08-16-2007, 04:34 PM
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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