[Osage78]

I was a really active catfish guy from highschool to my early 20's but when my children were born I stayed to busy working and quit fishing. Now that they're all finally grown & out of the house I'm getting back into it & relearning so to speak.

Equipment has improved a lot in some ways since I was in my 20's and in researching what was new I saw people using some baits I had never used & some old stand by stuff still. I have been experimenting with different baits since February in lakes, rivers & creeks in my area & this has been my amateur results from morning, mid day & over night fishing trips with blues & channels landed & I have caught no flatheads yet, all fishing from the bank.

Sunfish ( we call'em perch ) alive and cut all sizes - by far in lakes, rivers and creeks the best bait for me especially head pieces. When nothing else works these usually do & I usually catch my bigger fish on these and even caught a few small stripers

Shad, alive and cut - about half as good as sunfish. I can't hardly keep them alive and it's hit or miss with them if the fish want them or not.

Chicken breast - they either nail one after another or they won't touch it at all there's been no in between. Only caught small 1lb to 3lb channels on chicken. I tried the Kool aid, the jello ( cherry, strawberry, lime & lemon) I also tried a garlic version that only caught only 1 small channel on that version. Gar wouldn't leave it alone in the creeks. River was a bust on all chicken versions.

Hot dogs - nothing not even a nibble anywhere.

Shrimp - a few small channels and lots of empty hooks where I never saw the bite on the rods.

Deer meat ( cause why not ) 1" cubes - plain, garlic & strawberry jello - turtles , turtles & more turtles and zero fish attention.

Stink bait from Walmart - a few gar in creeks & I flung and bunch off casting.

Night crawlers - caught small channels, blues drums and a few hybrids & sunfish.

Slugs from under my house - caught 1lb - 3lb channels each time within 3-4 minutes or less the time I tried them and twice had fish the second they hit bottom but these creep me out handling them so they're out

I guess I'll just keep using sunfish and hope I can learn more about where bigger fish will be during different times and weather which I am clueless on really despite the research & studying. Biggest catfish I have caught since February was a measley 11 lbs. I've been trying different depths while out from 2 foot sand flats up to around 18-20 feet the deepest so far but it's really rocky and I keep getting hung up. Using circle hooks 95% if the time

 

[Herbhome]

Thanks that was a lot of good info.

 

[Osage78]

Thanks that was a lot of good info.

You're welcome sir

 

[Osage78]

Added " Danny Kings Punch Bait " blood version today. Got hit one time when balled up and stuffed in a surgical type sleeve. Tried the treble hook way and the light current kept washing most of DK's off.
One benefit of it was turtles left it alone. I took a bunch of small perch out & turtles kept cleaning them off my line once it warmed up and the sun was fully out.

Started at 5am fished until 3pm. Storm front coming in. Tried fishing flooded dead standing trees depth from 6 to 20 feet deep from 5:00-7:30 no bites.

Moved under a feeder creek bridge remained there until 3pm when my stomach said it was quitting time.



Cut Perch sections = 4 channels all around 1.8-2.3 lbs.
No blues or flatheads


Danny Kings =0
Night crawlers = 0
No shad or other bait to test.

Water level dropped around 3" from 5am to 3pm. You can see on the columns where it was

 

[typer181]

I'm really surprised to hear you have had better luck with cut gills compared to shad. Gills are typically right behind shad for me. How big are the shad you're using?

 

[Osage78]

I'm really surprised to hear you have had better luck with cut gills compared to shad. Gills are typically right behind shad for me. How big are the shad you're using?

Typically 2"-4" long, I do think shad would surpass them if I had fished the river as much as I have creeks & Skiatook lake. Most local guys who fish the river here use shad almost exclusively. I'm just reporting my experience which since February has not been real encouraging unfortunately.

 

[Osage78]

Fished a feeder creek that runs into the Arkansas River this morning from 7:00 am to 9:00 am.

Cut sunfish various sizes.
Used a head section around an 1.5" my slack line caught in some limbs of a tree just at the bank. While fighting it loose caught a 8.6lb blue. I honestly think me jerking the bait around getting free triggered the bite because I didn't get another hit there on sunfish the next few hours.

Danny Kings punch bait blood - no bites at the creek

Left and went a few miles away to the Arkansas river under a bridge. It was swollen and running hard and the better bank spots had people there with rods but none in the water people just sitting in chairs
I found a small spot on the opposite side of the river from them with only 176 cottonmouths so I staked my claim rigged up and tossed out a whole small perch on a 9/0 team catfish hook with a 4 ounce coin sinker. Made about a 40 yard flop cast, had a little backlash nothing major with the other people watching me in shame I fixed it real quick. Once it hit the water and was sinking a few seconds my drag started screaming and my line was getting pulled out fast and headed down river with the current until I had 1 wrap left on my spool which has 330 yards of 80lb braid. I was able to turn it by a big brush pile down river by thumbing the spool with both thumbs & cussing in a made up language . I had to fight that thing 300 yards back to me against the current trying to keep it by the shore as best I could to avoid the harder current. The whole time I was telling myself it could be the new state record or very close to it. After a bit I thought I tired him out, then he would go away from shore into the current & he'd pull my line back out and start running again away from me and head down river hard but slow.I got so pumped I got pretty nauseous & starting sweating real heavy. Took me around an hour to get it back to where I was on the bank. During this epic battle some other people who were looking for a fishing spot there stopped & were watching me from up on the road around 50 yards away. Two guys asked if I needed help, they looked young and strong so I swallowed my pride and told them I did. They came running down the hill to help me get it out of the water. They were convincing me it was a big flathead saying "he's probably 60lbs or better by the way he's acting" of course I knew that already I assured they . They had a long fiberglass handled net probably 10ft long that looked homemade they'd brought with them from their pickup. When I finally got it close to us one guy reached out & landed it. Turned out to be an old soft dark colored log about 24" long and 8" around 😁 The other guy had me hold it and took my picture with his brother since they thought it was a fish when I was fighting it too.

I made up an excuse left & went to my local lake where the turtles filled their stomachs with the remainder of my sunfish.

Will hopefully go again tonight if I can get someone to tag along & catch some more bait

 

[metalman]

Where’s the picture, we all love a good log picture 😂!!!

…W

 

[Osage78]

Where’s the picture, we all love a good log picture 😂!!!

…W

Lol he used his phone my only prayer is he doesn't post it on some social media.

 

[Herbhome]

I showed this to my bride and she said, " Ha ha, that's a Neill story if ever I saw one."

I feel your pain, brother.