New to boards and to catfishing

[I_try]

Hey everyone,

im coming from conway, and a friend and I are tryin to get into catfishin, done some fishing in my short life but probably not as much as most of you. was hopin for some advice on where and how to catch those catfish, i live just a few minutes from toad suck lock and dam so any information on dam fishing would be great. Thanks

[Dwednuts]

Hello I Try, Welcome to the BOC!!! Glad you made it, Lil'Brother!!!

[pendog66]

Welcome to the BOC. Its a great site, enjoy

[Tym2Fish]

Welcome to the BOC. Take a look around alot of good people here to help ya:)

[TOPS]

David,[ I try ] Welcome to the B.O.C. and to Arkansas talk. Jerry [Jtrew] fishes youe area alot. I am sure he will give you some info. I fish out of Russellville. I mostely fish the area around the nuclear plant. Skip jack is the bait of choice.

[flatcatnightmare]

Welcome to the BOC, and to the wonderfull world of catfishing , catfishing is the best , gives ya something to do , and kepps ya out of trouble , and people ya meet who are fisherman are good people,what type of catfish you think you will target the most? I ask because if your going for the bigcats your gonna need some heavy gear , channels not so heavy, anyway ask away , and glad ya picked a good species of fish to fish for.

[BigDuck]

Welcome aboard!

[Big Sam]

:) Welcome to the brotherhood! Ask Jtrew he is in your area....I fish the areas that top does....

[maddcatties]

welcome I TRY I'm new to boc but there's alot of good people and info on here so good luck in just a couple of day's I learned alot:)

[TOPS]

Jamaine, welcome to the B.O.C. Enjoy your stay here.

[jtrew]

Welcome to the BOC David. Are you fishing from the bank, or from a boat? Almost all of my fishing up at Toad Suck has been from a boat, but if you stand at the bottom of the launching ramp and cast about halfway to the sandbar alongside the jetty, you should drop your bait into a nice hole that's about 30' deep. And sometimes you can catch skipjack in the little bitty cove right up next to the dam; use crappie jigs or a sabiki rig and fish the current breaks.
I've had very good luck fishing from a boat. All along the bluffs across the river from the launching ramp has produced for me. You might pay particular attention to the spot where the old stairway comes down the bluff. Apparently when they built the stairway, they blasted loose a bunch of rock, and it made a big pile that comes to within 6' or 8' of the surface. Particularly in the spring, pay particular attention to riprap areas where the current runs strong right alongside the shoreline, looking for areas of disturbance on the surface. Any kind of eddy there should be checked out, and if you see a spot where there's either a bump or dip in the surface, it generally means either a big rock on the bottom, or a hole there. It seems to me that the further down towards Bigelow I get, the better the fishing is.

[I_try]

Thanks for the welcome everybody and thanks for the info Jtrew, i do a little of both fishing from a boat and from the bank. I dont personally own a boat but i fish with a guy that does, but he doesnt get off work till later and hardly comes out, so im usually fishin off the bank. i always see somebody fishin the skipjack right there beside the dam, didnt know they were gonna use them for bait. also i have just been using chicken liver lately, does it work as well as the more natural bait or would i be better off spending more time on catchin some bait fish? thanks again

[beeheck]

Welcome to the site I Try, I don't know the area your fishing but I would check the regs and see if you can fish with more than one pole and then put out one with chicken liver and fish for bait fish with another. Once I got a skip jack caught I would go with both poles for cats and see what happens. No reason to waste time fishing for bait if nothing is biting unless you want to freeze it for another day. Once you see what the cats are wanting change both poles over to that and have some fun.

[jtrew]

IMO, you're always better off going with fresh cut shad or skipjack. Well, actually I'm not real sure which is better, fresh shad, or frozen skipjack. (Shad don't freeze worth a hoot!) I've caught an awful lot of catfish on fresh cut shad. But, also a lot on frozen skipjack. Oh well, I've usually got frozen skipjack, and don't have fresh shad, so guess which I use. If you want to try getting some fresh shad, go down to the Lake Conway dam, go out on the apron when they're not releasing water, and use a small mesh dip net to catch the shad that are running right against the end of the concrete slab where the water leaking through the spillway gates is falling into the pool of water below the dam. Sometimes you can catch them in a cast net, but often, they're too close to the concrete. I use cured chicken liver as a backup bait...something to put on my hook when I don't have shad or skipjack. Bacon, salt pork, chitlings, and anything else other than skipjack or shad is also a backup bait, meaning it isn't as good, but it's better than nothing.

[Gone fishin 4 kittys]

Welcome to the BOC David you came to the right Place!!!

[I_try]

Any other good spots within about 30 minutes from were im at Jtrew? cause some days there are just masses of people down at toad suck and its hard to find a good spot

[SilverCross]

Welcome to the BOC, David.

[elphaba7]

Hey, David! Welcome to the BOC!:)

[Lngbo]

Welcome to the site, I have found in my short time here that this crew is the best. Just drop a question and you will get an answer.

[kspor]

Glad to have another member. See if your boat friend can locate some holes for you to fish when your stuck on shore. Perhaps something that the other may overlook. Small eddies may not hold monsters, but then again I have never heard someone complain about catching 1-5 lb cats.
:)

[Cataholic]

Welcome to the BOC!
I fish Dardanelle and it's surrounding tributaries. My bait of choice is Skipjack and my fish of choice is the Blue, he'll hammer your bait and take off like a train! If you can't handle the Adrenaline maybe you better stick to Channels or Bullheads!
Bring yer stick and we'll wet a line!

[Darrell]

Welcome to the site brother! All I can say is start reading and then go out and use the knowledge. Somethings work and somethings dont, either way you will have a good time even if they arent biting.

Darrell