Catfishing is an exciting and interesting sport. It is great fun to reel in a giant with a nine foot fishing rod and the fish that weighs 50 plus pounds. One of my favorite hobbies is fishing. Here in Oklahoma there are many lakes and rivers that house excellent catfish holes. Catfishing is only one of the several types of fishing that my husband and I participate in. First we need to discuss what tackle you will require depending on where you are planning on fishing. I will then review several different places to catch catfish here in Oklahoma. I will then discuss the four seasons of catfishing.
The tackle you necessitate will depend on if you are river fishing or lake fishing. There are a few general tackle pieces that you will need wherever you possibly will fish. These items include 4/0 hooks, all sizes of sinkers from 1/8 ounce to 5 ounces, and slip corks or bobbers. I suggest the use of Eagle Claw’s Circle Sea Hooks as they do not bend as easy as some. You should have plenty of each of these because as you may know your fishing line might break if you snag a limb or rock, which very well could happen depending on where you fish.
For river fishing it is important to for to encompass a variety of live bait instead of plastic baits. Whole shad, cut shad, and shad gizzards work very well in Oklahoma Rivers. Live bass minnows also work extremely well because they are much larger than the typical minnows and stay alive for extended periods of time. When utilizing live bait you should always ensure that you keep it as cool as possible on a hot day or else they will expire quickly. This is why it is very important to carry a minnow bucket with you on your fishing trip so you can keep the minnows in the water as much as possible, maintaining them at a constant temperature.
For lake fishing it is important to utilize a variety of live bait also. This live bait includes whole shad, cut shad, shad gizzards, shrimp, bass minnows, chicken liver, fish guts, goldfish, cut perch, whole perch, and night crawlers. When I specify fish guts, I mean that if you go out fishing the night before and catch a mess of fish; you can reuse the guts that you have from the cleaned fish. The catfish swarm over fish guts. If you take a clump of night crawlers and hook through them, they bleed and the catfish also go wild for this. For those of you who are not from Oklahoma, we call sunfish, perch. They are exactly the same type of fish. You can travel typically to any pond, creek, lake, or river and catch perch on a minuscule portion of a worm.
There are two lakes that I would like to recommend for catfishing in Oklahoma: Lake Eufaula and Konawa Lake. In Eufaula you can fish from the dam, which is closer to Enterprise, Oklahoma. We do quite well at the dam all year. You can also fish from either a boat or on the riprap along the lake. Some of the best locations are underneath the Interstate 40 bridges and Highway 9 bridges. The two main rivers that I would suggest are the North Canadian and Red River, which also borders Texas. Both of these rivers, we have experienced good luck at.
The seasons are quite similar, but not identical. Spring is spawning season for the catfish. This is the best time to catch catfish along the banks in shallower water. These points include rocky and stumpy regions where the catfish have some coverage provided by them. The stumpy and rocky areas are where the catfish spawn. In the summer you can catch the catfish best in deeper water where they graze for food. Areas include from banks or damns and any area that is deep enough for them to feed. Fall is identical to summer. Winter is also the same as summer and fall, except the catfish bite a little slower. If you have patience this is one of the best times to catch them because the fish are typically much bigger. At one point in time we caught over 500 pounds of catfish, but had ice dangling off the tips of our fishing rods.
With any type of fishing, you must understand that it takes patience. It is important to utilize a variety of baits and discover what performs best for you. Make sure to carry your sun block as fishing can be quite unpredictable. The fish might bite for an hour and then not for two and then begin tearing up your bait the next minute. Just remember this is great fun and also great food.
