized live bait. It could be possible that there's flats and blues in there if the river floods into it. Then again I don't know where ur located.

[andrewpzim]

How deep would you suggest fishing the bottom? It drops off to 20+ft or the point goes far out to 8ft but that's where we catch all of the bullheads that we don't want. And I'm located in arkansas!

Ps, thanks for all the help and replys, it's hard to get some solid advice sometimes

[ducky]

If there is a large supply of bullhead, chances are very slim there is a good number of flathead.

[ducky]

I would also suggest using floats, channel cats always seem to hit a suspended bait much harder than a bait on the bottom in deep water.

[andrewpzim]

Ive been meaning to try that but I've got a question about it. If its at night around 75 degrees, how deep would you recommend?

[ducky]

I would try 6 foot, and keep goin deeper till ya find the right depth.

[ducky]

I would try 6 foot, and keep goin deeper till ya find the right depth. Your pic looks like it shows a shallow flat? That should a great area for channels to feed at night.

[redcat]

Jun 20, 2013 13:09:49 GMT -5 ducky said:

I would try 6 foot, and keep goin deeper till ya find the right depth. Your pic looks like it shows a shallow flat? That should a great area for channels to feed at night.

Feeding flats.... one of my best channel cat holes is a shallow flat next to a 40' hole on a big bend.

[redcat]

Try shrimp on the flat. Live crayfish would be a good option if you could get them.

[catmaster12]

If you want to find out if there are flatheads in the pond, throw one of them bullheads on. Flatheads will tear into the bullheads. Most any live bait will catch you a flathead.

[Skyline1506]

big creek chubs and palm sized bluegills will find you big channels. Or just let me know where the pond is and I will figure it out for you

looks more like a lake than a pond

[bassmassey]

I believe you are over analyzing the whole situation..........catch some bream, throw them in a bucket...fish some of them cut, throw a live one out if you want. Set up where you think they might be, if you don't like it after an hour or two set up at a different spot...