St. Louis ponds catfish

F
ForagingAdventures
Headed to St. Louis ponds yesterday to try to get the smell of skunk off my 2014 season. Picked up a pan fry rainbow on green power bait and a good 10' rainbow on night crawler. The catch was slow from all from my vantage point. As I was packing up for the night one more, "Fish On!" Picked up this 6lbs catfish on an ultralight setup with 4lbs line.
 
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Raincatcher
Raincatcher
Nice dinner sized cat. At least you didn't walk away empty handed. :thumb:
 
T
Throbbit _Shane
Nice catfish!!!
 
B
Big3d
Very impressive catfish, I've never seen one caught out there, good to know there are some fatties. What's this business about a 10 foot rainbow? Just bustin your chops, congrats on a great catch
 
D
diia813
That's the only thing that I fish for in the ponds, they are full of cat fish.

You can find them by their smell, fish in the areas you smell licorice strongly emitting from the water. Drop in your favorite catfish bait.

I like salted cheese with a sponge of pig blood. You will certainly catch some if the water temperature is warm, but don't take them all.
 
J
john.cody
Which pond do you find them in? I'd like to try my hand at catching me a cat. Never tried before.
 
D
diia813
They are in all the ponds, but the ones with good tree cover tend to have the most. I was getting a lot out of that pond right next to the outhouses to the left of the parking lot as you pull in. Right at the end nearest the parking lot.

The cat fish completely ignore non-cat bait so even though lots of people have fished that pond, they are still there right in the far end nearest the parking lot.

There are lots of cat fish nests all through the ponds with good cover, like I said, on a warm day you can smell them, they aren't deep.
 
J
john.cody
Well I think they are well fed now. Either they kept cleaning my hook or the bluegill were. Never felt a bite but I would notice that my line suddenly went slack. When I reeled in ... No bait.
 
D
diia813
what did you use?
 
J
john.cody
Didn't make it to bimart before they closed last night so I tried some chicken livers.
 
F
ForagingAdventures
I was using a piece of a night crawler in Pond 6 under a bobber. Just before the sun went down.
 
M
montym
I was there a few weeks ago, and had my hook cleaned up of any night crawler 3-4 times before I could get any fish in about 15 minutes or so. Nibble, Nibble, gone. I could not figure out what was happening, so I shortened the bobber and put it very close to the bank where I can see the hook. Polarized glasses helped. Bunch of tiny bluegills, sniping from every side like piranha, just taking the worm away in pieces. So I changed tactics, instead of waiting for a pull down I started setting the hook when I saw a blue gill attacking and I had 12 or 15 in no time. Tiny ones, but it was fun.
 

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