FISHING LAKE EUFAULA WITH JACKIE THOMPSON
Double Down for Cats and Bass
 EDITOR'S
NOTE: Jackie Thompson of Eufaula, Alabama, has guided
on Lake Eufaula for 34 years. As a full-time guide,
Jackie deals with fishing all day, every day.
QUESTION: What do you do when people want to double
down and catch bass and cats?
THOMPSON: Many of the people who fish with me like
to eat their catches. Because I like to catch-and-release
bass, I’ll take about 25 jugs with me when I go
fishing for bass and also fish for catfish. If we’re
going to be fishing up one creek, I’ll put the
jugs out in front of the creek. Then after we get through
fishing that creek, I’ll pick up the jugs, take
the cats off and put them in the live well. In each
area where  we’re
bass fishing, I put out the jugs so when we finish bass
fishing, we can pick up the jugs and cats and keep moving.
By the end of the day, my clients usually have caught
all the bass they want to catch, and they’ve gotten
to carry home catfish to eat.
QUESTION: What pound test line are you using for the
cats?
THOMPSON: I use 20-pound-test Mossy Oak Fishing Line.
Too, another tactic I’ve discovered in recent
years for catching cats is to use noodles, long pieces
of Styrofoam that children use to play in swimming pools
and to keep themselves afloat, by  holding
the noodles under their arms. I cut the noodles into
10-inch long pieces and tie 20-pound-test line to the
center of the noodle. I like the bright-colored noodles
because you can see them easily. With a 10-inch piece
of noodle, a 2-pound cat can pull the noodle under,
but he won’t keep it under for very long. I have
caught cats that weigh as much as 14 pounds on these
noodles. Although we mostly catch channel catfish, on
occasion we’ll catch a blue cat here at Lake Eufaula.
If we’re fishing the first part of May when the
catfish are running the flats, you can easily catch
35- to 40-channel cats, weighing from ½- pound
to 6 pounds. In June and July, the fishing slows down,
and I start putting my noodles closer to the river channel
to continue catching cats. The key to catching the cats
on the noodles is having
the right bait like a three-finger-sized bream. After
I cut the heads of the bream off, I cut them in half
and bait a half of the bream on each hook. In the summer
months, I’ll run my lines 6-feet down, and I’ll
put my noodles on the edge of the channel. In June and
July, we don’t catch as many catfish, but we’ll
often catch 10 to 30 cats and 10 to 12 bass in a morning
of fishing. I’ve found that people like to take
the catfish home to eat, and they really enjoy releasing
the bass. So using this tactic of fishing, I try to
give my customers the best of both worlds.
If you want to learn more about Jackie Thompson or
fishing Lake Eufaula, you can contact Thompson at (334)
687-9595. For more information about top-quality Mossy
Oak Fishing Line, go to www.mossyoakfishingline.com.
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