I live in Sparta and fish alot on the mississippi river. Just got into catfishing last year and had a little success. Anybody catch any big cats in the area?? I fish mostly within a few miles of the dresbach dam, above or below.
I have fished the Goose Island Campground area, with some good luck. I caught some nice size channel cats, right by the boat launch. I also used a boat and fished some of the cutbanks. Even I never caught any Flatheads in this area, I know that they are there. I will be traveling and fishing that area again in Late may. Hoping to get some the spawn action. I was using Doc's Blood Bait for the Channel cats, and cut bait for the Flatheads. Since I did not catch any Flatheads with cutbait, I would fish with either live bluegill or suckers. Cutbait seems to work the best either early or late summer, and live bait mid-summer.
My son and I fish the Goose Island area quite a bit as well as pool 5 near Alma. If you're looking for flatheads, the best baits we've found are bluegills and rock bass. We found that 6-7 1/2 inchers work well. My son has been doing this for 3 years. The biggest he's caught in the G.I. area is 34#. I just got into catfishing this past July and am looking forward to open water again this spring. Good luck......... Maybe see you out there.
