Favorite catfishing holes and what works for you?

[bondman]

Ok everyone here is a simple question to get some people started responding. what is your favorite catfishing holes and what do you use for bait?
Bondman

[Rat]

Howdy Henry, how you been?

My favorite spot is prolly the Mazon river, and I use live bluegills, creek chubs and shiners for flatheads. Cut chubs, livers and sometimes frogs for channels. Last years drought hit the Mazon hard, I'm hoping it didn't do any long term damage.
Rat

[FlatGetter]

Big logjams in deep water on a outside bend with a sandbar on the inside bend, any river with flatheads.

[SPowell]

I fish the Fox River, above and below the dam in Yorkville. I've had good luck with cut Shad and shiners. I also fish the Plainfield Fishing Resort and have caught nice channels on nightcrawlers, stinkbait and cutbait.

[TeamCatHazzard]

Good ole Mississippi between Alton and Chester. Gotta love the skippies and herring, but right now shad is all we can get and it is working fine. There are SOOOOO many good holes between there it is rediculous. I think Alton area is arguably the top blue cat area in the nation. And I hope people realize this and do more CPR! I hate seein big cats leave for table fare:mad:!

[catfishermanj]

I fish a spot on the fox river north of the McHenry Dam that has a creek coming in on one side and about a 100' down has a dead end channel coming off the river. I am able to fish the entire stretch between the creek and channel. I use live gills and cut bait. Mainly catch channels but a flathead will come along every now and then.

[bigfish]

the kanawha river at a place we call the shad hole. and yes you guessed it we use shad.

[shania]

I fish the California Delta in the Tracy & Stockton area, but my best fishing is in a city called Lodi. Dip-Bait & Cut Shad are the baits that I like to use.
:0a23:

Bert:cool:
(Shaina)

[Rivercat2]

I fish the Illinois River and use shad (cut,alive) Skipjack, and catch alot of nice channels and Blues (nothing over 15Lb) and some nice Flatheads. fish the dam and the outside bends with logjams.

[bondman]

Rat how have you been? Its great to be home i am doing good.

well my all time favorite has to be vandalia lake for channels always do good there. shallows at night drift fishing during the day.I have some real nice holes I fish in this lake I do some chumming here that always helps me (so I cheat hehehe) .cut shad, cut bluegills, some stink bait. I have been told there is some flats in there but I have never caught any.

Coffen lake has always filled the freezer with channels they seem to be everywhere on this lake. but there is not very many big ones. whole small shad and cut shad on jugs work very well to put some fish in the boat. drift fishing with a small whole shad seems to work also. shad cut bait and stink bait seem to be the favs here. To fish this lake from the bank there is numerous spots to park.

The spillway at carlyle has produced flats for me as has the main lake by the train tracks near keysport that is a touchy spot they might be there one day and gone for the next week following the channel out into the main lake or back up into the north end (stump field and trot line haven) always a nightmare up in there in the summer. Live bluegills and warmouthsbest baits here. I know there is channels but never really bother to fish for them as I have some other places for when I am after channels.

Kaskaskia river near vandalia has always given me a few flats but in this river its the deep holes near coxs bridge and the log jams farther up river. same bait as carlyle.

Mississippi river at alton have fished it both from the bank below the lock and dam and from a boat for blues I have not tried it for flats but will this year. Skips and shad.

I have been getting my boat ready as it has not seen water for awhile and will be getting her wet within the next week or so (weather permiting). will most likely hit coffen lake first just to make sure she is up to par. I will be trying new lakes this year trying to find the best spots so when my catfishing brothers come to fish with me I hope to beable to put them on some mighty fine catfishing...

[QuincyFisher]

Good ol' Mighty Miss by Quincy,Illinois at lock n' dam 20 (aka Meyer Dam).
We catch everything pretty much only on shad, skipjack doesnt work for crap.

[Redtick]

I often fish Lake Mattoon. I reckon I catch as many big cats near the causeway as anywhere else using shad. I can't put up too much information, Chuck will know all of my honey holes and secrets if I do.:p

[Chuckb]

lol Dave, I don't fish by the causeway to often. I like fishing coves. Have you been doing any good on the crappie or cats??

[Whistler]

Chuck, those places we fished worked pretty good I thought. It's about time for another trip to Illinois I think. About 3 weeks or so ought to be good.

[gebs]

I fish the lower fox mainly near Plano, IL. There are some real nice runs and several islands. The waters on each side of the top of the islands tend to make some great eddys and the cats just hang out in there then shoot along the current lines down the sides of the islands. I also love to fish the deadfall along the banks especially in hard currents where shorebound fishermen can't reach.

I typically use dip baits, worms, or chicken liver. Only Cats touch the dip bait, the carp and drum will take the worms:sad: , and the turtles will take the chicken livers:mad: .

[Rainman4u2]

I prefer the stip mine ponds in Knox county. The only bait I use is dip bait. Any cut bait, livers or worms catch turtles instead of cats.

Ray

[Redtick]

Chuck, here is a picture of the luck I have been having. I plan to start hitting the water next week.
Well, I can't get the picture uploaded but you can see the snow in my boat on another thread.

[catfishplaya]

i fish crab orchard lake in southern illinois , shrimp is very good during spawning season, as well as night crawler, and the good o' chicken liver

[HARVRAD2003]

Haven't done much River fishing none in Illinois except at the River in Vandalia when I grew in the 70's. The only place I found where I could catch some Cats here in Illinois was at Rend Lake about a yr. and half ago, me and my Dad used Geno's Stink Bait from Carlyle on a small treble hook---took my Dad aprox. 7 times and we caught around 50-60 good channels to eat enough for about good 6 Suppers feeding about 6 people. Was probably the best fishing I've done with my Dad all my life. Geno's stink bait was the only thing that was catching them, went back last year 1 time my Dad caught one channel, but we got there a little late in the morning so they weren't biting very well.

[Firecat41]

The Rock River just down stream of the Rockton damn three holes in a shallow strech of river. Summer time using Livers and Red worms for Channel and live Gill for Flathead (only going on my second year of flathead fishing). I hope to get out in the next cuple of days and see what I can stir up. Northern are hitting anything that hits the water as of right now.

[Skunk Master]

Chain of Rocks and below Alton Dam from bank so far this year... I've been out 4 times... liver.. nitecrawlers..cut shad.. whole small shad.. and cut herring.. I'm still waiting for my 1st bite this year..:crying:

[LarryW]

I no longer live in Illinois but when there did a lot of fishing and decided that I woul share some of my favorate spots with you that are there. I did mostly bank fishing so that will be what I talk about.

REND LAKE
The first spot that I liked on Rend was the Gun Creek area. Take 37 north and go across the bridge, just to the left is an area where you can pull off and get to the old road bed. I fished this spot mainly at night and always seemed to have good luck. I used a Carolina rig with a 2oz weight and used worms and BeeJay bait. There ar a lot of snags but the fishing was worth it. Would catch a lot of fish from 2 to 8 pounds. Never did catch a real big one but that could be becouse of the bait that I used.

The second spot is below the spillway on the south end of the lake where it dumps into the Big Muddy. This is a bank fishing area as I have never seen a boat in there. About half way down the runoff to the fork in the river has always been a good spot. This water has a lot of big rocks and concreat slabs in it so expect to get cought. There are some holes there and some nice blues in it. I always fished this area during the day, dont know if they will let you in at night.

WEST FRANKFORT CITY LAKES
West Frankfort has two lakes close to gether and they are both good catfish lakes. On the old lake (the big lake) my favorate spot was at the closed down beach just west of the boat ramp. You could back your truck right up to the water. My wife and I spent miny nights there and had some real joyable times catching some nice chanels and blues. I would fish bottom tight line and she liked to use a bobber. Again due to the bait we used we never cought any over about 8 lbs. but we were fishing for table fair. With worms you will catch a lot of brim and blue gills so you can have your choice of bait.

I did have one good expereanc on this lake when in a boat. I was fishing at night by myself at the old girl scout camp. This is a spot just east of the boat ramp where the first inlet to the lake to the north. I was fishing just south of the old pear there and casting up close to the bank. I had been fishing for about an hour and cought some small ones when I started getting small hits on one of my rods, I wated and set the hook and thought I was snaged but then the snag moved and the water exploded. I was useing a small rod with 10lb test and after about 45 min. I managed to get the fish to the boat. This cat was over 6 feet long and as I reached down to get hold of it, it rolled and broke my line. This monster is still in the lake waiting for one of you to catch and release it.

I hope that this will help some of you find some fishing spots and that you will keep me posted. When ever we go back up to Illinois to visit family we always try and go to the old beach and do some fishing at night. Maby we will see some of you there.

Larry W