Stratos260 Posted July 16, 2011 Report Share Posted July 16, 2011 I took my nephew fishing on Cranks Creek, a small lake here in the Harlan County, KY, last night and I had a question about something I found. We were cutting across the mouth of a creek and I picked up a big school of fish on my depthfinder. The depth was 30' but the fish were suspended at 8-10' at what appeared to be a thermocline. My dad likes to catfish and he has had other catfisherman tell him that this area is really good for catfish. My question is this; Do catfish ever suspend or do they mainly just stay on the bottom? I threw some medium diving cranks and a Senko at this school without any bites but I wish I would have tried a dropshot rig. I was just curious because if I could be sure that this school was bass I could hit that area hard and eventually find what they would bite. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 16, 2011 Report Share Posted July 16, 2011 catfish are usually bottom feeders.....they clean up the leftovers..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassinHomer Posted July 16, 2011 Report Share Posted July 16, 2011 Man you know I've never heard of this but I've been with people and occasionally have myself caught catfish when tossing cranks at visible surface activity, as a matter of fact just a couple of weeks ago I had a buddy pull one out of about 15 ft of water on a shallow diving crank so I don't know Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brwnbass Posted July 16, 2011 Report Share Posted July 16, 2011 Catfish do suspend over deep water & do chase shad. Check out In fisherman magazine, they do alot of catfish articles & have a catfish book out too. Ive caught cats on just about everything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
softbaitmaker Posted July 16, 2011 Report Share Posted July 16, 2011 Flat Head Catfish will school up and suspend if a shad pod is near by. Flatheads are the only Catfish species I know of that do this but then except for Shovel Bills they are the only catfish that will not eat anything dead. That is why I hate fishing spinner baits on Percy Priest Lake on long points at night. Flat Heads will school on the points and I don't think I have fished a SB at night on that lake that I have not caught one of 10 lbs or more and take my word for it. They hit a spinner bait, they destroy it so it is junk when you get it back if they don't break off. I have caught them on Worms SB, Jigs,crawfish or anything that imitates something alive.... Good eating but slimy and goo all over your boat carpets so not worth it to me to catch and boat them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stratos260 Posted July 16, 2011 Author Report Share Posted July 16, 2011 Catfish do suspend over deep water & do chase shad. Check out In fisherman magazine, they do alot of catfish articles & have a catfish book out too. Ive caught cats on just about everything. Man you know a lot about fishing. Any time I have aquestion about something you always seem to have a good answer. I appreciate how willing you are to answer questions and help people out Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stratos260 Posted July 16, 2011 Author Report Share Posted July 16, 2011 Flat Head Catfish will school up and suspend if a shad pod is near by. Flatheads are the only Catfish species I know of that do this but then except for Shovel Bills they are the only catfish that will not eat anything dead. That is why I hate fishing spinner baits on Percy Priest Lake on long points at night. Flat Heads will school on the points and I don't think I have fished a SB at night on that lake that I have not caught one of 10 lbs or more and take my word for it. They hit a spinner bait, they destroy it so it is junk when you get it back if they don't break off. I have caught them on Worms SB, Jigs,crawfish or anything that imitates something alive.... Good eating but slimy and goo all over your boat carpets so not worth it to me to catch and boat them. This lake doesn't have any flatheads. The county owns this lake and they stock it with channel cats. I wish they wouldn't have done it because the catfish are going to ruin the bass fishing in this lake. I think they could mange this little lake and make it a real good bass fisherie but when you have people that don't fish running things all they think about is putting the cheapest fish they can stock in there just so people will have something to catch. A friend of mine talked to one of the fish and wildlife guys that does the electrofishing survey and he said that this lake had the potential to produce a new state record smallmouth but if they keep pumping these slimy cats in there I'm afraid they're going to ruin it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
softbaitmaker Posted July 16, 2011 Report Share Posted July 16, 2011 I guess they figure cheaper is better. Thing is if they don't put some type of baitfish in the lake to feed the catfish soon there won't be anything except catfish in it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverFox Posted July 16, 2011 Report Share Posted July 16, 2011 if it has water, it has flatheads more than likely. flatheads are usually...99% live fish eaters. they will school on shad and bream beds. channel and blues are usually on the clean up crew. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stratos260 Posted July 17, 2011 Author Report Share Posted July 17, 2011 I guess they figure cheaper is better. Thing is if they don't put some type of baitfish in the lake to feed the catfish soon there won't be anything except catfish in it. That's exactly what they're doing. They're taking a nice little lake with good cover and structure and turning it into nothing more than a pay lake. It's really a shame when elected officials are put in charge of things that they really have no clue about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brwnbass Posted July 17, 2011 Report Share Posted July 17, 2011 Channel cats are some good eatin if you dont mind cleaning them, esp from a deep clearwater lake. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverFox Posted July 17, 2011 Report Share Posted July 17, 2011 On one of the rivers back home you could fill a cooler pretty fast with channel cats with shrimp. Seemed to be one of those baits they couldn't resist. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mfbab Posted July 20, 2011 Report Share Posted July 20, 2011 Cats definitely chase shad up in the water column. I troll crankbaits a lot in the Summer for Crappie and it is very common to catch a few Channel Cats on this technique. Typically I'm running my baits 10-20' deep over anywhere from 20-50' of water so they are definitely not on the bottom when they hit it. I'm usually moving from 1.5-2 mph also so it isn't like a slow presentation, they are running the bait down like a Shad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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