small catfish, need help

[dbaker]

The last two weeks I have been catfishing between Bateman Island and the "main land". All I have caught are little five inch catfish. I know there are bigger cats in there so why aren't they biting. I"m using nightcrawlers. Do I need to cast further?

All right 21 of you have viewed this thread. Does no one have any ideas? Please help.

[dbaker]

just bumping this back to the top in hopes of getting help.

[Kenster]

try bigger bait. chicken liver on a treble hook and a HeiniKEN in the hand!!

good luck!
Kenster

[felts_jf]

Are you fishing off of the bottom or what? How much are you using a full night crawler or half? Need more Info to help you out.

[dbaker]

off the bottom and a full night crawler. I"m not sure how deep the water is I'm casting into. For that I'll have to buy a topo map of the river. But, I know there are bigger cats in there, I've seen them caught.

[felts_jf]

IF you have a fish finder troll around and see if you can find some deeper spots near the area were you are catching the cats. Almost like holes or something on the bottom of the lake keep your boat right around those areas and drop your line straight down into those holes and jig it up and down then see what you can come up with. Try using a diffrent bait if they arent hitting night crawlers!

Jason

[Bigbass Dez]

Look for water that is deep and has current , as far as bait goes .. i suggest "shrimp" i would buy a pound of shrimp and soak them in garlic over night and your ready to go .. IF YOU DO THIS AND DONT GET MORE AND BIGGER CATS I WILL DO 50 PUSH UPS .. so let me know and be honest ... lol BBD

[tnj8222]

i agree with the shrimp its always been my go to bait for cats.

[littleriver]

I've fished around bateman island many times with the bass boat I used to own... (it's been a couple of decades but I'm sure things haven't changed all that much there)......

If you're fishing between the island and the mainland you are out of the current and no doubt in water that's too still and too shallow..... the water along the nw shoreline of bateman is generally shallow (e.g. less than 20 feet but much of it's only 3 or 4) and I used to do very well there working it for spawning smallmouth and pan fish in the May/June kind of time frame... as I recall there used to be some artificial structure thingys that someone had dropped down and I always seems to catch one or two crappie when I got close to those if I was using a small jig/grub kind of bait..... those things may not be there anymore...

It's now mid summer and everything has moved into mid summer pattern......


If you walk to the far end (NE as I recall) of the island you will reach the point where the yakima comes in contact with the columbia.......

there is some current and some holes of varying depth... as you work along the columbia river side of the island back to the mainland you will be within short casting distance of water that's very deep... (80 or 90 feet as I recall)..... I wouldn't go to the really deep stuff but I would be looking for at least 20 feet with a little current and plop the bait down just as the sun is dipping over the western horizon......... you'll have to do some experimenting to find the spot with the right depth and current combination though...


another good catfish spot that's not too far away is in the same reservoir (lake wallula) but down by where the walla walla river comes in. There's a place to park as I recall along the lake but west of the river mouth where the road gets out to the point that separates the main lake from the bay that forms as an extension of the mouth of the walla walla river.....


I always fished this spot by boat and it's a steep rocky decent from the parking down to the shoreline but it looked like this was a doable kind of thing....... anyways, once you get around the corner from the walla walla mouth bay there's a big flat that's about 20 feet deep... I caught several channels there (nothing too big but 2 to 3 pounds) just bouncing jig/worm combos for bass during the daytime..... It would be a good spot to shorefish at night or late evening for the big guys....


another good spot is the railroad bridge going over lake wallula just downstream of where the snake river comes in....

most sporties anchor and fish for sturgeon near one of the mid-channel abuttments but there's a place to park and walk to the shoreline right under the bridge as I recall....... good current and good depth and I had a really big one on there once but it got away....(e.g. use heavy tackle not the 6 pound test class spinning rig I was using that morning)

[dbaker]

Thanks for the info littleriver. I have wanted to fish near that railroad bridge. unfortunately the railroad has pretty much cut off access. If there isn't a gate then there is usually No Trespassing signs nowadays. I will have to try near the Walla Walla. I've got a new spot on the Yakima to try also.

Is where I need to fish the Walla Walla

[littleriver]

Like I said it's been over 20 years and rules and access options change...


For what you are doing you really need to get the "River Cruising Atlas" by "Evergreen Pacific"....


it isn't going to help you much for the yakima but any deep hole you can find a place to plunk a worm into on the yakima is going to eventually get you a catfish... don't be afraid to go upstream of horn rapids there either.. I've caught some nice cats (2 to 3 pounds) on the Benton city to horn rapids run...... and I wasn't even fishing for them... one channel even hit a little rapala I was running on the surface for smallmouth....

most night catfishers work the shore from the horn rapids access above the dam but there's good water and some public access upstream of that point... look for pools with a little current or flats that are about 4 to 5 feet deep with a slow and steady flow..

there's several areas like that upstream of horn rapids....



but back to wallula.. man I used to love to fish that lake.. so many different structural features... so much water, so little time..


OK.. if you get the Evergreen Pacific River Cruising atlas go to chart C-49......


it shows the flat I'm talking about very plainly and simply.......


When driving south and crossing the walla walla river you quickly reach a Y called the "Wallula Junction"... at the point of the Y as you first get onto Highway 12 going sw measure off exactly 3/4 mile... at the 3/4 mile mark you will be directly out from the northeastern point of the flat.... anywhere you can park and get to the shoreline (you gotta cross some RR tracks) for the next 3/4 mile is gonna be good. There's a shelf that continues for the next mile or so but it's narrow... the big flat you're interested in is as I described...........


now if you find a place to park and can walk along the lake side of the RR tracks you will see two navigation bouys looking to the north and the west.... the closest one is buoy N22 and it defines the entrance to the Walla Walla channel... the further one is on the shoreline on the other side of the lake and it's buoy N23.....if you line up those bouys you will be just a bit south of the center point of the flat................


If I were really, really serious about catfishing (and I'm not.. I'm a casual catfisher.. I just fish for them when the opportunity is on the very easy end of the scale) I would get a crayfish trap and always take a really light kind of 4# test spinning rig with me when I go.... If I can catch some live crayfish I would use those below a slip bobber and just adjust the depth until it feels like the bait is hanging near the bottom.... the light spinning rig would be used to drop a small hook with worm on the bottom in hopes of catching a sculpin.... the sculpin would be killed and used as fresh bait in the same manner as the crayfish....

I don't think I ever caught a catfish on the snake/columbia system that didn't have crayfish in it's stomach... it's the universal tender in that piscatorial environment.... but worms work also....... what you use depends on how serious you are......

As I recall the state record channel and blue catfish have come from this general area..... there is no doubt in my mind that there are blues and channels swimming around in wallula that are larger than these records...

and if you want to catch more big catfish I think the $25 or so investment in the "River Cruising Guide" would be worth it because it would allow you to find similar spots to the flat I mention along the snake river as you go from it's mouth to the mouth of the clearwater river......


look for flats (they should be about 15 to 25 feet deep and they don't have to be all that big) adjacent to deep water that seem to be close to the main current.. avoid the real backwater kinds of locations...... there's a bunch of them... some can be accessed others are private land and you have to leave them to people with boats....... also the closer you are to the base of the next dam the more current there is and the less important it is to be adjacent to deep water.....

[papamike]

your bait should be as fresh as can be. I use a single hook #2 and fresh chicken livers

[zen leecher aka Bill W]

Here's how I used to fish for channel cats back in Maryland. I'd catch a 7-8 inch crappie and cut it up into thirds. I'd use a 2/0 hook and stick a third on it. That pretty much kept anything smaller than 20 inches off the hook as they couldn't get it in their mouth. 20 inches isn't all that big of a fish as it's maybe a light 3 pounder.

Just a thought for using bigger baits.

[littleriver]

Catfishing isn't as big in this state as it is in the south and midwest but I think zen has it right...

my catfishing time is limited but I used to read articles about the subject in the In-fisherman mag a couple of decades back and the discussion bopped around between all the various baits but the real pros always advised the same thing... big catfish feed on other fish.. use other fish for bait.. that means fresh cut bait, as advised by zen, is probably your best option given that all the other variables are the same.... this doesn't mean that liver and stink baits and all the other stuff doesn't work but the guys who get paid to give advice about catfishing back east always recommend fresh cut bait as the best option if it is available.....

there are crappie and other panfish in wallula but the easiest cut bait to catch is the lowly sculpin and it's one of the primary food fish for walleye and other predators in the columbia above john day dam...... but don't count out the lowly crawdaddy.. it is also a big part of the food chain there and if you have the patience and fortitude to trap and keep them alive in your cooler I think you will be impressed with the results......

and, of course, using the best of the very best of baits doesn't do a bit of good if it's plopped someplace where the big cats don't want to be...... find 15 to 40 feet of water adjacent to deep water or in slow but steady current.... the big guys tend to avoid shallow water unless it's very dark and they are very hungry and there isn't any food in their deeper and safer havens....

[littleriver]

I have a couple of more ideas for you db but first you have to listen to some stories...

one of the most entertaining fishing articles I ever read was about 3 or 4 yahoos down in kansas who fish the kansas river for flathead catfish. They use 18" goldfish they buy at a local pet shop for bait and sapling trees for their rods. They hit the river late evening and find the right sized saplings. Each is bent down and held in place by a little release mechanism. A live goldfish is placed on a hook, dropped in the water, and they move on to the next "fishing rod"... when a flathead takes the goldfish the release is sprung and the sapling springs up and holds the hook in place... when the yahoos get up in the morning they just go up river and look for saplings that are jumping up and down along the side of the river....... the flatheads they caught were all over 100 pounds each....


the other story involves a personal experience in Northern minnesota about 10 years ago. I was canoeing and fishing with some friends and we worked our way down this long channel that led into a large body of water one afternoon. We trolled big crankbaits most of the afternoon with no action and then went out and canoed around on the big body of water and headed back up the channel as that was the way back to camp. Soon after getting into the channel everybody was all of a sudden hooked up with huge northern pike. I lost one big one and the other guy in my canoe lost 2. One of the guys in the other canoed hooked up and stayed hooked up for about an hour. He finally got it almost to shore but the hook slipped out and it swam away but we all got a look at it and it was a monster... 30 pounds plus.................. the point of the story is that large fish will often hold in deep water during the day and when they get hungry head up into shallow water where there is more food during the evening or nighttime hours. Often a pattern will become established and schools of large predators will sort of act in tandem.


Now the one thing I remember very vividly about the backwaters behind bateman island is that they swarm with carp. I can even remember one old timer telling me that the big catfish move up into the shallows during carp spawning season (when the shallows hit about 50F) to feed on the spawn. I'm not so sure about the spawn thing but there is no doubt in my mind that every catfish in the lake wallula and snake river area that reaches a couple pounds or more has tasted carp flesh at least once or twice.......

carp can get pretty thick in all the backwaters adjacent to the lake wallula main body of water so maybe you should consider getting one of those angling bows and shooting one every once in a while and then cutting it up into catfish bait sized chunks. Freeze them in handy ziplock bags each holding enough for an evenings worth of fishing. It might even be worth trying to go out and dangle one of these chunks along the mainland side of bateman island not too far from the NE point where the yakima meets the columbia to see if the big bad cats you are looking for don't move up into the backwaters at night to feed on unsuspecting carp.

regardless I think it's worth trying carp chunks at the other spots I've mentioned....

[zen leecher aka Bill W]

one carp would be bait for a whole day.

[AaronE]

Find a fish market that sells fresh mullet. Get a bucket of mullet gut (some give it away, others might charge you a few bucks to fill your bucket) and find the nastiest, smelliest piece in there. Thread it on a 1/0 hook, let it sit on the bottom, and hang on - something big is going to hit it.

Garlic shrimp is another good suggestion, but if I get hungry I might be tempted to start grilling all my bait for dinner. You will NOT be tempted to do this with mullet gut. Trust me [-x

[dbaker]

not a whole lot of fish markets in Eastern Washington. thanks for the tip though.

[michaelunbewust]

yo dusty, if the nightcrawlers dont work, there is a store if you are coming out of columbia park heading to the richland"y" just past columbia center blvd., on the left, sells waterdogs. dont give this info out, because i know of only one other place. the best way to fish them is just a #2 hook thru the lips w/ a slip sinker. give them about 18 inches of leader, so, they can swim around out there, and LOOK OUT! my 2 buddies that fish the yakima regularly just caught 8 cats in the 8 lbs. and up range, fishing at night, like you andi were thinking about when we were fighing the yak. good luck.