Entry 65-4

Billy Blakely On How To Catch More Catfish On Strike King Catfish Bait

Old-Timey Cat Catching

Editor's Note: Billy Blakely, a guide on Reelfoot Lake in northwest Tennessee, is a member of Strike King’s professional guide service, and is known as the “Cat Master.” Throughout most of the year, Blakely can produce a hundred pounds of catfish or more every day he fishes. For the next five days, Blakely will tell us all how to catch more cats on Strike King’s catfish bait.

Blakely: If you enjoy the old style of catfishing with a cane pole, you can have a ball at Reelfoot. We use Strike King’s Dip Worms and Catfish Dynamite to drop fish with cane poles around the cypress trees. This is a great technique for letting youngsters and oldsters have a great day of catfishing, because there’s lots of excitement, plenty of ‘I’ve got him! I’ve got him!’ and pole-bending action when you have a 3- or a 4-pound catfish on the end of a cane pole.

Catfish are not only under the trees to feed on bugs and insects. The cypress trees hold plenty of small bluegills and minnows on which the catfish feed. Many times, as soon as the worm hits the water, a catfish will grab it, and the cane pole will start to bend.

I don’t really like a limber cane pole, because a limber pole will give the catfish time to get down in the roots of the cypress trees. I prefer a stiff cane pole with about 20-pound-test line. This way you have enough leverage to set the hook and get the cat’s head turned up and away from the tree as soon as the catfish takes the bait. However, even with a stiff cane pole, when you hook a cat that will weigh 5 pounds or more, you’ve got all the fight and excitement that you ever want to deal with on the end of that cane pole.

A great day of fishing for me is seeing an 8- to 10-year-old youngster wrestle with a 5 pound or bigger cat on a cane pole. The fun is deciding who’s got who. The youngster doesn’t want to turn loose of that cane pole, and the catfish doesn’t want to come into the boat. I’m doing a lot of cheerleading and coaching, and we’re all having a lot of fun.

I also like to take older fishermen, who grew up catching cats on cane poles, out for a day of fishing like this. They really seem to enjoy the day with the poles and the cats, and they always go home with a mess of fish to eat. Many of the cat fishermen who come here will clean their cats when they come in and take their fillets down to the restaurant to have their catch cooked.

I don’t believe there is any more rewarding way to really build a memory for a youngster or an oldster than having a great day on the water, catching a big mess of catfish, cleaning them and having them cooked-up fresh for dinner that night.

To contact Blakely and to fish at Blue Bank Resort, write Rt. 1, Box 970, Tiptonville, TN 38079 or call (901) 253-6878. You can also visit them on the web at www.bluebankresort.com or e-mail them at fish@bluebankresort.com

 

Next: Load The Boat

Contents:

• Part 1: Dynamite Cats
• Part 2: Bites and YoYos
• Part 3: Doughing Cats
• Part 4: Old-Timey Cat Catching
• Part 5: Load The Boat