Where to go?

[TrapperRay]

If I was going south for a week of catfishing, where would you suggest going, do I need to bring a boat,or is good bank fishing availible, lakes or rivers, loking for ideas!! Thanks Ray.

[Duane]

Heck Earl south covers alot of territory buddy give us some logistics ,close to the Mighty mississipi ? Red RIver ,Atachaflya River, Big Alabama ? where you headed ?

[spinafish]

I would have to recommend the Tennessee River system..below any of the hydro electrical dams is a good place to start.  I fish alot below Wilson Dam,'cause it near my home town of Florence,Al.  Been fishing there for 44 of my 47 years...we fish from a boat..fish can be caught from the bank,but its extremely rocky and hang ups are for sure to happen.  There are several different way to fish below these dams, I believe if you were to interview fisherman at their boats when they pull their boats from the river you would be surprised at the different techniques used..rigs are different and bait is different.  We use a simple three way rig ..three way swivel attached to the main line with a 18"-24" leader on the top, with 12" drooper on the bottom with a sinker.  Sinker weight depends on the amount of current.  Usually use a 1/0-3/0 Octopus hook.  we bait with chicken livers, whole small shad, shad guts or cut skipjack herring..the cut skipjack seems to be the go to bait for the bigger fish.  Some use whole bluegills...We run up near the dam and float back down river while dragging our offerings along the bottom.  We catch blues and channel cats up to 7 lbs using this method.  Bigger fish are caught tied to the dam and fishing straight down in the boils using saltwater style tackle, heavy line and cut skipjack.  We also jug fish..when there are not many other fishermen, don't want to get in their way.

[suthincomfort]

ya'll need to try what we use on the ouachita river. cottonseed meal cake. take the cake as you get it from the gin it sorta looks like a board. draw out 2in.  squares then mark holes in the center of each drill the holes with an 1/8th inch bit or so you can get some nylon twine through it. then take the board n cut them on the two in. squares you've marked out on the table saw or with a handsaw. tie each on a drop on your trotline get at least 4 or 6 spaced all across the river lake etc. it will dissolve & the catfish will follow it to ur hooks. works especially well in the river.  also you can put a tow sack of the cottonseed cake tied in the back of your hoop net the fish will follow it right in. works good on the hooks we generally used shad minnows or best of all chicken livers n gizzaeds laid out on a board till they got good n stinky & a bit tough