East Tennessee Catfishing

[GoldenEagle09]

Just curious if some of you guys catfish on the Ocoee, Hiwassee, or Tennessee rivers. What type of bait works best? Ive tried chicken livers and worms which work ok but should I be using something else?

 

[RUGER]

Boneless skinless chicken breast.

Or just call rsimms and book a trip.

 

[stik]

Boneless skinless chicken breast.

Or just call rsimms and book a trip.

or cut/live shad

 

[rsimms]

Yea, what they said.

 

[GoldenEagle09]

So would you guys fish with chicken breasts and shad over chicken livers? Because too often we have been coming away empty handed with livers and nightcrawlers...

 

[stik]

So would you guys fish with chicken breasts and shad over chicken livers? Because too often we have been coming away empty handed with livers and nightcrawlers...

absolutely. i haven't fished with liver in years. and when we did we only caught small channel cats when you could keep the bait on the hook.

 

[catman529]

So would you guys fish with chicken breasts and shad over chicken livers? Because too often we have been coming away empty handed with livers and nightcrawlers...

hmm, liver and crawlers are tough to beat though. Do you know you're fishing a good spot with a good bite? I don't use liver much cause it's hard to rig, and nightcrawlers catch anything. Shad is a good bait though, and stonerollers if they are found in your body of water. Actually I prefer stonerollers over shad, maybe cause I've used them more, but they are just a straight up good bait for cats.

 

[Str8Shooter]

i like using cut skipjack or shad

 

[Football Hunter]

Yea, what they said.

I would listen to this guy

 

[ROUGH COUNTRY HUNTER]

i use small bluegill,but i tell you,i used to save my deer scraps after i processed a deer,they worked good

 

[stik]

i use small bluegill,but i tell you,i used to save my deer scraps after i processed a deer,they worked good

small bluegill are great for flatheads.

 

[GoldenEagle09]

Me and my buddy do alot of trial and error fishing so sometimes we have no clue about the spots we try to fish. I know alot has to do with location. We are probably going to start trying out the Tennessee river since its only 30min away and known for producing some big cats. Hopefully we will find a nice honey hole in due time.

 

[catman529]

Me and my buddy do alot of trial and error fishing so sometimes we have no clue about the spots we try to fish. I know alot has to do with location. We are probably going to start trying out the Tennessee river since its only 30min away and known for producing some big cats. Hopefully we will find a nice honey hole in due time.

channels, deeper pools, you should find you some nice channel cats easily. I've never been to the TN river but I imagine the cats behave the same as anywhere else

 

[stryker]

X2

So would you guys fish with chicken breasts and shad over chicken livers? Because too often we have been coming away empty handed with livers and nightcrawlers...

absolutely. i haven't fished with liver in years. and when we did we only caught small channel cats when you could keep the bait on the hook.