© 2021
In touch with the world ... at home on the High Plains
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Cattin' in shallow water

Lake Fork guide Seth Vanover eased his comfortable guide boat up to a stick up in the back of a cove and secured the craft with a looped bow rope. The area had been deluged with a heavy rain the night before and the lake was on a welcome rise. We were fishing during the calm between two spring thunderstorms. The rising water had undulated shoreline grass introducing worms, crawfish and all sorts of insects into the food chain. This was classis text book spring time catfish waters if ever I’d seen them!

“We need the wind to kick up out of the south or southwest to make this spot really hot," says Vanover as we toss out the first baits of the morning. "There are tons of big channel catfish in here, many weighing in at 3-6 pounds but we need a stiff breeze to really turn them on. Here’s some Stubby’s prepared bait; just squeeze it tightly on these 4-ought treble hooks.” 

I’ve used just about every prepared or ‘stink’ bait on the market and many homemade varieties but I’ve never fished with a catfish bait like Stubby’s. While I can’t honestly say it has a “pleasant” aroma, I can say that I didn’t mind baiting with it using my hands rather than the conventional stick that is commonly used with punch baits. I first discovered the bait while fishing with Vanover last year and it’s become my “go to” bait when targeting eater size blue and channel catfish. 

Vanover says fishing is equally good with or without a floater. Some of our group preferred to tight line (fish without floats) but I’m a cork watcher; have been since I was a kid!  I pegged a small float about 14 inches above my hook/bait and made a thirty foot cast into water about a foot deep. My floater lay motionless on its side. There was a little slack in my line but these channel catfish usually don’t play around nibbling the bait, they were on an aggressive bite and can take up a couple inches slack in the line in a millisecond.

“We’ll give this spot ten minutes," the guide said. "If we don’t get bit, I will move us to another nearby cove."

"We need the wind to pick up!” continued Vanover.

I was thinking, “Just ten minutes?”

Seth had been emailing me pictures of lots and lots of catfish. But only ten minutes? Fishing must be good!

After five minutes of fishing, we were still watching our floaters and keeping lines tight, waiting for the action that we were all eagerly anticipating. I could tell that Seth was getting ready to move when the first fish of the morning, a feisty 4 pounder socked one of the floaters under the water and the fight was on! We were all rigged with lightweight spinning tackle, using ten to twelve pound test line. Luckily the drag on the spinning reel was set correctly because this shallow water catfish was making the line sizzle. With the first fish in the boat very early into the trip, our optimism perked. The bite was on! Then another floater went down, then one of the ‘tight liners” set the hook when he felt the sudden tap on his line. I was hooked fast to a feisty 2 pounder. It was ON!

After fifteen minutes of fishing, we had about 8 catfish on ice and as is always the case, we’d lost several.  Seth said almost apologetically that we need some wind for this “slow” bite to pick up. SLOW? My companions were all long time friends or family and I could tell by the expression on their faces that they were more than pleased with the action they had enjoyed in the first few minutes of the outing.  I have no scientific fact to back this up but I truly believe that Lake Fork has the largest channel catfish, on average, than any lake in the state. At least that’s been my observation. A quick glance into the ice chest proved my point. The smallest fish weighed about 2 pounds with most in the 2.5 to 4 pound class. On many lakes, channel catfish average a pound or so and a two pounder is considered a really good one; numbers are very good on many lakes but average size isn’t.

And then, off to the starboard side of the boat, I noticed ripples on the lakes surface and turned to feel a faint breeze in my face out of the southeast. Seth had already noticed the smile that Mother Nature was giving us! Within a few minutes, a frisky six to eight mile per hour breeze was sweeping across the lake and our tranquil cove was getting stirred up!

“That’s what I’ve been waiting on,” says Seth. “Just give it a few minutes and this so-so action should get really good.”

By now we had boated about a dozen nice catfish and were wondering how it could get any better. It got better! 

The next couple hours were spent frantically baiting treble hooks, setting the hook on fish and boating fish. There was never a period of more than a couple minutes when someone wasn’t fighting a fish. Most of the time, there were multiple battles underway.

Back at the dock, Seth used his fillet knife to transform our catch in to the makings on one mega fish fry or several smaller ones. We joined more of our family at their lake lots and enjoyed a memorial spring time fish fry; something that we had all enjoyed since childhood.

Seth expects this shallow water bite to continue for several weeks and then the fish will move into water 12-15 feet deep around standing timber. This is when he will begin baiting several holes with soured grain and range cubes to attract and hold the catfish. If the tug on the line and sizzle in the skillet of  Mr. Whiskers excites you, there is no better time to head to Fork to stock the freezer than right now.

 

Outdoors writer, radio host and book author Luke Clayton has been addicted to everything outdoors related since his childhood when he grew up hunting and fishing in rural northeast Texas. Luke pens a weekly newspaper column that appears in over thirty newspapers.