Entry 241-5

Fishing Reelfoot Lake with Billy Blakely for Bass and Catfish in March

Part 5: Catch Kitties Now

Question: Billy, I know that during the spring and the summer Reelfoot is one of the best catfish lakes in the nation, but what about in February? Are you catching any catfish up there now?

Blakely: Absolutely. Right now, we’re catching catfish around bedding logs (underwater logs out in the lake where these catfish bunch up for the wintertime). At this time of year, you can pull up to one log and catch 50 to 75 head of catfish off one log that will weigh from 1- to 20-pounds each. Every winter, the catfish move to these logs. Every year, when the lake lowers, we look for where those bedding logs are on a hard bottom.

In the winter, the catfish retreat to that hard bottom and rub their bellies against it. I don’t know for certain, but I imagine that hard bottom reflects more heat than a soft bottom does. We refer to this time as, “when the catfish wallow up.” They like a hollow shelf stump or a tree lying on the hard bottom. When you find these types of areas, you really can catch the cats.

Question: Billy, what are you using to catch these catfish?

Blakely: I prefer the Strike King Huckleberry, a tube bait that allows you to squirt different scents into the tube, with the Catfish Dynamite Paste. The tube has a treble hook in it, so I can fill that tube up with different types of scented bait, and the catfish will really eat it up.

Question: What pound-test line are you using, Billy?

Blakely: I like 40-pound-test braided line because if you get hung in the bottom, you can straighten out your hook and get free. Or, if you hook a big catfish, you can get it away from the log and into open water quickly.

Question: Billy, are you using any lead when you’re fishing the Huckleberry?

Blakely: Yes, I use a No. 5 split shot up the line.

Question: What size cats are you catching, Billy?

Blakely: Our catfish will weigh from 1- to 20-pounds each, and most of them will be channel cats. You’ll occasionally catch a blue cat, but our lake is primarily a channel cat lake.

Question: Billy, how long do you fish when you’ve got a party that wants to catch catfish?

Blakely: I’ll take a 48-quart cooler, and when it gets full, we quit. That cooler will hold around 200 to 300 pounds of catfish, and we usually can fill that cooler in 4 to 6 hours.

Question: What’s the best day of catfishing you’ve ever had, Billy?

Blakely: The best day I’ve ever had was a day when I was fishing with the “Adventure Outdoors” TV show. We caught 135 head of cats in 3-1/2-hours off three spots.

Question: Billy, how often can you return to those sites and catch cats?

Blakely: They’re best in the wintertime, but we can fish those areas all year and catch cats. Most of the time, we only have to cast 30 to 35 feet to reach the hot spot because our War Eagle boat is quiet enough to let us get in quietly to the places where the cats are holding. We can ease up really closely to the spots where the cats are holding and let each angler fish more than one rod.

The real secret to catching a lot of cats from one section is getting them away from the area as soon as possible after they take the bait. During February and the first half of March, there aren’t many people here at Reelfoot. So, once you find the cats, you can catch them for several days running.

To contact Billy Blakely, call him at 1-877-bluebank, or visit www.bluebankresort.com.

Contents:

• Part 1: Go Shallow for Bass the End of February Through Mid-March
• Part 2: Timber Hunting the Lunkers
• Part 3: Open Water for Big Spring Bass
• Part 4: Raging for Spring Bass
• Part 5: Catch Kitties Now