Finding big blues???

[pip]

Last week we spent 6 days and 5 nights camping on Stockton lake in MO. I only got to fish for blues a couple of times by vetoing bass fishing. I thought I could at least get the kids on some small ones, but that just wasn't the case. I tried deep water along a river channel trying to control drift. Bait I was using was, crappie heads and white bass heads. One night my daughter caught an 8 1/2# channel but no blues. Can any of you guys give me some starter points on lake fishing big blues. Should I have been using shad instead of the bait I was using? Would shad sides have worked, because that's all I could buy at the marina. Where can I find gizzard shad on a big lake? Any info will be appreciated thanks!

[Seanstone]

This time of year you can stock up on gizzard shad in most all marinas with lights. Wait till a little after dark and look for swirls....shad for some reason like to swim circles under lights. I got 70 shad from 6 to 11 inches two weeks ago in one cast of the throw net. I counted....lol. We bagged them up and froze them for later.

As for lake blues, your guess would be as good as mine. We only have blues in the river down here. Most of the time if you find the bait you can find the blues. They like current, so any narrow spots in the main channel should be a good spot to start. We often look for ledges too. They tend to stage right off of them.

Sometimes the fish just dont cooperate though. Sorry to hear that you didnt find them. We have been fishing the ohio river for then, and the biggest one we've caught in the last two trips was 2lbs.

[bobbybobber]

i havent fished much in lakes but,what i can tell you is use what you can catch in the lake,mix the sizes of your bait,dont forget about the shallow water i lost a beast last week in 6 ft of water,hook popped out right at the boat,it was over 60lb easy

[katfish]

Pip
The guides at Santee Cooper make a living taking people for blue cats. They rado information to each other and compare locations from the previous day. Their knowledge of blue cats and the lakes are their greatest asset.

I asked them how they locate blue cats on the massive waters and their general response was to follow the bait. Blue cats on those lakes generally follow the most abundant easiest food source they can find. In most cases that food source is the schools of shad or blueback herring.

During times of high electric generation the current flow through the rediversion canal increases due to hydroelectric generators blowing more water through the dam. This dislodges small mussels in the canal and blue cats stack up where it flows into Lake Moultrie and blues eat the mussels shell and all.

You can locate shad schools by motorring through areas and watching your depthfinder. Seagulls and terns fly around shad schools waiting for predator fish to push them to the surface.

Blue cats take advantage of migrations of fish through a lake.
Blueback herring or American shad live in salt water but migrate up freshwater to spawn.

Lake Weiss in Alabama is famous for crappie fishing. I learned that the people at the cleaning stations fillet the crappie and throw the carcasses in the lake. I saw locals grab a few carcasses from the fish cleaners and later heave them out near where the stations were. The blue cats became reliant on these easy meals and the catmen gathered many large blue cats fishing with a whole crappie for bait.

In some cases you can quickly clean the first blue cat you catch and examine the stomach contents. Most times the stomach will be empty because the fish hasn't fed lately or it purged due to threat response as you played it in.

These are just illustrations of how blue cats take advantage of abundant easy meals. You can pay attention to local cats and make educated guesses at their likely food sources.

It is very satisfying to unravel catfish behavior and catch big cats under the unsuspecting eyes of local catfish "experts". I hope this information helps you locate some blue cats.

[pip]

Thanks guys this gives me a good start. Now I have to put it to use.