FordNFishinLover

Another option is using teflon tape. You can wrap that around the spool a few times and it will cause the braid to dig into it. Its thin stuff and takes up no room, also you wont have to worry about the knot.

Swimbait- Your gunna need a HEAVY duty rod. Depending on the size of swimbaits your throwing you should get a rod to throw alittle above that size/weight of swimbait if possible. A 7'6 XH action rod with a fast tip that can toss a 2-3 oz bait is a good choice. Spinner/buzzbait- I prefer a 7'0 MH action rod with a fast tip Crankbaits- You want a good sized rod to get a good long cast. i like anything above 7'0 for cranks. I currently use a 7'2 carrot stix for my cranks. The ideal crankbait rod would be a 7'0 Medium power and medium action. That will give it the bend throughout the rod which is needed for cranks so you dont rip the bait out of the fishes mouth. Worms- A Medium heavy power with a fast tip is what i've always used. Gives it a good backbone to give a good hookset and you can also horse a fish in this way. Jigs- I usually flip jigs so i like a very long rod. A 7'6+ rod is ideal for me. With a Heavy power and a fast tip.

Dang dude! Good catchin! Good eating! Keep up the nice work!!

Same here Grim, we got alot of different lines that are sale. When the lower the prices again im gunna stock up on alot! Some gammys on sale same thing for these. Few cranks on sale and if they get low enough ill pick up a few. Gosh i love sales!

Well went looking around a bit more on the curado E and came across some trial videos of people using the new curado. This one just amazed me. I think this is massivly impressive for the 300 size curado to do! Thus just one more thing to look forward for when we all get our new curados http://www.***.com/videos/CURADOSAIL.html

Okay well i more than likely will miss something i will want to say, so if you have any more questions just p/m. Thats for anyone who wants or needs help with catfishing. First thing to cover is your gear. When your catfishing there is no need to to finesse. Cats are not line shy so nor should you. I'd suggest using atleast 30 pound line for any situation. A heavy power rod with a good fast tip on it will work best. An a strong and sturdy reel. My self i use Abu 6501's reels paired with BPS Graphite IM7 Heavy power rods with 65 pound power pro braided line. Next is your bait. But first off you want to match your hook size to your bait size. Bigger the bait the bigger the hook. I personally use 7/0 circle hooks for most of my fishing. I will go smaller or bigger depending on the way they bite. So when you think of baits many people are going to say, use livers, hotdogs, punch baits, bread, worms! Im gunna have to STRONGLY disagree. There is only one instance that your going to want to use those baits for catfishing. Thats if you want to catch 1-7 pound "CHANNEL CATFISH" for eating purposes. The reasoning for that is because once a catfish gets to a certain sizes hes going to be searching for more natural bait instead of eating anything in site. Which im not saying its not possible to catch a good sized cat on one of those other baits, but if you want some good quality cats than i recremend you using the baits i mention. Now when you think of bait you must think first off what type of catfish your going to be catching! There are 3 primary species of catfish that most will be catching.Those are Channel catfish, which are stocked heavily on smaller lakes and many farm ponds. Flathead catfish, which are primarly found in smaller and the BIG rivers. Then you have your blue catfish, which you will find in many lakes and some large rivers such as the Mississippi. The channel catfish- You can commonly catch these suckers in the 1-7 pound range with the variety of baits i already mentioned. But if you looking for some bigger sized ones you going to want to use FRESHLY cut shad/mooneye, or bluegill/sunfish. Also smaller 3-4 inch shad can be used to catch many 3-15 pounders. Just use a hook and worm to catch your gills or you can use a cast net to catch shad/mooneye. Flathead Cats- Beastly fighters these are, yet they are very strict on their diet. Flatheads must have their food alive. A fresh 5-8 inch bluegill or sunfish is the best bait for these big boys. Blue Cats- These big badasses can get huge. I know ive read stories (true or not i do not know) on these guys being caught on whole turkeys. Im not saying to use that (def dont want to be spending 20 bucks a bait either ) but i just kinda find that funny. Now these guys just love cut bait. Weither its a shad head or shad tail or a good fillet of shad only you are too find out. If needed a cut bluegill will work good too, possibly better at times. Okay so now you know what gear to use and what bait to use. So now you need to know where to fish it and when. Where/when...First off, when told that catfish feed primarly at night, thats just totally false. In fact some of my best fishing is during the heat of the day. Its all about being able to find the fish and where to put your bait. I think the reason many people say this is because during night catfish will wonder to the shallows to feed, so they assume they will bite better since they are more open to catch/find. Okay so night or day it wont matter. On lakes your best bet is too keep watching your sonor and try and find the fish. Search the deeps and remember that they will be where the bait is. One way to find bait is to fallow where the wind is blowing. Also pay attention to birds, fallowing them just might be the key to find your cats for that day! Now on rivers you too will be wanting to search the deeps but keep a look out for log jams where flatheads might be nesting. Also on deep river bends where the water slows a bit is a great area to check out. Okay now you need to know how to fish it. Using a good sized sinker for rivers will help alot. Personally i use a simple rig. I tie a heavy duty swivel using a parlamor knot but making sure to leave about 1 1/2 feet of line. With a bit of line i then tie my sinker, 1oz for lakes, up to 5 oz for rivers, the bottem, again with the parlamor knot. Put your hook of choice on and its ready to fish, but be sure to get the bait as close as you can to your pinpointed area. With this rig it allows me to keep my bait off the ground (which you dont want) and hopefully right in the catfishs swimming zone, 1-2 feet off bottem for most of the time. Now you got your bait and rig all set up and casted, now what? Nows the hard part, you gotta wait ;D. It might be 5 minutes it might be an hour you just never know. But with these tips i hope it wont take long! As for bites there shouldn't be much worry. If its a cat of any size hes gunna just grab that bait and run like a freight train. Give it a good hook set and get ready for a fantastic fight! Be sure to have your rods sitting a sturdy area, loosing good equitment isn't fun . Now again i know i've missed something but i just havent thought of it right at this moment. An if you have any more questions dont be afraid to ask! -CatfishKing2010

I highly recommend scrounging up another $19.95 and getting a Citica E. X2

He aint selling em and he aint taking it to another body of water. Hes takin to his fish tank.

A scale?

Id continue to use small jigs, but also a tiny crank will work great, and a minnow on a bobber will work wonders! Good luck

x2 x3 x4

What the others said. But id be taken advantage of it! Sounds like some good fun fishing mang!!

Yea you gotta put up with me on yet another forum bud

When im fishing with friends and we are having a good time. Then heck yeah! Shoot ive been known to kiss catfish from time to time!

Id flip a big 1oz jig around the docks and work a weighted 8inch lizard or 10 inch worm.

Any dark lure. Id try using a black jig, black buzzbait, or a black wacky rigged senko.

I use a Jig, or a weighted lizard or worm

For my honest awnser, i personally need alittle more information. What types of baits do you plan on using? If your not sure than i suggest you start by using plastics. Worms/lizards/tubes are a great start. Get a few different bags of colors of each id suggest. Natural colors are going to work best, green/brown/black. Because your using plastics your going to want a Medium Heavy power rod with Fast action tip preferably. Now another question, whats your price range? That can make the difference in the world. As you probably already know, you get what you pay for, so i suggest putting alittle money down for 1 good combo right now. Now, are you interested in baitcasting or spinning reels? Both have their ups and downs, but i use my baitcasting for 90% of my fishing. Some combo's id suggest. (these might be over your price range or it might be right im not sure!) Baitcasting- Shimano citica (90$) for old model and 120 for newer. Pair that with a shimano Compre rod, 7'0 MH power. Those are 80 bucks if im not mistaken? Another is, Shimano Curado (180$) paired with a shimano crucial 7'0 MH power. The rod is around 130$ Spinning- Shimano Sahara reel (50-60$) on a BPS extreme rod 7'0 MH (60 bucks on sale) Shimano Saros reel (130) paired with a E21 Carrot stix (fantastic rods) a 6'9 MH (150$) Well i hope this helps!!

sounds like a great idea mang! I used to have two pet catfish in a tank i kept in my room. Unfortantly my mother didnt feed them when i was gone for two weeks on a fishing trip :-/

Haha fantastic story dude! Glad to have you here as well!

No biggie dude. It happens to the best of us. If anything the bass will not go to waste. Either eat it or throw it back for another animal to have as a meal!

Okay, now im thinking alittle different on this topic. I dont think the fish moved. I think they are possible still there but they are just line shy. An more than likely you were using the same baits correct? When fish see the same bait over and over they slowly start getting the hint. Many time you can fish a pond and hit it one day its severly good. Cast after cast fish on and fish on. But soon those bass that are caught get so line shy that they wont bite for a day possibly even a week. Now what i suggest is that if you had such good luck there, than go back there about a week after and try using a different bait than usual. I feel you luck might just come back. Also when your out there and you find a good school of bass. Try throwing a crank to get some reaction bites and hook up a few bass first. Than throw a jig but work it decently fast. This too will pick up some reaction strikes but will also be worked alittle slower than the crank and give the bass more time. Lastly throw a t-rigged plastic worm/lizard/tube. Let it sink to bottem and work it nice and slow. This will finally get most of the rest bass that are sitting there to hit. Careful these last few bites might be sensetive. Hope this helps!

Also, there are people who are confident in what they are doing, but really have no idea how to properly present the lure given all of the variables. This person won't really catch fish either I disagree with that completely. First off there is no "wrong" way to fish a lure. If people didnt try different ways to fish something than we wouldnt have nearly as many techniques as we used to. An possibly fishing it the supposed "wrong way" may just be the ticket to the day! Now as for confidence in fishing a technique. I completly agree that confidence is a key to fishing. No its not everything, i mean you gotta know where and when to throw something. But if you have confidence with something than i personally can fish it longer, more accurate, and keep my focus on it better. I know if i just tried a new technique than i dont have much confidence and i can stand to fish it long. So i definitly think there is some confience in fishing!

I can honestly tell you that ALL of my fishing is for pure fun. Even though i like some competition, its not for the fame.

Honestly in my mind dude. As long as your obeying the rules of the area your fishing and keeping legal fish, id say dont let anyone bother you about what you keep and dont keep. Personally i can defenitly understand keeping some smaller 1-3 pounds too take home and eat, but anything above i think is worth throwing back and getting bigger to catch later!! Plus many places need the 1-2 pounders thinned out. So if anything your helping the body of water to make some bigguns!