Winter Blue Catfish Tips and Strategy for Lakes.
Some of the best seasons to catch large blue catfish are the fall and winter months. Blue catfish follow a predictable pattern during this time and are easier to target. During the fall the shad begin to die from the rapid cooling of the lake/river. This period is known as shad kill to fishermen. The bluecat’s main diet is shad. During this period the bluecat will gorge itself on the adundance of easy to find dead shad.
Strategy:
Sometimes during this season shad can be hard to locate. You may be able to buy frozen shad from a local bait shop or attempt to catch them yourself. If you chose to catch them yourself, try to target locations such as marina’s, and protected coves. You may also want to try throwing your net on the windblown side of the lake as the shad tend to stack up on this side.
Once you have your shad ready its time to locate the fish. The spot you would most likely want to target is where the main creek channel comes into the lake. You can locate this on topographical maps or by using a fish finder. Visualize where the creek feeds the lake and follow were the creek would have naturally flowed. Use your fish finder to locate where the drop off for the creek channel is. Bluecat’s will use the creek channel as a place to ambush prey. Also dead shad will sink and fall into this low spot, so bluecat’s will travel this area in search of a quick meal.
I suggest drift fishing the shad across the creek channel. If you don’t know what drift fishing is, you can read my article about drift fishing. If the fish are in the area, you should get bites quite quickly and nearly every pass over the creek channel. If you dont get a bite after a few passes, move. I cant stress this enough. Years ago people came up with the notion that you have to wait hours on end sometimes for the fish to bite. This is not true. If fish are in the area and actively feeding, then you should get a bite in 15 minutes. If not, move to another location till you find where they are feeding. Ive been to locations where you couldn’t keep a pole in the water for more than 15 seconds without a fish on.
Written by loki1982
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