My menu of favorite baits:
Includes night crawlers,catalpa worms,live minnows, hot dogs and the ultimate must fresh cut blue gill. Stink baits and catfish or shad formula scents work really well.
Fresh cut bait rig:
I use a 1/0 hook on a 2 to 3 foot lead below a sliding egg sinker and swivel when fish in swift current.
I use a 6 inch lead in calm water with a 1 ot. Eagle Claw Lazar sharp hook.
Silp bobber rig:
I use use this rig with a small stop knot it allows me to cast freely and control my bait in any depth of water I may be fishing.I use this rig alot when fishing rocky structures.
Spring can produce large numbers,focus on 10 feet of water and the areas listed below.
Rocky structures provide nesting sites and usually warm up sooner because rocks hold heat and warm the water around them.
Man made areas of riprap usually composed of lime- stone rocks used to hold shorelines around dam faces, causeways,breakwaters,bridges and marinas to list a few examples.
I fish in 30 feet of water in the summer in river channels,creek channels,barge cuts,dredged or man made channels,spillways and outflows of major dams when water temperatures reach 70 degrees or better.
I resort back to my spring time tactics when fishing early to late fall.
Ice fishing for channel cats can be productive if you know where to find them.I usually find them schooled up in the deepest available water with little to no current,sometimes mixed in with flatheads.I use tip- ups baited with small shiners set 2 to 3 turns from the bottom or cut bait right on the bottom.The fight is unreal they will run out a hundred feet of line in a blink of and eye,you would think that they would be sluggish there not they can break 20-25 lb. test in a second if you try to horse them I learned this the hard way.