Where To Fish The Yo-Yo

EDITOR'S NOTE: A couple of years ago I fished with Billy Blakely, a guide at Reelfoot Lake's Bluebank Resort in Tiptonville, Tenessee, and learned about fishing with Yo-Yos for catfish.

As I baited the hooks with one-half of a live night crawler, I passed the Yo-Yos to the front of the boat where Eric Ving, Blakely's roommate, tied the Yo-Yos onto tree limbs. Blakely ran the motor. In a short time, we'd put out 50 Yo-Yos. We set the Yo-Yos to hold our baits only 2 or 3 feet underwater in two different patches of cypress trees that stood out in Reelfoot Lake. I asked Ving why he fished around cypress trees.

"In the summer months, the catfish seem to school-up under the cypress trees," Ving replied. "The cypress trees have plenty of bugs, worms and small baitfish around them and are like a dinner table for the catfish. During the daylight hours, the cats will find more shade and cooler water under the cypress trees than out on the open lake. At night, the bugs attract the baitfish and the catfish to the trees, making the catfish easier to catch."

When I asked Blakely why he choose night crawlers for bait, he explained, "The night crawlers are easy to buy at the bait store, relatively inexpensive and one of the favorite baits of the catfish. Also when they're cut in half, they give off a smell that attracts cats. If the box of worms you've bought contains 25 night crawlers, you can bait up 50 Yo-Yos with only one box of bait. For night fishing, I'll usually carry three or four boxes of bait however, because I don't want to run out."

Before we got all 50 Yo-Yos out, we already could see two limbs shaking. We went to the trees to retrieve the catfish.

To learn more about Yo-Yos, contact Mechanical Fisher, P.O. Box 1170, Diamond City, AR 72630; (870) 422-7715. For more information on BlueBank Resort, write Rt. 1, Box 970, Tiptonville, TN 38079; (901) 253-6878.

Tomorrow: How To Get Catfish Off Yo-Yos