Catfish help.

[KevfromtheMead]

Went out to SARL Sunday 04/25 and was hit with a pile of skunk. Last year was my first summer really fishing for cats on a regular basis. I bought all the necessary gear I thought was needed and thought I did decent all summer averaging 2-3 per trips but never hit the limit. This year I had higher expectations and skunking on my first trip immideatly shots those expectations down. I will list the different setups below but if anyone has any further tips, tricks or prayers that will help me have a better summer slaying catfish please chime in. BTW I mostly shore fish.

#6-#8line, #4 leader line
Carolina Rig,
1/2 - 3/4 sinker,
live bait cirlce hooks,
shrimp, marshmellow and mealworms.

[Mr T-rex]

Still looking to do my cat outing this season
Your rig sounds about right but adding a little garlic scent to your baits would definitely increase your bite
Which area were you fishing ? finding the "hot spot" is key when catfishing for the reason that they school up and literally sit on top of each other so its mostly a hit or miss when it comes to fishing for catfish but if you find them you can limit out with in that hour

[dpaulus9]

i only fish sarl once and got skunked too. but catfishing on other lakes i get a whole makerel, fillet it leaving skin on and cut in chunksize. put in coffee can, pour liberal amount of garlic salt, then freeze. freezing helps keeping it on hook longer. good luck

[vonfranko]

I can't speak to the Anaheim/Corona/SARL lakes, but the bait I always had luck with for catfish at any regional park was by cutting up a whole mackerels meat into chunks, including the skin, and then dipping it into hog wild once I had the mackerel on the hook. It didn't need to have a very large amount of hog wild on it, just some on it so it smelled terrible.

As a personal note if you haven't used hog wild, I do not recommend touching the hog wild with anything you care about, including your fingers. It will smell forever. I usually would find a stick laying around to help dip/coat the mackerel.

Using that bait I would often would catch catfish in places that others had fished most the day with no luck.

[etucker1959]

Location is everything!!!! For the bait because they stock blues, Night crawlers and Shrimp have been a proven winner for us!!!!

[KevfromtheMead]

Still looking to do my cat outing this season
Your rig sounds about right but adding a little garlic scent to your baits would definitely increase your bite
Which area were you fishing ? finding the "hot spot" is key when catfishing for the reason that they school up and literally sit on top of each other so its mostly a hit or miss when it comes to fishing for catfish but if you find them you can limit out with in that hour

I was at the small lake Sunday. Usually I'm over at the catfish lake. I don't have much luck on the big lake, I've always felt it would be too much water to cover from the shore.

[Mr T-rex]

Yeah i rarely fish the big lake for cats! i usually stay at the catfish lake or Chris pond, Ive had luck fishing the middle of the lake at chris pond or more towards the inlet

[KevfromtheMead]

How's the shore fishing at Irvine? It's worth the drive if I don't have to pay there boat fees.