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"This is the most amazing catfish bite we have ever seen," exclaimed Sandy Hager of Bass-N Guide Service and Tackle-It bait shop in Lakeport. "The bass guys are having a hay day on these things and if you actually target them, a couple people could probably catch 500 pounds of catfish in a single day." According to Hager, the action is taking place down on the south end of the lake as well as a few spots in the Narrows. "I don't need to tell you a specific area to fish because all you need to do is follow the birds," she said. "The birds are feeding on huge schools of threadfin shad and the catfish are right there underneath the bait." The unusually productive bite is most likely attributed to the explosion in the shad population this year. "There are absolutely millions of shad out there," said Hager. "When you get on top of a school of bait, your electronics just black out and you can't even see the bottom. I've been catching a lot of catfish while spooning for bass with a 1/2 to 3/4 ounce Hopkins Spoon with a white tail. In fact, I caught a 23 pounder yesterday on 6 pound test. Talk about a fight! Everyone is out there trying to drop-shot 4 inch worms for largemouth and they can't keep the catfish off their lines." |
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Of course, anglers who chose to target catfish with the traditional baits are absolutely hammering them. "Anchovies and shrimp are probably the top two baits for catfish right now," said Hager. "When fishing bait, the key is to pull off a good 30 yards from where the birds are feeding and toss your bait out into 25 to 30 feet of water. The cats are running 8 to 30 pounds and we had a report of a 38 pounder caught by a bass fishermen who didn't take the time to have it weighed officially. That would have been a lake record." "We're getting more reports than ever on the catfish bite at Clear Lake," confirmed Tom Provost of Outdoor Pro Shop in Rohnert Park. "The hot bite has been across from Red Bud off Wheeler Point and back inside Jago bay. The guys are fishing under massive schools of shad fro huge channel cats running 12 to 20 pounds." Provost said the top method for targeting Clear Lake cats has been drop-shotting live jumbo minnows or shad taken from the lake. "The shad are so thick, a lot of people are just ripping their lures through the schools of bait and snagging the shad to use for bait. There's no better bait than what the fish are actually feeding on." Finally, a last minute phone call to Bob Higgins up at Limit Out Bait and Tackle in Clear Lake Oaks resulted in more of the same outrageous reports. "The catfish bite has gone berserk up here," he shouted. "Absolutely everything is working for catfish right now. You name it; live minnows, dead minnows, mackerel, crawdads, shad and anchovies." According to Higgins, all of the deep water areas such as Jago, Indian Island, Henderson, Horseshoe and Rattlesnake Island are producing huge numbers of catfish. "I just spoke to two guys that bought a bunch of minnows this morning," he said. "They were fishing off Sea Breeze and said they were catching 14 to 20 pound catfish on just about every drop. They also reported catching several largemouth up to 5 pounds." As for how long this amazing bite is going to last, nobody knows for sure. Provost said the shad typically start to die off when the first big cold snap hits, typically some time in December. One thing is for sure, it won't last forever, so now is the time to hook that boat up and get in on the action. |
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