Summary: I’m really behind on things with the website and have not posted any articles or videos in the past week and a half or so. I’m posting this episode of Catfishing Radio behind schedule also. My wife had surgery last week and things have been hectic with her being down and out, as well as getting ready for her to have surgery. I had planned on talking about some more channel catfish topics this week but with everything going on I had to change plans at the last minute so in this weeks show I am doing some “catch up” on some catfishing Q&A answering some of the questions I have been “sitting on” in my email inbox. Catfishing Radio Episode 33 Here are some of the questions covered in this weeks show. Getting Bites But Cannot Set The Hook I have recently taken up fishing and am learning slowly how to catch these critters. I have my rig pretty much worked out with a slip bobber. I will probably will try a smaller treble hook based on my findings so far. I get quite a few bites but am having difficulty setting the hook, I am not sure on the catfishing techniques. I am about 50 feet above the fishing hole. Do you have any suggestion on setting a hook when you are vertical above the hole by that distance. Any suggestions on setting the hook would be appreciated since I am pretty new to this. Fishing Reports, Trust Them Or Not Was thinking about heading up to Pomme De Terre lake here in Missouri for a few days of camping and catfishing, and checked out the fishing report. It stated that cat fishing was fair to slow. My question is do you pay any attention to these reports and more importantly should someone like myself without much fishing experience pay any attention to these reports? Really looking forward to trying out the techniques in the Summer Catfishing e-book and the secret channel catfish rig. Catfish Reels I am trying to decide what is the best line to use to set up an Abu Garcia 550C3 for a catfish reel. I am in the middle of Kansas mostly all pond fishing! No real big catfish 2 lb. to 10-12 lb. range is biggest so far. Lake Turnover After the lakes are done with the turn over does the dead zone go away at the bottom of the lake for a time because of the turnover? Choosing Hook Size How do you choose the hook size and what kind of hook do you use for catfish hooks? I really enjoy the videos on the web site great job! Trophy Blue Catfish and The Double Hook Rig I fish for very large blue catfish and flathead catfish on the Mississippi just south of St. Louis in Missouri ( Jefferson County near Herculaneum )we have very large trophy class fish here and my largest is a 65 pound blue caught on a 6 inch live goldfish from shore at that. I hooked into a giant the other night and lost it from the stinger hook coming undone I was using a 6 inch creek chub, leader of 40 lbs, Berkley big game line. The snell knot was tied correctly it just slipped, maybe from bumping and fighting the fish. i use nothing less than 30-40 pound mono main line due to very rocky terrain and hang ups, less if we are in a sandy area. I am considering using some off shore angler tight line for a leader but it is stiff and hard to snell on the stinger.running an 8/0 gamakatsu octopus/cirle to a 6/0 back hook. Could it work well if I tied the first hook with a palomar knot then snell the front hook on a double hook rig? I know on single hook rigging i have never lost a fish from a palomar knot. the catfish rigs I use are off shore angler trophy class 20-50 rods from Bass Pro Shop with Garcia 6500 catfish reels loaded with 40 pound main line and or 30 pound catfish ugly sticks with 5500's and 25 lbs test for the large channel cats.
