I know there's the occasional catfish caught on a crank or spoon.  I've now adding to the list for catching catfish with artificial lures, the inline spinner.  Well actually it's a Panther Martin  #9 black.

The bites are always solid and hard.  Feels like a snag, but it swims away.

try out large sized castmasters after dark, let it hit bottom, then pick it up and keep it moving, thier lateral line will pick right up on it, pheobes work too

I had a 11.5 pound catfish just slam my chartreuse colored roadrunner witha 3" orange colored twistertail. Also caught one on a Flourecent Orange Lazy Ike(flatfish) lure.

I have caught blue and channel catfish while bass fishing with a chartreuse spinner bait with a silver and gold blades.

I have a Bill Lewis Rattle Trap that I got at the clearance rack in Wal Mart for $1.75 and I "juiced" each tip of both treble hooks with tiny pieces of night crawler cut with the yellow worm slicer supplied by the club's field testing program. I was casting far and retreiving fast and was surprised when a 3 1/2 lb. channel cat just violently slammed back on the lure, boy was that fun, huge fight! This happened in Lake Cahuilla, La Quinta Ca., on a warm sunny morning about 11:00. This lake is artificial, actually a reservoir, fed by the Coachella Canal with fresh waters from the Colorado River. Oh yes, the worm slicer works really good, cuts really easy (the worms, not your fingers,) good for opening up those entrails and not destroying the worms, hence the term "juiced".

I have a Bill Lewis Rattle Trap that I got at the clearance rack in Wal Mart for $1.75 and I "juiced" each tip of both treble hooks with tiny pieces of night crawler cut with the yellow worm slicer supplied by the club's field testing program. I was casting far and retreiving fast and was surprised when a 3 1/2 lb. channel cat just violently slammed back on the lure, boy was that fun, huge fight! This happened in Lake Cahuilla, La Quinta Ca., on a warm sunny morning about 11:00. This lake is artificial, actually a reservoir, fed by the Coachella Canal with fresh waters from the Colorado River. Oh yes, the worm slicer works really good, cuts really easy (the worms, not your fingers,) good for opening up those entrails and not destroying the worms, hence the term "juiced".

I have caught Channel Cats on Yellow (Bumble Bee) Rooster tails. Just this past Monday (Memorial Day) I caught a 3lb Channel Cat on a 4' tube on the Potomac River 1/2 mile south of the Brunswick launch.

We have a 40 acre bass panfish lake just down the road and I have caught many channels up to 10# on 1 1/2"m & 2" twister tails while fishing for panfish.

Gary

I'ved added to the list of lures for catfish. A #4 Mepps Aglia gold blade. I had a hard hit and ran like a freight train that constantly changed directions on me. It turned out to be a 22 inche Channel catfish.

Great topic...AND posts of experiences...we talked about this a few years ago on here.

I've caught a small cat on a Cabelas spinnerbait down at the La Crosse Meet....and have an article in an old 1960's Outdoor Life about catching cats on cranks like Bombers Waterdogs etc...in a river.

Several years back I ran across a fishermen who trolled for channel cats.  He used live bait--worms.  My grand daughter (7) has been fishing with me since she could barely walk.  Since I like to bass fish, I take her with me in the boat.  She has her own rod and reel, even her own tackle box (pink).  We were fishing not long ago and she wanted a plastic worm to fish with --I rigged it up with a weedless hook to help with the bushes and trees on the bank.  I heard her say:  "PA!  I got one!"  I thought maybe she had a limb but the line kept moving.  Then I decided it was a bass or one of those bowfins.  As she struggled to get it to the boat I picked up the net and to my surprise it was a catfish.  I don't think I have ever seen anyone have so much fun unless it was me as I shared the moment with her.  Thank God for those "little blessings" that are so big.  I cherish the moment!  Good luck and good fishing!  Thanks for reminding me of the moment.  Uncle Tom

About 3 years ago my father called and told me to check my e-mail, attached was a picture of a monster catfish weighed in around 40-something pounds caught on a rooster tail. Dad didn't have a camera so he put the head of the monster in the live well and brought it home to take a picture and show people so they would believe him. He released the cat back into the lake later that evening, he told me anything that large and old deserved another chance.

I have a similar story from when I was about 8 years old, the only difference was I never got a chance to see what was on the other end of the line. We were bass fishing one morning, the water was way out of banks due to recent rains and I was fishing a broken back minnow in the shallows near a dock twitching and jerking the bait to resemble an injured bait fish. During one of my jerks when the minnow was under water something took it. At first I thought I was hung but then I felt a couple of subtle tugs and knew I had a fish. My father seeing my rod doubled over assumed I was hung and was about to take the rod from me to try to get it unhung. Just then that old push button reel started that high pitch whine as the fish realized he was hooked and took off. We adjusted the drag a little and I battled for the next 20 to 30 minutes as the fish drug the boat about 60 to 70 yards out into the middle of the lake. In this deep water whatever it was hung us on a rock or submerged tree, we never did get to see what it was but the only two fish large enough to drag a boat in the lake would be a catfish or a rockfish, we had caught rockfish not far from here before but they were always in deeper water just off points running bait fish, never on the bank in 3 or 4 feet of water. For this reason we have always been fairly sure it was a monster cat hooked topwater on a broken back minnow.

Sorry for the long post but it was story I thought I should share in this topic.

Kb it could have been a large carp.  I have had them tow me in a small boat 100 yard to a brush pile to hang me up in.

Posted By Krzfshrmn on 06 Jul 2010 11:56 PM
Kb it could have been a large carp.  I have had them tow me in a small boat 100 yard to a brush pile to hang me up in.

I thought about that at home last night as I have landed a couple of monsters before. The only reason I doubt it was a carp was because I never saw any flash and their scales are highly reflective. In a few feet of water I'm thinking I might have seen a little shimmer from those scales, then again with the high water it was little muddy.

Back in my sons youth like 13 years ago .
I had made a few soup can trolling spoons [ simply take a soup can and cut a oval shape from it , drill a hole at each end and attach a split ring to both ends and a hook to one of the split rings, this one happened to be brass and silver .

We went fishing at the St Luise river in Cloqute. My son put on one of these and before i could tie a lure on my line he had caught two catfish .
I have also caught them on plastic worms.

I've only caught catfish off dough balls and hot dogs...then again I don't usually fish for catfish.
TIGHT LINES!