Slayed the catfish on Oconee today

[LittleDrummerBoy]

Brought the 100 quart cooler as an act of faith and filled it. With all the warm water flowing into the north end, I decided to hit a shallow, sunny cove in the Apalachee arm N of I 20. Wow! All on cut shad. Mostly blues with some channels mixed in. The USGS site had water flowing in from the Apalachee at 58 deg F yesterday. When I arrived at 10 AM the water was up to 60 deg F and up to 65 deg F when I left at 3 PM. Some YouTube video on winter catfish said to find the warm water and you'll find the fish. At least in this small respect, my prayers for wisdom were answered today. And my prayers for fish even moreso.

I apologize for not inviting anyone along. Trying something new I didn't want a guest to be disappointed.

 

[back_woods]

 

[Cmp1]

Congrats,,,,

 

[Josh B]

I've got 2 more weeks of being busy then I'm going to start fishing. It will probably start snowing then!

 

[LittleDrummerBoy]

 

[Josh B]

Did you just try the cove or was there a ditch or a certain cover you were fishing? There is a lot of standing timber in Oconee. I've done pretty good fishing that. I haven't got to explore the area close to where I live yet. I live where Hard Labor Creek runs in. I can catch little one's off my dock all day but I want to find the big ones. I'm going to look for the deepest water I can find in the timber.

 

[LittleDrummerBoy]

Just the cove. The one I was in was remarkably free of timber. I've caught big blues a couple times in the Apalachee arm, but avoiding the timber to reduce snags.

Today, it seemed like the key was finding the warmer water. I had to get away from the main channel and into a sunny, shallow cove where the water was a few degrees warmer. I drift fished the main channel for an hour or so - nada. I also anchored and tried the channel ledge for a while - nada. I marked lots of fish in the channel and on the ledges, but they weren't biting (may not have been catfish).

 

[antharper]

Great day for sure , congrats

 

[Thunder Head]

Congrats,
I need to get down there and try it.

 

[Cmp1]

Amen,,,,nice kittie,,,,you should try and get with the Cap'n and go after em,,,,you guys are giving me the fishin itch up here in the tundra,,,,

 

[LittleDrummerBoy]

I need to figure out how to display more than 6 fish at a time in a more appealing way than the ground or a table. Maybe two rows of screws/nails in a board to hang them vertically. Nice challenge to have.

 

[oldways]

good job and I like that hat..

 

[KyDawg]

Nice mess of Catfish Drummer. That type of fishing works got on Kentucky lake too. But it needs to warm up a little bit yet.

 

[hopper]

I need to figure out how to display more than 6 fish at a time in a more appealing way than the ground or a table. Maybe two rows of screws/nails in a board to hang them vertically. Nice challenge to have.

View attachment 999176

Nice catch there Drummer. Glad your trip worked out. Looks like you got some work ahead of you

 

[j_seph]

Did you just try the cove or was there a ditch or a certain cover you were fishing? There is a lot of standing timber in Oconee. I've done pretty good fishing that. I haven't got to explore the area close to where I live yet. I live where Hard Labor Creek runs in. I can catch little one's off my dock all day but I want to find the big ones. I'm going to look for the deepest water I can find in the timber.

We usually catch the big ones when they are pulling water then finding structure or a hump they can lay behind to get out of the current. I have always been a night time oconee catfisher so most of my fishing there has been 20 foot to 1 foot deep. I know up on TN River lakes we'd catch em 80 to 100 foot deep in cold weather. If you drift fish or drag baits there are some that do that with great success on Oconee. If on Facebook look up Chad Smith, go out with him some as he has the cats dialed in as well as crappie and hybrids.

Seems that the smaller cats are easily in abundance there but like the big bucks, you have to do a little more work for the bigger cats especially with any consistency. At night we'd fish tournaments there and if we anchored for 30 minutes without at least one good pull down we were moving to another spot. From my experience the fish that are there that are feeding are going to do so in that first 30 min. You could probably sit there all night and catch one but we'd move and keep moving to get hose 30 min hook ups and go on.