there's gotta be something im doing wrong thats causing me to never catch fish. i read all the materials i can, i get advice from everyone on here who will give it, yet i cannot catch a single bass, catfish, anything. im not even getting nibbles. could it be my location? i wouldnt think so, since i see everyone else reeling in big fish left and right...baits? i used light and dark baits tonight, and all that happened was one of them got stuck on the bottom and i lost another load of my stuff. when i was aiming for catfish i tried about 7 different baits, same stuff everyone else was using. honestly guys, im at my wits end, i dont know about fishing anymore...
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post a pic of the area/lake you are fishing. I will as well as others will be able to give you some advice.
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[black][size 3]Don't give up.[/size][/black]
[size 3]You have to remember that it's called fishing, not catching. Enjoy it for what it's worth. [/size]
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[size 3]If you monitor those fishing around you, and pay attention to those catching fish, you will learn what they are doing. [/size]
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[size 3]Maybe you are just "paying dues" for now. Your time will come.[/size]
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It is just a matter of time. You may want to try another location.
As was mentioned, get us a picture of the area that you are fishing. We will all be glad to pitch in some pointers.
Once you learn where the snags are, then you can learn to cast just away from them too. That is part of building the experience and knowledge of a local body of water.
Hang in there and we will all be cheering for you. As soon as you catch your first fish, you will always want to fish.[cool]
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im not giving up just yet, despite the threats...i just dont have that in me. im gonna try to rouse myself at about 4ish friday, because im off work. from what i have observed from being on the road at that time, and from some guys i work with who fish, thats a good time to go. so im gonna try it then. i bought some powerbait Pseed 7" bungee worms. tried those, didnt have any luck. but it was one of those lizards that got caught. i was gonna stay later til 9 or 10, but when i lost the hook, sinker, and glass bead, i just got pissed. the line snapped and i threw the rod up the boat ramp. sometimes my anger gets the best of me, though im usually good at it. i guess it just kinda built up over these past few months of fishing and not catching lol. thought id get lucky once. but when i go friday ill make sure and take my camera and get a few pictures of the primary areas i fish at the dock. of course, thats even if i can get my big butt up at 4...thats gonna be hard....
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I wish you the best of luck included with the balance of skill and knowledge.
You need to adapt to change as well as understand that what is working one day, may not always work the next.
The fish determine when they want to bite and when they are inactive to the general feeding mode.
Some fish you will entice out of hunger. Others out of emotion. When it comes to Bass fishing, sometimes they will bite just out of curiousity or even out of aggression. I like gettng the Bass that are so
that they hit when they are just pissed off.
Give it time. Have patience. Don't be afraid of change ups and learn the tricks and tachtiques that are required for the body of water that you are fishing.[cool]
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this is true, and i thank you for your good will wishes. i catch something or i dont. the true test will come when i lose another hook and sinker (inevitable). the test is holding myself from throwing all my stuff into the river lol. but ill stay til light and get some pics. if the wind is blowing you'll probably even be able to see the line hanging from the tree where i caught it saturday morning...
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Don't sweat the small stuff. It takes time to be able to learn to fish. I know blue gill are everywhere where I fish but no idea how the river is. Buy night crawlers. I forget what size hook it is but it is a tiny gold eagle claw hook I mean really small. Get the smallest one you can find and put the smallest piece of night crawler you can on it. Just set up a bobber and then sinker below that and the hook and drag it slowly across the water. Get ready you will probably get a blue gill. They taste pretty good just cook them in butter in a pan until brown. They are good. It may take you time to get in the swing of things. I mean it was my first time fishing this year since 02 so it had been awhile and I was a bit rusty and I had trouble even catching a blue gill. I got my blue gill and then a I was getting about 5-6 a night and then I jumped to really high number of 47 between me and my gf. It was awesome. Then I started trying to catch crappie and well I caught a few but then when I was trying crappie fishing I hooked into a catfish and well I became hooked on catfishing. I broke my pole fighting one and borrowed my brothers pole and landed a 2 and half foot channel catfish. It takes time to catch catfish. You got to crawl before you can walk and walk before you can run. In other words start small then try to make it a bit harder by using minnows to get crappie or larger blue gill and then sink it to the bottom with a fat head minnow and drag it slowly on the bottom. Have fun. You could try catching some bluegill and cutting them up for bait just cast them out there and wait for something to bite sink it to the bottom. I never had luck with it even though people swear by it. I fish in a lake though maybe it will work on the river. If not make your own home made dough bait. Stick to the basics. Live bait is your friend. Live bait is king of all baits and I have yet to find anything that can out do live bait. I have found a lure that works and I make my own dough bait that works but I have never been able to find better than live bait. I was three inches shy of beating my biggest fish ever with my home made dough bait. I got a 27 inch channel catfish. Basic recipe for you that you will need to add to for it to work is bread water and flour. I like to add oats to give it a better doughy consistency that will not stick to your hands. The rest is up to you to find what works best. Add what the catfish like to eat. You will not be dissappointed. Just take your time and decide what you think will work best and play with your recipe until you get it right. It may take awhile or you may hit on it the first night. I added oats to mine to get rid of the dirt. I got the 27 inch one on the dirt version. I changed to oats as it took awhile to make dough balls at my fishing spot and took up alot of the time. Plus the oats make it stick better to the hook.Making it stick to the hook is half the battle in making a good bait. Just be ready to set the hook. Yank the pole up and backward to set the hook. Try it and see what happens.
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oh yeah, ive caught plenty of bluegill and brim, they're all i ever get. its just crazy how in four months of fishing, i havent gotten lucky one time to have even a nibble on my lines from anything except bluegill and brim. of course there was the one 6 or 7 inch shad--i think, its what the guy next to me said when he looked at it. but i didnt know people cooked bluegill. i may have to go fishin for em again to try em...then again, im fishin in the tennessee river, which is probably full of sewage and crap...
this morning at work, i was fillin up the water tanks at the river, and there wa a guy fishin, and i walked over and there were 3 or 4 catfish in his basket right on the surface...i thought about askin him what kinda bait he was using, but i saw nightcrawlers, and i think there was also a tub of chicken liver. which brings me to a question...ive heard that putting chicken livers in a pantyhose will allow then to stay on the hook. if i do that, and a cat does strike, is the pantyhose gonna harm the catfish in any way? because im most likely going to let it go as soon as i get a pic of it.
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I just love them. Not as good as Channel Catfish but they will fill your belly. Just make sure you get enough. You know how to gut them? The only thing is there are small bones and no matter what they will be there just make sure you chew them so you don't choke. Most are not big enough to worry about but just chew good to be safe. I never had a problem but just fair warning. They are well worth eating though. Get about 10 and you should have enough for nice size plate of them. Nothing like freshly caught blue gill. I eat only blue gill and channel catfish. Its been awhile since I ate any blue gill. They are pretty tasty I might go catch some tonight so I can have meal of blue gill.
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I never had much luck with chicken livers but some people swear by them. DO NOT I REPEAT DO NOT EVER LEAVE CHICKEN LIVERS IN YOUR CAR! WORST SMELL EVER! You could also dump the blood from the container into the dough bait mix and then use the chicken livers. No idea on the panty hose. Use a liver hook. They will work and you won't lose the bait. May also be sold as dough bait hook. Dough bait is my second bait of choice. My first would be the fat head minnows.
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yeah whether ill be eating something that came from the river is a tough choice...the river is pretty nasty, but i suppose there are ways of cleaning fish that come from those rivers...
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What species are you targeting? What do you WANT to catch? I was under the impression you were after bass. Stupid me. It sounds like you are after cats mostly.
A few ideas to throw around. Take it with a grain of salt.
1st, catfish are extremely omnivorous and will eat almost anything.
Having said that, there are places and times they will only hit one thing or nothing all together.
2nd, there are hundreds of baits that people use for catfish. Where i live, i can name a few that are old stand-by's
chicken liver
red-side shiners
chubs
night crawlers
beef liver
shrimp
carp and all the gross parts of them
hot dogs(the cheap bar-s kind) yes they work around here
little smokies
chicken gizzards
anchovies(have been working well lately)
store bought dough bait(berkly power bait stuff)
The list goes on and on and on.
My advice to you if you are going to target cats is to have 3 or 4 of these on hand and try them until you find what they want. If you take 4 things and don't get bit, take 4 others next time.
If i had to choose the top 4 to take with me if i went right now, it would be: chicken liver, chubs, shrimp, and night crawlers.
I am not sure of your states laws, but if you can use 2 or more rods try something different on either rod. I am assuming you live in the south east, not sure, but i would think most of the states west of the mighty mississip allow live bait or parts of game fish. If that is the case, catch a few gills or breem and fillet them out and use a side of that. Usually the forage base species of the particular body of water work very well on catfish. I am now getting too intense for myself so i hope some of this will help you. Good luck.[cool]
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im after bass as well. i have some powerbait 7 inch bungee worms and some zoom 6 inch lizards. i have an ugly stik with a zebco 808 magnum reel (25lb line), and a synergy 10 rod/reel combo with 12lb line. tube advised me to use the smaller of the 2 for bass fishing, so i still have the ugly stik riged up for catfishing--by the way, could anyone suggest a good setup for a catfishing rig, maybe thats the problem. like hook/sinker arrangement, leaders, stuff like that. i swear its some minuscule thing like that thats causin a couple of catfish to look at my line nad go "what an idiot...he thinks he's gonna catch us..."
im gonna rig up both lines for bass tomorrow morning, im goin around 4 am if i can--im gonna take my friend's pole, which ill use to catch bluegills and stuff, anything thats swimmin around under there i wanna catch it. and thats catch, not fish. if i can catch a couple of bluegills i will look into takin santaaa's advice and cookin it. that will take a bit of research, unless someone will give me a step by step on how to fillet and cook em. if they have a good recipe.
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[black][size 3]Hey Simp,[/size][/black]
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[black][size 3]Here's a [/size][/black][url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?do=post_view_flat;post=349176;page=1;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;mh=25;"][black][size 3][ link ][/size][/black][/url][black][size 3] to your other post with some information that maybe you might want to revisit. There is an example of some rigging that you can use. [/size][/black]
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[black][size 3]What are you using as rigging right now ? [/size][/black]
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[black][size 3]Also, as was mentioned, if you post up a photo of the area where you are actually fishing, we might be able to offer some more accurate suggestions that you could use.[/size][/black]
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thanks hound, i had completely forgotten about that diagram. right now i have a hook set above a sinker, with is on the end of the line. i have time to redo it though. it is now 4:24 am. i actually got up to go fishing, and i walk outside, and its windy, nice n cool, and then someone catches me eye, i look up, and lightning. that sucks!
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hey i am also very insterted if the panty hoes will hurt the cat fish aswell i would most likely just be takin pic and relsing the fis to grow bigger and live another day.
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It is a little late in the season and most places are clearing out fishing for hunting. Look for 5/8 oz jitterbug black one and a yellow one. Fish them just fast enough to make them make the popping noise. Fish them slow and steady. fish near the weed line. They are good for bass.
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I've had good luck using fresh cut bait for channel cats. Often, I'll catch a pearch or two on night crawlers, I'll cut these up into little steaks as soon as I get them, then rig up a slip-sinker rig and a hook and I'm into some cats.
Also, shrimp. I don't know what it is about them, but some thawed shrimp seems to work every time for me for catfish.
I've also been catching a few good sized ones on spoons lately. I used to think they wouldn't bite artificial baits, but experience tells me different.
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there's gotta be something im doing wrong thats causing me to never catch fish. i read all the materials i can, i get advice from everyone on here who will give it, yet i cannot catch a single bass, catfish, anything. im not even getting nibbles. could it be my location? i wouldnt think so, since i see everyone else reeling in big fish left and right...baits? [/reply]
The same thing is happening to me as well, I started fishig for bass this summer and seems like the fishing gods are upset with me for going after bass and leaving the cats and gills alone. (this is actually my second try for bass fishing, first time was about 10 years a go.)
But one thing I am doing is to try to learn at least 2 things everytime I get in the water, picked the texas rig and dropshoting and I will be practicing that for the next few outings exclusibly. This weekend I hope to get out to a small pond and try topwater lures early in the morning and if all goes well I will catch some fish. If I don't catch any fish I still intend to learn something from that outing. The guys I fish with keep telling me that I just have to put time in the water to be able to catch fish, I need to catch something to keep the positive attitude and continue to try even more.
Just hang in there and keep trying, be alert and watch the suroundings and what the fish are doing. Do not give up just yet.
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