Tailrace blue catfish - Day or Night?

Steve Brown is a professional catfish guide who lives about 3 miles below Truman Dam. He fishes year-round for blue cats, almost exclusively during the daytime, and makes a pretty respectable living doing it.

That's pretty much all I need to know about whether you can catch blue cats during the day...

As for your questions about feeding habits, smaller catfish of all 3 species tend to be scavengers. Once they get over 4 or 5 pounds, they tend to become predators. Large blue cats and flatheads are major predators, but aren't above scooping up a free (dead) meal when it comes along. Try both live and fresh cut bait to see which is working - different times of day, different times of year, different baits work better. Avoid the habit of saving shad for "just in case" - you'll always do better on fresh bait than frozen bait; take the time to learn how to catch the bait you need and resolve to spend as much time as it takes to get fresh bait every time you go fishing. You'll have far better results than if you get lazy and use frozen shad from the last trip.

 

Ya but Steves scared of the dark.....:smile2:

The BiG Blues will be up in the tailrace in may-june-july for spawning. You can go to the look out in June on the west side and see them stacked up below the turbins. Allmost all the BIG ones Ive seen caught during that time have been at night.

Try a big bluegill head or big piece of carp fillet as well as shad....

 

Hey all the flatheads I have caught has been at night and it seems like the blue catfish, I have caught has been early in the morning or during the day, I dont think I have ever caght a blue at night.

 

nice blue that is cool looking:big_smile:

 

Ya i believe from my experience i have caught just as many blues during the day below a dam as i have at night. Like troy said in the summer months the dog days of summer . ive caqught some nice fish during the heat of the day. My avatar pic was caught august 2 at 2 in the afternoon.

 

There are a lot of variables to tailrace fishing. Day vs night, time of year and water temp, water release rate and pattern... sometimes they release for just a few hours a day. It also depends on the tailrace. Truman for example is different than some others because of how far you are fishing from the dam. You aren't really fishing for the fish that are congregated right below the dam below Truman, you are targeting the ones that are coming and going. It will vary on whether you are fishing from bank or from boat, too. Bank fishermen often benefit more from the dispersed night time feeding habits where the fish come to them, where somebody in a boat can move around more and find the fish. For a boat fisherman, the daytime patterns are often more predictable.

I'll be the first to admit that I haven't figured it out, but my best bites fishing from the bank below Truman - the bigger fish - have come at night on cut shad or on cut sunfish in the hour or two after they quit releasing water. Ive also caught a couple of flatheads there by dropping a live bait out just a few feet from the bank in the daytime. Given the fish density in that area I wouldn't be afraid to put bait out any time, day or night.

 

Thanks. Good question and some d*** good answers. I will be watching this thread

 

I used to do a lot of blue cat fishing below a dam here in SC. The water flowing through the dam is just as imprortant (probably even more) than the time of day. The cats in tailraces below dams turn on to feed when the water is turned on coming through the turbines.

I have sat with baits in one spot for hours without a bite with no water coming through the dam, and then, when they turned on the water, landed one cat after another - and big fish!

 

I have never had any trouble catching fish from now to hot weather below Truman, But we catch a lot of dinks. I had a couple days last year that by myself would catch close to Thirty fish a day and nothing over five pounds. I don't know the secret (if there is one) to catching big fish there, "Other then Time on the water". This weekend there will be Two of us Down there and My plan is to Catch big baits and fish Sat. afternoon,evening and all night and come home Sun. I will have a full report on Sun. night.
:smile2:

 

ROB ILL BEDOWN TOO. WILL YOU BE IN A BOAT OR ON BANK. IM NOTBTAKING THE BOAT THIS TIME . MAYBE IF YOUR ON THE BANK WE CAN HOOK UP. ILL WILL PRBABLY BE ON THE EAST SIDE. GOOD LUCK.

 

The blue cats never stopped eating during the winter. They might have slowed down a bit just because they're cold blooded. But they never stopped.

Mostly the warming water triggers them to gorge in advance of spawning. Until just a week or two ago, they were stuffing themselves on the zillions of small dead shad that resulted from the winter "shad kill" - the fish we were catching were so full they were about to pop. I suspect most of that gorging on the easy meals is over now and they're just trying to eat as much as they can.

Nobody -- and I mean *nobody* -- can conclusively prove that the moon has any effect on fishing, good or bad. There are far too many other variables that can't be controlled. Anecdotally, I'm sure there are folks who will tell you they do better during the dark of the moon or the full moon or whatever, but there's nothing scientific about it.

Bottom line is, fish when you can and don't worry about the weather, the moon, etc. - some days you'll catch fish, some days you won't. But as has been pointed out, there's no substitute for time on the water if you want to become a better fisherman.

 

FRESH is the KEY

shad. bluegill. small bullhead

blues day or night

flatheads nights

 

I fish mostly for blues, mostly during the day. I seem to do as well during the day as at night. But here on the Arkansas River, the key is current. When they shut off the current, they also shut off the catfish bite.

 

I have spent several nights in the tail race looking for a pig and coming up with nothing but piglets. LOL. Last year I ask a lot of locals what I had to do to catch a big fish and I got the same answer from all. " The big ones are there you just have to wade through the little ones first." My Advise. Wade on Brother! Your day will come!
:smile2:

 

Hey Chris, Looks like now I am leaving my boat at home and taking a buddies. He has a brand new Bird side imaging unit he is wanting to try out. We will be in a 20 ft. gray weld-tec Suzuki 4 stroke. Any of you guys see us be sure and give a shout.
Good Luck, Duck