Hey C&R, allow me to toss in some alternative suggestions. I done my share of beatin’ up on kittiefishes, and I have a fair number over 10 on my resume.
**First, I am not a Bear River expert, but have taken a few…mostly at night or in the early or late months of the year. Bear River cats WILL eat crawlers, but, like big channels elsewhere, they respond better to baits they might normally find on their preferred menu. My best success has always been on slabs of FRESH fillets from other species indigenous to the same waters. **
Carp are universal, and most cats accept a chunk of carp meat. Suckers are prime. Their flesh is softer, so it is best to leave the (scaled) skin on sucker slabs. Whole chubs or fillets from bigger ones are good too. Whole minnows of any kind are good…and you can use whole ones up to 8 or 10 inches for the big boys. Whole big sucker or carp minnows are excellent.
Wherever it is legal, use a slab of bluegill or green sunfish. Scale it, fillet it and cut out the rib cage…just like you were going to fry it up. Same for yellow perch and (in Utah Lake) white bass. A whole fillet rigged with a stinger hook is well received by the big boys.
If you can find some mackerel, use a big chunk of that stuff for smashing strikes. Channel cat candy.
Where my advice veers off from most other you have gotten so far is to forget the sinker and/or bobber. Of course, if there is current in the river, you will usually need some weight to keep the bait where you want it. But, for baitin’ the big boys in slow or still water, tie your line directly to the hook…and use hooks that are SHARP (and strong).
I like to slow drift and drag a big slab of meat behind my tube, but also do well lobbing it out and letting it set…without sinker or bobber…while bankin’ or anchored in a boat. I leave the bail open on my spinning reel and when a fish picks up the big bait, I let it run off some line. It will usually stop to chomp and swallow. After it stops, flip the bail and reel down until you feel weight. Or, the fish will often take off on a second spurt. Set the hook.
**Big cats sometimes gulp a bait on the take, but more often they chomp it to kill it and then move off with it in their mouths to be sure it is dead before swallowing it. If you haul back and the hook is not in a good spot, all you reel in is a big shredded chunk of bait. **
If you let the fish hook itself, If you use a circle hook, the hook will end up in the corner of the mouth, where the tissue is tough. If you use other kinds of hooks, you will often have to cut them off if you plan to release the fish. Even if you don’t want to release the fish, it is better to cut the hook off and retrieve it later while filleting your catch. Big cats have strong jaws and can munch a finger if you shove it down their mouth to get the hook. And, if it is dark, it is difficult to find and remove a hook with pliers too. Just tie on a new hook and get back in action.
**Probably the best advice for catching big cats is to fish where they are known to hang out. Second, be prepared with the right tackle. That not only means stout line and good hooks, but having a good drag and having it properly set. **
**The biggest mistake made by most guys when they hook a biggun is that they get impatient. Once they see the size of that big ugly dude they get glazed eyes and start hauling to drag it in. WRONG. That is the time to be sure you have the drag set right, to allow for those last second surges. **
**Big cats are tough and they have stamina. They keep on keepin’ on long past the time you would like to have them in the net, and they can muster up some impressive gymnastics to either break line or rods, or tear off the hook. I read about losing big cats on this board all the time. In most cases, I suspect those are preventable. **
So, find them first, fish them right, hook them right and fight them right. Pretty simple, huh? Yeah, right.