I’ve taken a cue from the wild animals this week and moved early in the morning and late in the afternoon. Wild things have the innate ability to know how to make the best of the seasons and this time of year, they seldom venture forth during the heat of the day. The same with this old outdoors writer but I did get out on the water a couple times and caught a nice mess of fish both times. I also learned or ‘relearned’ a few basics of summer fishing.

While fishing for catfish at Lake Tawakoni with guide Tony Pennebaker, I learned that not all trophy class catfish are landed during the cold weather months and at Ray Hubbard, while night fishing off the dock at my friend guide Brandon Sargent’s boat slip at Sapphire Bay Marina, I ‘rediscovered’ how effective green lights in the water and can be for attracting a variety of species!

Guide Tony Pennebaker runs catfish trips throughout the year and a few years ago, he clued me in to a fact of fishing. Big blue catfish can be caught anytime throughout the year but the majority are landed during the coldest of winter months. But even in the springtime, occasional big blues are landed. In June and throughout July, the blue catfish spawn in underway and big fish become few and far between. 

Most catfish anglers target channel catfish around holes baited with soured grain or cattle range cubes. By the time August rolls around, the blue catfish spawn is a done deal and the big ones are once again on the prowl, chasing the huge schools of shad that have hatched and matured during the summer.  This is the time when Tony makes long drifts, using freshly caught shad and boats lots of ‘eater’ blues and occasional channel catfish but many trips also produce trophy class double digit fish.  Our morning trip last week produced only one bigger fish in the ten-pound range but lots of  blue catfish in the 2- to 4-pound class that I consider to be some of the best eating in freshwater.

Drift fishing for blue catfish is going strong at Lake Tawakoni and other lakes. Winter is prime time for catching big blues but now is prime time for numbers of eater blues with the very real chance of a trophy-class fish. photo by Luke Clayton

I’ve started using Catfish Pro catfish gear and we fished with a couple of the Catfish Pro tournament series reels and medium heavy rods designed specifically for catfishing. I was highly impressed with the performance of the gear and Tony gave it a two thumbs up as well. The reels cast smoothly and the drag system is designed to hold the biggest of catfish yet is sensitive enough to detect bites from smaller fish. A good catfish rig needs to be designed to catch big and little catfish and this rig does both equally well.

Drift fishing is by far the best method of catching numbers of blue catfish this time of year and we caught ours making long drifts in flats 12 to 15 feet deep. The number 5 Catfish Pro circle hooks did the trick. They come razor sharp out of the package and when a catfish grabs the bait the needle sharp point threads onto the fish’s mouth. A hookset is not required or recommended.  As Tony pointed out when fishing with circle hooks, “crank it, don’t yank it!”  It is challenging when a rod bows over in the rod holder not to grab it and begin jerking to set the hook but the proper procedure is to grab the reel handle and crank all the slack out of the line and then remove the rod from its holder and fight the fish.

On to Ray Hubbard 

Guide Brandon Sargent has made a name for himself at Ray Hubbard putting his clients on regular limits of the lake’s plentiful white bass and the occasional hybrid striper. I recently spent the last couple hours of daylight fishing with Brandon and schools of white bass were popping up all over the mid lake south of I-30.  We probably could have caught fish on topwaters but the schools didn’t stay on the surface long. The trick was to use the trolling motor to get within casting range and catch the fish sub surface when they sounded.  A long cast, then let Brandon’s homemade slabs flutter down vertically was the technique that produced best. Many strikes occurred as the lure was falling so keeping tension on the line was important.

As darkness fell, we headed to Brandon’s deep water boat slip at Sapphire Bay Marine. The water is about 26 feet deep there and fishing is usually very good thanks to submerged structure around the slip. While Brandon turned our white bass into fillets, I again put my Catfish Pro products to use. Catfish Pro baits are cubes about the size of a sugar cube and come in blood, shad blood and Catalpa worm. These baits definitely stay on the hook and they definitely catch fish.

Using a small circle hook for catching channel catfish was new to me, I usually fish with treble hooks and some sort of punch or dough bait. These baits are very productive for catching channel catfish but they are also a bit ‘messy’ to fish with. I liked using these cube baits and found that the channel catfish did as well! They are ‘clean’ baits and not messy or smelly but they have the catfish attracting ingredients built in.  

I boated several good eating catfish, keeping the baits a foot of two above bottom and then the green lights around the boat slip came on and baitfish began to appear on the surface. White bass and some big ones in the 14 to 15 inch range began appearing just below the surface, a big school had moved in, attracted by the baitfish.  We enjoyed a little catch and release fishing for aggressively feeding ‘whites’ using live minnows and  then went back to catching catfish with the cube baits.

If you have had a ‘hankering’ to go fishing, take a tip from me and go early and late. If you would like to just jump in a boat and start catching, contact Tony Pennebaker (903- 474-3078)  at Tawakoni or Brandon Sargent, Lead Slingers Guide Service  469-989-1010.

Listen to Luke’s radio show anytime online each week at www.catfishradio.org or on one of the many stations where it airs.