Tommy and Elton Taylors’ Bottom Bumping Catfish Technique and a video with Gary Harlan “What Bait to Use for Catfish”
Editor’s Note: Every catfisherman has his own strategy for finding and catching numbers of big catfish. We talked with five catfishermen to learn catfishing tactics that consistently will produce large cats on major river systems.
A father and son team from Mississippi that enjoys fishing at the Tennessee River’s Pickwick Lake, Tommy and Elton Taylor discovered a sweet spot in the river immediately below the dam in the swift water. “We were using the same bottom-bumping technique that the fishermen were using downriver, but we fished with shad guts and shad skins near the dam,” Tommy Taylor recalls. The Taylors did however make a modification on the drop lines they used coming off their main lines. “We put two different-sized Kahle hooks,” Tommy Taylor reports. “We tied a No. 6/0 hook to the main leader, attached about 2 inches of monofilament to the bend of the first hook and then tied a second, smaller hook right behind the first hook.” On the first hook, the Taylors put shad skin. “We filleted a small shad, took just the skin and hooked a skin on the first hook,” Tommy Taylor says. “On the second hook, we put shad gut. I believe the flash of the skin attracted the catfish and caused it to inhale both the shad gut and the shad skin, which put both hooks in the fish’s mouth.”
The Taylors fish 60-pound test Spiderwire for a main line and 40-pound-test monofilament for leader lines. But unlike most other anglers who start fishing at daylight, the Taylors don’t begin to fish until the turbines are turned on at Pickwick Dam, and current starts flowing through the lake. “To catch big cats or large numbers of cats, the lake must have current coming through it,” Tommy Taylor reports. On an average day while fishing below Pickwick Dam, the Taylors say they’ll catch from 100 to 150 pounds of catfish. The father and son team fish together almost every weekend in the tailrace and supply plenty of cats to their friends and neighbors or release them. “I just like to feel those cats bend that rod and stretch that line,” Tommy Taylor explains.
Today's Video Clip - Gary Harlan - what Bait to Use for Catfish
Tomorrow: Quick Catfish-Cleaning Secrets and Favorite Baits and a video “How to Cook Catfish”
Check back each day this week for more about "Secrets of the World's Best Catfishermen"
