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Post by Smoothkip on Jan 25, 2012 18:41:59 GMT -5
Curious what your guys tips are on locating lake channel cats are? What are you looking for structure? Bottom composition? Bait fish? Just curious your thoughts on this.
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Post by rcbbracing on Jan 25, 2012 19:47:16 GMT -5
I'm not going to chime in on structure and depth etc cause other guys on here are far more productive than me on channelcats but my one piece of advice for newer fisherman is if you are targetting large fish and keep catching babies I personally would relocate ...I do not believe 5-10lb channels choose to hang out with one lbers ....weather its difference in food choices or just coincidence in my fishing endeavours I don't know...this is just something I personally have observed
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Seanstone
Catfish Freak
Multi-Specie Catch and Release Angler
Posts: 1,166
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Post by Seanstone on Jan 25, 2012 19:53:53 GMT -5
We did pretty good late summer last year fishing at the mouth of coves. We had a real hot spot where we marked an 11' hole at the mouth of a cove, when all the water everywhere else was 6-7'. Just that little bit of difference in depth made a huge difference. I think we fished it 4 different nights and caught 4 channels over 10lbs., with 16 or so over 6lbs. We didn't mark any bait fish though, just a 4' hole. We used cut shad and live gills. The largest channel came off of a live gill. Also interesting to note, there were not flatheads caught from that spot, only channels. I cant figure that one out.  |
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Post by captainbrad on Jan 26, 2012 15:14:38 GMT -5
I'm not going to chime in on structure and depth etc cause other guys on here are far more productive than me on channelcats but my one piece of advice for newer fisherman is if you are targetting large fish and keep catching babies I personally would relocate ...I do not believe 5-10lb channels choose to hang out with one lbers ....weather its difference in food choices or just coincidence in my fishing endeavours I don't know...this is just something I personally have observed I agree that trophy sized channels typically don't hang with small channels |
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Post by jason454ci on Jan 26, 2012 17:28:26 GMT -5
The biggest thing that helps me locating channels on a lake is covering lots of water. Most of the time it seems I find them out in the open. Sometimes but not real often I do find them in structure which isn't a good thing when you are drifting. Alot of times I pick up fish while drifting over creek channels. Last year was a weird year for some reason as I caught alot of fish in shallow waters all through the hot months. Usually you have to move deeper to find them when it warms up. Just didn't seem right catching fish in 3 feet of water with a water temp of 92 degrees.
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Post by Skyline1506 on Jan 28, 2012 8:46:51 GMT -5
i was basically going to say what jason did, during the dead of summer we caught fish in the shallows and backwaters. later we fished holes in the mouths of coves during the day and moved in at night. for channels we look for transition points and fish them them most. say you have a 18 feet of depth at the mouth of a cove and as you move back becomes a 10ft flat in the cove. whether that 8 foot rise is sharp or slow we fish the transition more than the flat or the hole itself. i dont know if they use the transitions as ambush points or if we hit them on there way out of the deep as they switch to active mode but it works. I guess it could also be that an open flat doesnt have much cover so its the only change in scenery. Also we look for ledges which is basically the same principal as a transition point, just a very sharp rise. I love ledges that run along a cut bank the whole way down the shoreline of a cove. if you find a spot like that you will catch channels all night. just keep moving along that ledge all night. clendenning has lots of ledges since the lake is basically all coves and fingers and is reasonably deep so they hold on the shallower ledges. the first example comes from a transition spot at tappan which is another great cat lake with good depth and composition.
We have also caught numerous flatheads while fishing these types of spots.
I hope that makes sense i know what i wanted to say but am not sure if it reads how i wanted it to. I have a hard time typing what i would speak
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Post by Skyline1506 on Jan 28, 2012 8:51:56 GMT -5
we fish the transition more than the flat or the hole itself. when i said this it doesnt necessarily mean hole it could just be transitioning from the main channel or main lake into a cove with a nice flat, but it can also work for a big hole than transitions into the cove. |
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