By: Dustin Slinker I’ve spent decades fishing all over North America and grew up catfishing in the Midwest, but I learned something new while targeting catfish in East Tennessee. I learned that fresh, raw, thick-cut, boneless, skinless chicken breast catches catfish, and it may work better than liver, stink baits and other cut baits that […]
By: James Swearingen Now that our Ohio River basin catfish have spawned they are aggressively feeding to prepare for winter. These fish are naturally hungry in late summer and fall and tend to feed for the next few months before their metabolism slows down as the water cools. Now and during the spring is my […]
By: Chris Shaffer We had three strikes against us upon arrival to Santee Cooper lakes to target catfish in the heat of summer. The woman who ran the lakeside tackle shop giggled when she told me we were here during the toughest time of year to catch catfish. Strike two: we were on a boat […]
By: James Swearingen Chicken and beef liver are soft catfish baits. Almost every time you cast them they tend to fall off the hook. There’s no way to avoid this. Unfortunately, livers are soft, but catfish love them. Livers are two of the best channel catfish baits around. Everyone uses them. Meanwhile, so many times […]
By: Chris Shaffer Humidity, heat, afternoon thunderstorms and longer days spell good catfishing across Alabama. While kids are still out of school the summertime is perfect for taking kids pond fishing. Alabama has more than 50,000 ponds, and a large number are loaded with catfish. This is the time of year those cats bite the […]
By: Chris Shaffer Not too long ago we headed to Kerr Lake to film Pautzke Outdoors with Wes Jordan of Redbeard Cats. The forecast was for no chance of rain. Naturally we left the raingear at the hotel. Sure enough, an hour into fishing it started pouring. The radar showed a heavy band of rain […]
By: Chris Shaffer What a difference the weather makes when it comes to the catfish bite. On the heels of rain and snow over the weekend, stability Monday and another surprise cold rain Tuesday, Wednesday’s fair conditions brought a non-stop catfish bite on Kerr Lake. Blue catfish bit, and bit often, as temperatures rose and […]
By: Wes “Redbeard” Jordan The first time I used Catfish Nectar I had my reservations. Catfishing has gained a lot of popularity in recent years and there are now hundreds of bait products on the market claiming to have magical fish attracting qualities. After decades of catfishing though, I can confidently say that there is […]
By: Chris Shaffer Wes Jordan was adamant. He wanted all the rods out of the holders and resting on the deck. No rod tips were to be exposed, he said. At the time we were fishing in the Staunton River Channel on the upper end of Kerr Lake and surrounded by open space. The catfish […]
By: Wes Jordan We’ve had a tremendous amount of rain over the Kerr Lake watershed this week. In less than 72 hours the lake level has climbed nearly 11 feet. And we’re talking about a lake with 850 miles of shoreline, so that’s a lot of water. Tiny feeder creeks that are normally only three feet wide […]
