11-23-2010, 03:55 AM
They can and will be shallow in winter. Biggest thing is the fish will be where they have quick access to deep water. I had the my best luck in little cuts or coves off the main lake; esp in the vegas wash. Does not need to be a big cove or wash or anything extensive. Just need a shallow flat that has good depth nearby. Step two is chum... lots and lots of chum. Few cans of corn (and beer) to get you started and a half can an hour after that worked well for me. Spread it out...be liberal, the wall mart brand is the best, big kernals, stays on the hook better than the rest. Rig a big nightcrawler with a light barrel sinker with a stop about 10 inches up and #6 single hook.Tip your fatty cralwer (yes fatty crawler, No half dead skinny junk here) with a few pieces of corn. The cats will get into that corn and start homing in on that yellow color and just pick pieces of it up at random, not like carp that work it in a line, the worm gets the cats to take notice (I guess..they never admitted to that). Key really is finding that smaller 5-10 feet flat that is very close to deeper water... does not have to be crazy deep but has to break down. Try this in an area that has 50 yards of 3-5 foot water you wont get jack. Look for schools carp in winter (esp. in the AM) doing that strange sucking thing they do on the surface; scare them off and wait. If they keep coming back to the same area split the diff between where they are "sucking" and the shore and you should have a good starting point... I know some will say use chovies to chum... those work too, but I found that the baby stripers took those before they would do much. I also get the impression that the carp coming in to feed on the corn starts some competitive feeding reaction in the cats....I have seen that in bass and bluegills and the catfish in my tank... but again, I can only speculate, the cats were not talking.... Really though time on the water, pay attention to what you see and dont see... Good luck!
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