Catfish

[Jig_Head]

Anyone actually target channel catfish thru the ice? I've only caught 3 or 4 ever and it was by accident/luck on my tipups. Thought it'd be fun and something different to try this year

[JDH46151]

I've not targeted them but there's a pond near me where I caught 5-6 small channels in one outing last year.  I found out later it's a location that the DNR stocks them.

[bigr]

I fish a pond that has cats in it and when a big red mark shows up on vex, get ready.

[Daybreak]

I have never caught one but have heard they are regularly caught thru the ice on Lake of the Woods at Bremen.  I can't confirm this to be actually true. Seem to remember there was a picture of some a few years ago from an outing there.

[FreshwaterPhil]

Latest issue of In fisherman had an article about targeting cats on ice.

[fishinator]

Don't target them but a farm pond near me has them. For some reason almost all the fish hugged the bottom, except catfish. They would come through 8 to 10 foot down over 18 to 20 foot of water. When ever a mark would show up , all you had to do was reel up and they would smash it. Never caught anything else suspended, everything else was on bottom, even crappie.

[zcm_82]

I don't target or catch that many either, but I seem to notice that too... the few I do get are basically all when I am bringing bait up toward the ice from the bottom on small ponds.

Start reeling up to make sure I didn't get robbed after a panfish nibble near the bottom... about 1/3 to halfway up that water column... BANG....catfish. I run pretty light mono for panfish, so I end up losing more of the catfish than not to broken line trying to monkey them up the hole.

[AyrshireBoy]

I've never targeted cats during ice but a couple years ago we were ice fishing Huntingburg Lake for saugeye and caught several nice cats.  I was using walleye gear such as rattling buckshot spoons and jigging raps.  we didn't do very well catching saugeyes but we put a hurtin' on the cats.  They acted exactly like a walleye...come up off bottom and vapor trail up about 3-4 feet and smash our jigging raps.  I thought for sure the first one or two was going to be a dandy saugeye but after setting hook you could feel the catfish roll during fight.  I was upset about catching the cats at first...but after catching several in the 3-5lb range I got over it and just had fun catching them.

[Oaktree1215]

16-20 inch cats through the ice into the cornmeal and butter. Good stuff.

[rivereddy]

YI hear that flatheads pretty much shut down but blues and channels are active all winter long.  Some guys target then on the local resi using regular tackle
and chicken livers on the bottom.  I have foiund that they really get active later in the season. They are the only reason I've had to enlarge a hole..  The best one measured 30" and my buddy's son caught it.  We had to use the spud to enlarge a 5" hole.  Before private interests fenced and the yuppification of Geist we used to fish off the olio road bridge in late January at night. Decent size and good numbers of channels to be had

fish on,

rivereddy

[Oaktree1215]

YI hear that flatheads pretty much shut down but blues and channels are active all winter long.  Some guys target then on the local resi using regular tackle
and chicken livers on the bottom.  I have foiund that they really get active later in the season. They are the only reason I've had to enlarge a hole..  The best one measured 30" and my buddy's son caught it.  We had to use the spud to enlarge a 5" hole.  Before private interests fenced and the yuppification of Geist we used to fish off the olio road bridge in late January at night. Decent size and good numbers of channels to be had

fish on,

rivereddy

Fished there slot about thirty years ago myself

[FishDaddy09]

I've never tried to catch channel cats through the ice people i know that have caught them were jigging for Bass. I have caught more than my share of Bullheads through the ice. I once had a bullhead stick it's head out of a hole and look at me. I think we were both surprised.

[FreshwaterPhil]

I've never tried to catch channel cats through the ice people i know that have caught them were jigging for Bass. I have caught more than my share of Bullheads through the ice. I once had a bullhead stick it's head out of a hole and look at me. I think we were both surprised.

These were all released, only thing I'd keep there these days would be some bigger crappies if I'd have been able to get some.

[Jig_Head]

Latest issue of In fisherman had an article about targeting cats on ice.

I read it, thats actually what put this idea in my head

[Jig_Head]

I have never caught one but have heard they are regularly caught thru the ice on Lake of the Woods at Bremen.  I can't confirm this to be actually true. Seem to remember there was a picture of some a few years ago from an outing there.

I've still never been there. Need to check it out one of these days. Tired of the same ol lakes

[kevs]

 I have fished for cats at night with baits that glowed. We caught most of them over sand or marl bottoms next to weed edges in water 10' plus.