03-26-2003, 04:43 AM
I'm going to have to agree with TubeDude about the fresh mackerel then free-lining it with no weight at all. It's been a few years since I specifically fished for big cats myself (darn bass takin' over my life...LOL), but I originally got the mackerel idea from an old codger I saw at the small lake by my house here in CA one day. He had a stringer holding 3 of the biggest cats I'd ever seen...they weighed...12, 16, and 22lbs according to his digital scale. He told me how he had caught them and it was by taking a good chunk of fresh mackerel and just sticking it on a big bait hook, no weight or anything, casting it out, and flipping the bail over on his spinning rod to let them run with it. Well, needless to say, after I saw those 3 cats, I got pretty excited and had to try it myself. The result...a 15lb kitty...and this is just out of a little lake that is really not known for big cats. LoL. So I imagine that if such a technique were to be tried at someplace like Utah Lake...the results would be great. I will also vouch for Tube Dude's suggestion of the fact that a lot of those big Utah Lake cats are accidentally caught while going for the more glamorous species. I have tried fishing for cats at Utah Lake a few times and the results have always just been those little 10-13" bullheads. However, the biggest cat I have caught at Utah Lake was caught while I was bass fishing with a chartreuse crankbait...12lber. I have also caught 3 or 4 other cats in the 5-10lb range at Utah Lake with other bass lures.
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