Question:

Hello my name is Kendrick but some of the guys call  me In-Fisherman, Just wanted to know more about the key to bank fishing, I'm a rather good fisherman. What I really want to know is how the different live baits work for  more than just Flat heads,  AND what type rods and reels do you use.
What' s  the secret in making long cast, I'm working with 8" berkley re-flex and that 309 penn reel. well I hope to here form you .

Answer:

Hi Kendrick

About everything I do is written down on my web site at www.catfishin.net ... click on the tips section and then most all the info is there. Takes a while to read it all. I'll address some of your questions here as they're direct and to the point ... the general questions are the ones I have trouble answering, the ones that have a lot of answers.
 
I'll start with the easy ones first. The rods I use are Breakaway two piece/ one piece ... I went to my first tourney in 1998 about 8 months after I had my heart attack and acquired atrial fibrilation as a result of it which was well past my prime but I did well with my lamiglas 13' 4" baitcaster with an abu 7000c3 so I was offered a sponsorship on a rod by Nick Meyers ... I placed 4th overall and 2nd in my class and they thought it was unbelievable that I casted with a straight overhand cast and with a big reel with a levelwind and they all had the graphite casting rods and highly tuned reels and I beat all of them but 3 people and one was a former national champion and he only beat me by less than 80 ft ... I went to my next tourney with a hurt shoulder and a ultramag III abu and beat all the former national champions that showed up. There were about 5 of them and was only 12 ft away from first place even with the hurt shoulder and swollen legs from the heart medication I had been taking for over a year. My cast that day was 774 ft which is like 258 yds. I purchased one of the breakaway 13' 3" 2pc/1pc and fell in love with it ... it was a lot stiffer than my lamiglas rods and about 1/3rd the weight which made it ideal for longcasting ... this is also what a lot of folks use for tournament casting. I purchased mine from Hatteras Jack's but can't find his link right now .... hatterasoutfitters.com makes them also ... the best place to get reels is from steve barratt at http://lgf.sea-angler.org and ya don't have to pay any shipping or taxes if ya order from him ... the 7500c3's are like $139 and they're smooth casting, unlike penn reels which are thumb burners. These rods are expensive but I don't know of any that are their equal ... if you're looking for a good 11' 6" rod that casts well you can get a daiwa eliminator ... they throw 6oz weights really well and they're cheaply priced also at about $50 ... the breakaway rods I'm speakin bout is $350.00.
 
The main key to casting a long ways is good upper body strength and good hand/eye coordination ... I've perfected a cast which Nick Meyers dubbed "The Sleeper" which is what I used at the first tourney and casted 629 ft, I think it was and it's illustrated on my surf fishing links or you can just go straight to it at http://www.catfishin.net/sleeper.html 
 
I take a little different tack on live bait fishing than most ... I mainly use live bait in clear water as it doesn't give off as much scent as what cut bait does ... my cut bait is basically alive for about as long as I leave it in the water as I change it very often when I'm fishing with just two poles, which is the maximum you can use below oklahoma dams ... when I'm boat fishing I don't stick to that as it's not nearly as important because the fish are under a lot less fishing pressure. Where I fish it's rare for most people to catch fish but with a meticulous approach and some extreme casting ability that all changes ... confidence is a big factor also ... I usually fish about 2 hours per trip and catch lots of fish most of the time ... sometimes though it takes two hours to figure out what the fish are wanting and this is where my bait is not really a set pattern in any circumstance, as I'll try everything until I find what is the most productive that day ... if you'll refer to the "Today's Catch" link you'll be able to kinda look at the photos and see what I was catching starting about Nov 7th to Nov 20th and on Nov 20th I figured sumpin out. The fishin during the time from nov 7th to the 20th was pretty tough ... a lot of missed strikes ... they'd pick up the bait and pull out about 2 to 4 yds of line and let go of the bait ... good hard hits that I couldn't set the hook on quick enough ... the 20th it was really bad ... I missed a lot of fish and I broke off one of my rigs in the rocks when I got hung in some line and then I decided to switch to a tiny tiny hook and use fillets to see how that did and it worked great ... I was getting hits just as soon as the baits was hitting bottom and in under 2 hours caught over 70 lbs of fish and two about 20 lbs each. This is why there is no definite way to fish baits ... it was the same shad I was using except I was using the fillets instead of the heads with a lot smaller hooks ... The reason I don't use live bait below keystone is because it doesn't give off much scent and more of a sight strike bait. The only time I use live/whole baits are in flood water conditions when there's a lot of shad coming through the flood gates ... the blues start feeding heavy on whole shad then sometimes ... sometimes they won't touch them and will only hit heads in the flood water conditions for a few days or even a few weeks but then if they quit hitting heads I switch to whole large shad and usually that's what they hit. When fishing in hi-visibilty waters I'd try live bait first but that is rare at keystone. Rule of thumb on this is the muddier the water is predicts that I'll be using cut bait and in good current like in rivers shad heads usually produce more fish. If fishing lots of rods from a boat I'd use both cut and whole until I've established the pattern and also have a few live bluegill out for flathead around some good crappie structure ... it's easy to find crappie structure as most of them are marked with jugs along riprap ... this is prime flathead feeding area. Boat fishing is a much better application for live bait in clear water but try it all ... also try cut perch as this will produce flats and good for blues ... skipjack herring is also a preferred bait for blues if ya know how to catch them and know where to catch them ... I'm not too keen on locating skipjack unless I can see them flashing their sides in the water. Try it all and cover a lot of water. Usually an hour in one spot is plenty ... if you're fishing tailwaters change your bait every 15 minutes and use shad that's alive or been dead less than an hour ... live is always preferred. Hope this helps and good fishing. I don't wish people good luck as luck has nothing to do with being successful at catching catfish. I don't say this out of arrogance, but more as a way of getting people to build their confidence as that's a very important part of fishing, is having confidence in yourself. Good Fishing!
 
Tiny

 
 

Question:

Tiny,

Hey man I asked you about a month ago if you knew anything about Oolagah, or Copan, or anything about lakes in the OKC-Edmond area and you said that you didn't really know about it.  In your Bio on your site you said that you used to fish in Keystone lake a lot.  Would you by any chance know of any good spots in Keystone lake??  I have been taking my girlfriend fishing just about every weekend that she is here.  Last time that we went fishing and did any good was about 2 weeks ago when we fished below Zink Dam at 31st and Riverside in Tulsa.  She caught 6 cats all over 10lbs each.  I'm not sure if they were blues or channels but they sure were nice.  We got shut-out last time when we went to Keystone.  We were fishing in the Walnut Creek area and also right off of the rocks in the lake on the turbine side.  It was horrible...not a single bite.  I was just wondering if you could help get us on some good cats in the lake.  Also...you always catch lots of big cats at the dam.  Where do you fish at?  I know that you fish the side opposite of the turbines but where do you throw at?  I know I am kinda asking about what most fisherman keep secret and that is...where their honey holes are but I mean...where are the cats?  

Thank you for your time,
Ryan

Answer:

Hi Ryan
I don't have any "drawbacks" about telling people where I fish as it's a public fishing area ... it's a tough place to fish and requires either a technological edge or an edge in casting ... I can cast almost all the way across the dam so I can cover a lot of water ... fishing there requires equipment that most people won't want to buy ... those trolling motor boats are what some use to compensate for lack of casting ability and this type fishing has pretty well ruined fishing there for most folks as they've depleted the fish so bad over the last few years that very seldom will a person catch a nice cat on normal fishing equipment ... I fish against the dam ... in the pile-ons/pilings which can barely be seen just under the surface of the water about half way between the sidewalk on the south side and the dam ... there are like 64 of them .... I think there's 32 in each of two rows that span the full length of the retainer walls where the tainter and sluice gates are. These pile-ons retard the flood water to help prevent massive erosion and provide good structure for the catfish to hold in ...... sometimes. My secret to fishing there is using fresh cut bait (shad heads) cut from live shad and covering a lot of water.
 
Fishing with normal equipment in fishing areas confined to bank fishing requires a lot of knowledge of weather, time of day/night and water flow. My most productive fishing came during rising water conditions in the rivers ... the fish come out of their holes and actively forage for food due to the fresh influx of bait into the water brought on by the rain water washing bugs, worms and other organic matter into the water which normally isn't there .... this is a natural instinct in the fish to feed heavily at this time and a very productive time to fish. The fish will feed heavily while the water is rising and then will abruptly stop feeding it seems when the water crests and starts to fall. This is because the fish are no longer there ... their instinct to move back to deeper water is triggered by the level of the water going back down because their instinct to not get caught in shallow water prevails over everything. This can be seen in open fields that become flooded and will hold massive amounts of catfish and when the water starts to go back down they hightail it to their original deep water areas. Without a boat it's hard to locate fish during all other water level conditions. Keep in mind also that fish migrate and hold during certain other seasons and bluecat tend to school more than the other two main species so when you find them they'll all be about the same size ... a friend of mine calls them the wolfpacks as they feed and hunt in schools and would probably be the reason you caught them coming through that area on that day and would explain why they were all the larger fish to medium size. It's probably not that way all the time in that area and you was probably there just at the right time to catch them coming through. I'd guess that there are many wolfpacks in that area and you have to cover a lot of water about every time you fish there to locate a pack, just like at keystone dam.
 
I fish with competition casting rods and abu 7000 class of reels and cast about 200+ yds. I change baits every 15 to 20 minutes to keep the bait fresh and also cast to a different spot to locate some fish. Once I've located some fish I'll cast to the same spot with one rod and use the other to locate more fish or maybe attempt to catch a flathead with the other and sometimes locate another school of larger fish in the process.
 
Most all this info is on the tips section of my website as well.
 
One of these evenings when you're free I can meet you at the dam and give you an idea of how I fish there and show ya how to locate fish if there's any within my casting range on that particular day.
 
hope this helps
Tiny
Question:

I just finished reading your artical,it was very helpful,but i have a few more questions, Where are the fish in different seasons,fall,spring,summer,ive been fishing for a while,but i never really tried to study fish behavior until now,i want to learn everything i can about catfish,when would be a perfect time to focus on the feeder creeks,and what would be a perfect time to stay in the lakes, ive heard that during spawning season,go to the creeks,is that right,what months are the best for catfish?does the barometer really play a part with how fish bite?i live in missouri and there are alot of good fishing holes,I just have a hard time finding them so any advice you have would be great,most people that catch big catfish catch them on trout lines,jugs,ect,i want to catch giant catfish on rod and reel. Thanks again!!

Answer: What article are you referring to? The questions you ask are mostly on my tips section but I'll answer them the best I can.

Seasonal paterns differ from lake to lake and mostly due to the type influx of water you have ... if it's got massive rivers feeding them like keystone and ft gibson ... you may not even be fishing a lake so that sets up a different scenario as well ... like if you fish big rivers ... you find the fish in big rivers from early may to mid june going to the northern most areas they can to spawn ... I'm talkin bout bluecat here .... bluecats seem to make a massive exodus during the first and second week of may up the arkansas and cimarron rivers from lake keystone to Red Rock and Sooner area there's ungodly amounts of bluecats during this time as they've made the push up river from keystone ... then they start trickling back about june 21st or so but when they come back they're different ... they feed more closer to the top instead of mid range depth and on bottom until some good cold fronts move through or good hard rains get the water churned up and oxygenated really well .... from march to the end of april they stage just at the mouth of the river from the 4 ft water back to about walnut creek cove getting ready to make the push up river again.

95% of the people end up not doing too well during the summer because they'll be fishing on bottom in deep water and there's no fish there ... during hot still months in lakes the fish aren't likely to be on bottom unless it's a shallow lake. It's all an experience thing ... I can pass this info on to you but this is just the case where I fish ... your area is likely to be totally different, like if you're fishing big rivers etc etc. ... I'll draw some scenario pics for an article this evening for the tips section to show you seasonal paterns of the bluecat.

It mainly all boils down to you getting the experience and learning from what you're doing every time you go ... always use cut bait from live shad or skipjack and be meticulous in your approach to all things ... hook sharpening ... bait placement .... EVERYTHNG! I hope this helps and good fishing

The most important thing to take fishing with you is confidence. You may not catch anything sometimes but you can learn from that as well.