Is there a way to tell if there catfish in a lake? I'm a greenhorn 

Throw out some hotdogs on a 5/0 circle hook medium heavy spinning rod with 15 pound line at the deepest part of the lake. Set it in a rod holder and wait. 

BTW Welcome to the fourms!  

Nearly every lake has catfish in them, the best way I have found for catching numbers of channels is some kind of dip bait on a small dip bait holding plastic worm.  If you want larger fish, cut shad on a big circle hook on a slip sinker rig.

Can you get that stuff at Walmart?

37 minutes ago, EricTheAngler said:

Throw out some hotdogs on a 5/0 circle hook medium heavy spinning rod with 15 pound line at the deepest part of the lake. Set it in a rod holder and wait. 

BTW Welcome to the fourms!  

Exactly how I catch them.. Buy the cheapest hotdogs you can find... Or go with Nightcrawlers or Chicken Livers..

Just now, LastCastChris said:

Exactly how I catch them.. Buy the cheapest hotdogs you can find... Or go with Nightcrawlers or Chicken Livers..

I haven't had any luck using nightcrawlers I catch turtles

 

I just cut up the first thing I catch on a crappie jig when I get to the lake. Never have used food or stink baits, just a hassle and the big fish like fresh bait anyways!

1 hour ago, Fishing Chevy Conner said:

Can you get that stuff at Walmart?

Sometimes, it depends on the walmart.  I would recommend the gamakatsu circle hooks for the hot dogs and cut shad.  The fish don't care what kind of dip bait or dip worm, so just get whatever is cheapest.

So a catfish hook?

 

18 minutes ago, Fishing Chevy Conner said:

So a catfish hook?

 

Circle hooks are the best for sit and wait catfishing because they set themselves. 

 

Catfish are one of the most prolific and widely distributed fish in the world. If there's fish living in a body of water, there's a good chance there's some catfish in there.

I always opt for either live bait, or fresh cut bait. Prepared baits and store bought baits are primarily targeting small, channel cats or bullheads while I prefer to target the largest channel cats, flatheads, and blues. 

While there may be some in the deepest portion of the lakes, those are generally your inactive to neutral fish that are going to be much harder to catch (which is why a lot of folks have to wait so long for a bite while catfishing). Find an area where smaller fish, crawdads, whatever a catfish might like to feed on are holding and place a bait near that area. Around here, that's usually about 5-10 feet from the bank right against the edge of the water willows in 1-5 feet of water. I prefer an appropriate sized Kahle or beak hook (usually 1/0 up to 8/0 depending on the size bait I'm using). With cut bait, I'll rarely use a sinker, occasionally a bobber, but I prefer to go with just the weight of the bait and a barrel swivel to avoid line twist. I do what I call "bass fishing for catfish", where I basically cast a chunk of cut bait at the weeds and do a very slow retrieve like I'm fishing a T rig for bass. Strikes are violent and unmistakable. 

For the live bait, a simple C rig with enough weight to anchor the bait to the bottom is sufficient for most situations. I like to keep my leader pretty short to prevent the bait from being able to swim into snags.

The equipment I use varies widely depending on the body of water I'm fishing, the bait I'm using, and the size fish I'm targeting. It goes from MH spinning gear with 20lb braid with 30 size Okuma bait feeders for channels in lakes, to 7' XXH custom built fiberglass/graphite blend rods with a Penn 309 and 130lb braid for flatheads, to 8-12 foot H surf rods with 65-90 sized Okuma baitfeeders with 65-80lb braid for blues on the rivers. 

Really clayton summed up everything you need to know about catfishing. 98% of my fishing is for catfish and I would of told you pretty much the same thing. Just catch you a couple of blue gills, chunk them up or keep them alive and have fun. 

On 4/12/2016 at 2:49 AM, Bluebasser86 said:

I do what I call "bass fishing for catfish", where I basically cast a chunk of cut bait at the weeds and do a very slow retrieve like I'm fishing a T rig for bass. Strikes are violent and unmistakable.

interesting, gonna have to try this method...

On Monday, April 11, 2016 at 10:26 AM, EricTheAngler said:

Throw out some hotdogs on a 5/0 circle hook medium heavy spinning rod with 15 pound line at the deepest part of the lake. Set it in a rod holder and wait. 

BTW Welcome to the fourms!  

You forgot the 10 oz coors light

Man, just get some sinking fish feed and bait up an area.It may take awhile to get them staying around.Then I either use a cut piece of bream or dead shrimp for bait.I only fish from dusk on into the evening.Caught 2 nice uns last night on the bream.There should be catfish in there unless otters has cleaned them out.

I wasn't fishing for them, but man did I catch a couple this weekend!

Nice!