Rich

Get two varieties of small spinners, gold and silver. Get some with dressed hooks (fur) and some without, as some days it makes all the difference one way or the other. Panther Martins are my favorite, but they aren't so durable in comparison to Mepps spinners. Look into small spoons. 1 1/4" or smaller. Most days, I don't even touch my spinners as the spoons usually out fish them. Two colors to start are your basic Red Devil pattern and 5 diamonds. Classic lures that have been catching fish for years and still do to this day. Eventually you'll find what works for you in your area. Get some cheap spoons and paint them yourself with some nail polish, Dollarama is great for that. lol Experiment with some pinks, basic red, black or go crazy with the color. Even experienced inland trout fishermen have to resort to bait sometimes. When I fish the inland creeks I rarely use a float, just some small split shots and a #12 or 14 hook. A natural drift along the bottom seems to work best. Worms are great, proven bait. But don't forget there's a million other options. Small crayfish, sludge worms, crickets, grasshoppers and slugs are great trout bait. Occasionally, you'll entice a bigger trout to hit a small leopard frog. Of course make sure that it's all legal. Search under rocks at the creekside and you'll probably find enough bait for the day that will work 10x better than store bought worms. When you get into it more and more, you'll start to find other baits like small crankbaits (I have a 2 inch Rebel that has saved the day on many occasions), crappie tubes and small grubs. Good luck and don't forget we all love pics!

Yes and yes. When I'm in a pinch for bait I go buy a bag of frozen smelts from the grocery store. Works well, but better if you leave it in the sun for a couple days.

Now is a great time. Best time is at first light. Big, floating bags are the ticket. Good luck, and don't rule out chucking a big Cleo if you suspect they are chasing bait.

Of course warmer, damper weather means wine prices will go down.. Switch to the hard stuff! lol

Good channel cat fishing in Hamilton Harbour when I was a kid. Put on something big and stinky. Rotten meat works well, chicken livers get picked apart by gobies these days, so do worms. If you use chicken livers, leave them in the sun for a couple days then tie them in roe netting or pantyhose to keep the gobies from picking them apart. Lasalle and Pier 4 park are good starting points. But Xrap is right, Dunnville is a great place to get into a lot of bigger fish.

Figures. We didn't want to drive that far today, figuring it was still too early in the season. lol Nice ones! And what a day to be enjoying the catfishing.

This is part 1 of the spring cat series, titled "the search". Today was technically my second scouting trip of the season but really the first good try as the first time I was only out for an hour or so. We headed to our first spot to find it just full of carp. Lots of carp landed on both corn and sucker meat (that's a first), yet the channels eluded us. Finally, Sugarpacket and I both had encounters with kitties, but they were quick to shake the hook. We moved further downstream and found nothing but bullheads. One missed channel cat here by Sugarpacket and that was all. Bullheads pass the time though and we both had a great time in awesome April weather. And those cat encounters let us know they are there for next time. First piggy carp of 2008 Hard to beat a view like that Mr. Bullhead and the Bullhead Queen Beauty sunset to end the day Good times. Though we didn't land any channel cats, neither of us can complain about a day like that.

WOW, that sure is a difference. The plus side of course, would be that you could fish for carp and get beer at the same place, LOL

Worm on bottom.

Haha, not so far fetched though. Nautifish loves to tell the story of her fishing at a local dam when a girl came out, her first time fishing, casted out a worm and bobber and hooked into a whopper steelhead. Beginner's luck to the max!

I thought old Red Fisher, the originator, had divers put fish on his line? My parents told me this, not sure if it's true as i never saw the show myself (obviously way before my time).

Glad I didn't post my vertical hold 20lber from when I was 10

Pretty simple, just fillet them and cut the meat into 2-3 inch chunks then freeze it. Works better for big cats than stinky minnows, worms or chicken livers IMO. Less annoying bullhead bites too.

Headed out locally to stock up on spring channel cat bait (sucker meat) and was happy to see they have arrived in their spring time spawning areas. Was also surprised by a couple of carp that made their way into the spot. Was a lot of fun to get out and fish some open water and there was a definite difference in fight between winter and spring carp. I almost forgot how hard they really fight! A tricky spot to land them, should have brought the net but expected nothing but suckers. Now got enough cat bait in the freezer for a couple of trips, gonna start searching for them later this week or early next week. Anyone who wants to join in a scouting expedition for channel cats let me know. I have the bait and the spot knowledge. 90% sure they've moved in to one of my spots.

My wife won't give me the chance. She's got the lip lock on them 2 seconds out of the water.

Good god, that poor alligator. Wait til P E T A gets a hold of this photograph. Sick.

Typical 6-8 mentality. Difference of course being that 60% of pike eggs make it to adulthood, whereas about 13% of musky eggs make it to adulthood. Carp are the same as bass too. Let's bow fish for bass.

What's the diff between killing a few walleye with a spear gun or killing them with a hook and line? At least the speargun puts them right out of their misery.

I can't find this group.. gimme some info!

No I don't... lol

Nice one !

http://www.ontariobass.com/chapters.shtml

In the last week, we've travelled far and wide in search of open water fishing. First stop was Brantford's industrial section for polluted carp and bluegills. lol Sugarpacket nailed the first carp at this spot and Splenda & Grandma checked it out. After this, the fish seemed to stop biting. So we got in the truck to get going and "click" is the only sound the engine would make. Not a dead battery as we tried to boost it. So we had to wait for a tow truck to show up for a while, I said "Might as well keep fishing then".. and lo and behold, I actually caught a few. Then the bluegills moved in and we had fun with them for a while. And 2 days ago, we tried locally for carp but all of our spots were way too high and fast moving to fish properly. The fish were just not around either. Splenda tried his beginner's luck for a while and had a blast, but he couldn't rise a bite either. "Look, I'm doing it" "Oh, oh, got a bite" "Meh!" And finally, we headed out today to find that the water levels had dropped. Fish were still moving slow but we did locate a few carp. A few lost ones and just this little one landed. The spot was a tricky spot for landing them. They hit canned corn drifted, no sinker. All in all a great week with the fishin' family.

Bottom bounce!

Anywhere you have a great lake tributary that is relatively shallow and consistently muddy you'll have a good run of spring channel cats. It will be starting very soon. I believe I will start fishing them next week at some of the smaller tribs. 3 or 4 dew worms on a hook is good early in the season then switch to cut bait like strips of sucker meat or cut shad later in the spring.