Since my initial post, I've have had many opportunities to fish this small pond where I caught my first cat on a spinnerbait. Wondering whether they had a preference or not, I tried willow leaf, Colorado and a tandem with both blades. The Colorado has by far produced the most channel cats. The skirt color didn't seem to matter too much (in stained water). I noticed a lot of short strikes where they would just pull on the skirt so added a trailer hook. That's the ticket!

I would prefer a LMB on the end of my line any day, but I tell ya, a 5 lb cat will put a huge grin on your face and beats the heck out of going home skunked.

Yup, happens a lot. Particularly with a Colorado Blade more so for some reason (can't say why). Slow roll that spinner bait along the bottom nice and steady and there is no telling what it'll catch. Mostly bass and catfish around here but no, it's not uncommon to land a cat daddy on a SB.

Worst part is the slime the put all over your line, they are nasty creatures in my book but do fight like there is no tomorrow.

I don't know if they still do it or not, but years ago it was illegal to use live bait in some of the St. Louis City lakes during certain times of the year. You would go down there and everyone would be throwing spinner baits.

The pic in my profile is a 20 lb cat caught on a shaky head worm down about 25 feet.  It was a real fight using light spinning tackle and 8 lb test.  At first, I thought I was hung on some brush under the water, until it started swimming diagonal from me!