catpacking?

[rcbbracing]

Don't know how many people remember but there was an article in catfish insider three or four years ago on cat packing...where you take one lightweight rod and minimal tackle and hike down a small river looking for smaller channel catfish in the spring...anyone ever done this? I have two small rivers close to home that I have caught five or six pound channels out of while baitfishing for bullheads...always wanting to try this but never seem to have the time...was curious if anyone has ever done this and what kind of results it has yielded and what things seemed to work...assume it's the same principles as larger rivers but ya never know...thanks for any information guys...

[Seanstone]

Yep...still have that same article squirreled away in a 3 ring binder. We haven't tried it extensively, but sometimes when we're bass fishing I'll throw some cutbait into a snag or deep hole just to see what happens. Every now and then you get lucky. By far our best method has been drifting cut bait under floats set deeper than the water we're fishing. In-fisherman has also highlighted this method. (We saw the video after we had already worked all the bugs out.) This method allows the current to pull your float, which in turn pulls your bait across bottom. We pinch the line between our fingers and wait for the thump. Once you feel it, set the hook. We have caught countless fish this way...drum, hybrid striped bass, baby blue cats, channels, largemouth, etc. Works great. In fact every where I go now, I bring a small abu garcia kalex in my bag and use it to cast floats with. (7000's are no fun to cast over and over again) When they are biting, its one of the fastest ways to catch fish hands down.

[rcbbracing]

We always did that around the riprap at clendening in the spring...always got amazing numbers...part of the time if u were patient u could watch em with the redlight on head lamp...u could see em pick up the bait and swim off pretty neat deal...we weren't dragging the bottom tho...actually set pretty shallow but seemed to work with a whole shad just smaller dunno if it simulated spawning shad or if they were just cruising riprap for baitfish .we always used Abu Garcia 6600bcx and 7' Med heavy ugly sticks...lil heavier than needed but as u said better than 7000s!