Catfish fishing

[Doc]

Where can a guy go to catch catfish in Western New York from the bank? This coming summer, I want to target catfish, but maybe that's not a realistic goal here in NY.

[airedale]

I don't know much about western NY waters so I can not give you any advice, I can say I like fishing for Catfish and enjoy eating them. There are all kinds of different baits for Catfish, some are real concoctions. Back in the early sixties my Dad and some of his friends would set out a trot in Oneida lake and catch some whoppers, hotdogs was their bait of choice. Back when I worked in a Rome Sporting goods store we sold bait for fishing, back then Griffis Airforce Base was in full operation and we had many of those guys for customers. We had a couple of boys from down south somewhere that were experts on Catfish. They had us order extra large size golden Shinners which they would drift fish under bobbers. They used a small row boat to head up Oneida lake tributaries like Fish Creek and Oneida Creek and fish over deep holes. Those two would pick up their bait at the 6pm closing time and head out and fish all night, they would pull into the store in the morning to show us their catch and man they caught some real whoppers and plenty of them.

Al

[Doc]

4 hours ago, airedale said:

I don't know much about western NY waters so I can not give you any advice, I can say I like fishing for Catfish and enjoy eating them. There are all kinds of different baits for Catfish, some are real concoctions. Back in the early sixties my Dad and some of his friends would set out a trot in Oneida lake and catch some whoppers, hotdogs was their bait of choice. Back when I worked in a Rome Sporting goods store we sold bait for fishing, back then Griffis Airforce Base was in full operation and we had many of those guys for customers. We had a couple of boys from down south somewhere that were experts on Catfish. They had us order extra large size golden Shinners which they would drift fish under bobbers. They used a small row boat to head up Oneida lake tributaries like Fish Creek and Oneida Creek and fish over deep holes. Those two would pick up their bait at the 6pm closing time and head out and fish all night, they would pull into the store in the morning to show us their catch and man they caught some real whoppers and plenty of them.

Al

Thanks for the info. I am a catfishing newbie. I only have caught 1 catfish in my life, That was out of the Barge Canal over by Port Gibson. I remember the meat as being white and delicious. So I would like to find a more reliable source close to home.

I could use all the advice I can get. I am confined to shoreline fishing only because I have no boat. 

[airedale]

A Catfish story, Back in the late seventies I was passing the winter doldrums reading an outdoor magazine and came across a fellow's can't miss Catfish doughball bait recipe. Being bored I decided to make up a batch of this wonder bait as I had all the ingredients in the kitchen. I can now only remember two of the ingredients, Bran flakes cereal and honey, there were at least three other things in the recipe. Anyhow once mixed good up it had the consistency of clay, the batch was made up into a softball size ball and wrapped in cellophane and put into the freezer where it was supposed to keep for very long periods of time.

Back in those days I hung out with a gang of guys that would make a couple of trips up to Dexter NY just to the west of Watertown, we would put a boat in the Black River and head out toward the marsh. There were several good spots to fish from the bank and we would pull in and tie up the boat and still fish. Probably the best place I ever fished, the variety of species caught was something, Bullheads, Carp, Smallmouth Bass, White Perch, EELs, and Catfish  and the bite was non stop.

So on one of those trips I brought that ball of bait and had it in my tackle box, I was catching fish like mad on minnows and crayfish so I did not have any on my rods for bait. One of the guys walked by and saw it and asked about it, I told him it was can't miss Catfish bait. he asked if he could give it a try and I said go ahead.

Wasn't a couple of minutes and he reeled in a nice Channel Cat about 17 or 18 inches long. He baited his hook again and boom another one about the same size. So that bait now had got attention from the other guys and they started baiting their hooks with it. To make a long story short 19 Channel Catfish were caught on the ball of dough before it ran out, most were small about like over sized Bullheads but one was a whopper.

Now I never could duplicate that recipe, the wife tossed the magazine months earlier and I just could not remember the exact ingredients, as hard as I tried nothing I made had the results of the original recipe.

Al

[Doc]

9 hours ago, airedale said:

A Catfish story, Back in the late seventies I was passing the winter doldrums reading an outdoor magazine and came across a fellow's can't miss Catfish doughball bait recipe. Being bored I decided to make up a batch of this wonder bait as I had all the ingredients in the kitchen. I can now only remember two of the ingredients, Bran flakes cereal and honey, there were at least three other things in the recipe. Anyhow once mixed good up it had the consistency of clay, the batch was made up into a softball size ball and wrapped in cellophane and put into the freezer where it was supposed to keep for very long periods of time.

Back in those days I hung out with a gang of guys that would make a couple of trips up to Dexter NY just to the west of Watertown, we would put a boat in the Black River and head out toward the marsh. There were several good spots to fish from the bank and we would pull in and tie up the boat and still fish. Probably the best place I ever fished, the variety of species caught was something, Bullheads, Carp, Smallmouth Bass, White Perch, EELs, and Catfish  and the bite was non stop.

So on one of those trips I brought that ball of bait and had it in my tackle box, I was catching fish like mad on minnows and crayfish so I did not have any on my rods for bait. One of the guys walked by and saw it and asked about it, I told him it was can't miss Catfish bait. he asked if he could give it a try and I said go ahead.

Wasn't a couple of minutes and he reeled in a nice Channel Cat about 17 or 18 inches long. He baited his hook again and boom another one about the same size. So that bait now had got attention from the other guys and they started baiting their hooks with it. To make a long story short 19 Channel Catfish were caught on the ball of dough before it ran out, most were small about like over sized Bullheads but one was a whopper.

Now I never could duplicate that recipe, the wife tossed the magazine months earlier and I just could not remember the exact ingredients, as hard as I tried nothing I made had the results of the original recipe.

Al

I need to have that recipe.......lol.

[steve863]

I never realized how fun fishing for catfish could be.  I'm not much of a fisherman but I never fished for them until last year.  The neighbor across the road from where I hunt has a nice sized pond and it's got a ton of catfish in it.  He's kind enough to let us fish his pond.  My son caught these in a couple hours of fishing back in July.  We tried hotdogs as bait as some recommend but it seems like we caught more with plain old nightcrawlers that we bought at Walmart.  Surprisingly they aren't bad to eat either.

 

[Doc]

The internet is full of catfish bait recipes. I just took a look.

[screamon demon]

I have not lived in WNY for 10 years. When i did i would target catfish in the the same waters i fished for steelhead in. Usually a little closer to the lake though. I would rig up a night crawler under a light up float and drift fish for a hours at night when my kids were little. Wife and kids would be sleeping and i would head out to clear my head. 

[Larry]

The Black River at Dexter is good and the Seneca river is good to

[Doc]

3 hours ago, Larry said:

The Black River at Dexter is good and the Seneca river is good to

I was wondering about the Seneca river, but I read about some pollution issues in the fish there in certain areas. Any truth to that?

Where on the Seneca River are you finding the catfishing the best?

[Larry]

8 hours ago, Doc said:

I was wondering about the Seneca river, but I read about some pollution issues in the fish there in certain areas. Any truth to that?

Where on the Seneca River are you finding the catfishing the best?

I never fished it for cats the guys where I worked in Geneva ( retired the end of January) fish it all the time over by Cross lake

[Doc]

Is there any off-shore fishing by Cross Lake?