WHEN LINE COUNTS
Nighttime Fishing for Cats
 EDITOR'S
NOTE: Billy Blakely of Tiptonville, Tennessee, manages
Blue Bank Resort on Reelfoot Lake and also is the chief
fishing guide there. Each day Blakely and the other
guides who work with him on Reelfoot Lake take clients
out fishing for bluegills, crappie, catfish and bass.
“We have to depend on the fishing line we use
to help us be successful and to help our clients to
catch fish,” Blakely explains. “That’s
the reason we’ve all changed over to Mossy Oak
Fishing Line. We know that when a fish takes the bait
we can depend on the Mossy Oak Line to put that fish
in the boat.” This week Blakely will tell us how
he and the other guides at Blue Bank produce large numbers
of fish each day throughout the spring and summer. You
may not believe the catch numbers that Blakely reports,
but if you doubt that he and his other guides can produce
as many fish in a day as they say, go to Reelfoot Lake.
Fish with Blakely and/or his guides. He’ll prove
it to you.
We enjoy some of the Reelfoot Lake’s best catfishing
at night when we fish with Yo-Yos. Yo-Yos are Mechanical
Fishermen. Each Yo-Yo consists of a round circle with
a spring inside of it and a trigger on the outer edge.
The Yo-Yo comes with small-diameter nylon line coiled-up
inside of it so that when you pull the line out, the
 spring
inside compresses. When a catfish takes the bait and
trips the trigger, the spring uncoils and sets the hook.
Then as the catfish fights against the Yo-Yo, the fish
encounters more resistance as it swims away from the
Yo-Yo. When the catfish tires, the Yo-Yo pulls the fish
back to the tree where the Yo-Yos tied. On the end of
the barrel swivel that’s attached to the nylon
line in the Yo-Yo, we’ll tie 2-3 feet of 12-pound-test
Mossy Oak Fishing Line. Then at the end of the line,
we’ll tie on a No. 2/0 Daiichi circle hook. We
use this smaller hook on the Yo-Yos than when fishing
on a rod and reel because we want the catfish to get
the hook deeper in its mouth, since the Yo-Yo can’t
set the hook as quickly as an angler who’s holding
a rod and reel can. We want the Yo-Yo bait to be about
1-2 feet under the water, which is the depth at which
the catfish feed at night. We tie Yo-Yos rigged like
this onto the tree limbs of the cypress trees standing
out in the water at Reelfoot Lake.
At night I also bait with Dynamite Bite baits from
Strike King Lure Company in either the catalpa or the
shad flavor, just like I fish during the daytime. However,
at night, I’ve also found that the cheese-flavored
Dynamite Bites produce really well. Catfish are fickle
and will sometimes prefer one flavor over the other.
So, when we put  our
Yo-Yos out at night, we bait 1/3 with cheese-flavored
Dynamite Bites, another 1/3 with shad-flavored Dynamite
Bites and the last 1/3 with catalpa-flavored Dynamite
Bites. Then whichever flavor has produced the most catfish
when we check our Yo-Yos for the first time, we change
out the baits on the other 2/3 of the Yo-Yos to the
flavor that’s catching the most catfish that night.
Our Yo-Yos will be fishing in 3-5 feet of water, and
we‘ll usually put out 60-70 Yo-Yos per night.
We have put out as many as 150 Yo-Yos in one night.
We put the Yo-Yos out a little before dark, and we usually
check them three to five times before 11:00 p.m. In
that time, on an average night, we expect to catch about
300 pounds of catfish off the Yo-Yos. Now, if you want
to have a lot of fun and fill your cooler with catfish,
this way is how to do it. One of the reasons we believe
we catch so many catfish here at Reelfoot Lake is because
of the Strike King stinkbait we’re using and the
dependable 12-pound-test Mossy Oak Fishing Line we’re
using from the barrel swivel to the hook. The Strike
King bait gets the catfish on the hook, and the Mossy
Oak Fishing Line keeps the catfish on the Yo-Yo until
we come by, dip it up and put it in the ice chest. If
you want to catch a bunch of catfish and fill up your
cooler any time from May through September, cat-catching
doesn’t get any better than it does here at Reelfoot.
Whether you’re 8- or 80-years old, Yo-Yo fishing
at night for catfish is the best way to fill your cooler
full of catfish.
 To
learn more about Blue Bank Resort, go to www.bluebankresort.com
or call
1-877-258-3226. Blue Bank has a motel, restaurant, guide
service, rental boats, motors, fishing tackle and a
bait shop. You also can visit www.strikeking.com
to learn about the company’s baits for catfish.
For more information about Mossy Oak Fishing Line, go
to www.mossyoakfishing.com.
To learn more about Yo-Yos, go to http://www.rockingaltd.com/mfish.html
or contact Mechanical Fisher Division, P.O. Box 1170,
Diamond City, Arkansas 72630, (870) 422-7715.
TOMORROW: YEAR-ROUND CRAPPIE
|
