A bass fishing surprise 2025

I went out this evening on the local lake to get in some bassin' I used the swimming Senko for the first time because last week I met a guy who was doing well with one.

In an hour I pulled in 4 good sized bass, lost another couple but strangely enough, caught 3 catfish.

In all the years I've been bass fishing I probably caught a few catfish while going for bass, but three in one hour? Weird! I guess they are also on their beds. I was working water that was about 3-4 feet deep.

Does anybody here normally catch cats when going for bass?

I once caught a catfish on a crankbait.

I went to a new pond that I've hooked some good ones before and was throwing my BBZ slow sinking shad, I caught 4 cats between 3-6 pounds in 2 hours of fishing. That was a first for me.

I've snagged a channel cat in the meaty portion of the tail using a jointed rapala, but nothing they have purposely tried to eat (other than live minnows).

I caught a channel cat on a tube jig last weekend and my buddy caught a flathead on a roboworm.

Honestly, I usually only catch them on crankbaits. This one time though, I flipped a jig up to a laydown and pulled out a 3 pound flathead.

I've caught a few channel cats on cranks.

Yes, plus bowfin, pike, bluegills, Warmouths, crappie, white perch, yellow perch and bream.

No Snakeheads to date.

Not all on the same fishing trip but you will catch them sooner or later. 

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Yes, plus bowfin, pike, bluegills, Warmouths, crappie, white perch, yellow perch and bream.

No Snakeheads to date.

Not all on the same fishing trip but you will catch them sooner or later.

Add Alligator, Gar, Freshwater Drum, Stripped Bass, & Carp 

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Yes, plus bowfin, pike, bluegills, Warmouths, crappie, white perch, yellow perch and bream.

No Snakeheads to date.

Not all on the same fishing trip but you will catch them sooner or later.

Other than a bowfin I've caught all of them while bass fishing (I had to Google warmouth, we call them red eyes, or rock bass here). Particularly perch and crappies. Also a lot of chain pickerel. A lot of them haunt the same areas as bass so it stands to reason.

But until yesterday catfish while bassing were a very rare occurrence. In nearly 40 years of bass fishing I can probably count them on one hand with a finger or two left over.

I caught a nine pound catfish on a swimbait.

ive caught 2 on crankbaits in the delta lol

I caught catfish on small cranks and crappie jigs with a spinner mainly in the spring.

Catfish are very aggressive creatures. They are not necessarily the bottom feeders that most folks believe they are.

When I use to fish for pike more often than I do now, I use to catch them regularly, on trolled 8" Swim Wizz hard plugs and musky sized spinnerbaits. Most were over 6 pounds too! Tough customers, even on musky tackle! 

Yep, had a 4lb catfish just destroy a white 3/8oz  spinner bait!

Yep catch em imitating craws with a crank bait from time to time.

I've caught cats on plastic worms and I got a 6.5lb cat on a pop'r once.

Yesterday night i was fishing a lip less crank and pulled up a big carp. i didnt snag him either he went for it. Weird.

I have caught several mudfish recently while fishing for bass with a 4" white senko....

Just this past weekend I caught a 15lb channel cat on a jitterbug! Best fight to date on my Citica DPV/Mojo combo! I have also caught several on texas rigged worms, tubes, jigs and even pointers!

I've had one eat a jig once.

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I got a 6.5lb cat on a pop'r once.

Now thats a good one. Cats gotta eat, too. The river channel cats around here get bunch up and get really aggressive at times. They'll race each other to hit just about anything that gets near them, but I've never seen them hit a topwater. That would be fun.

This is a true story.  When I was stationed at Ft Hood weused to go out and fish the tanks on post.  My and a buddy had been at it all day on one tank with nothing to show for it.  This "good ol boy" comes walking down the bank past us a ways, back in this really thick flooded timber.  He had nothing but one rod with what appeared to me to be a Rapala Skitter Pop.  He threw it out there a few times then we here the comotion.  Fish on.  He get it close to the bank and reaches down with one hand to land his catch, and the lure comes flying back at him.  Without missing a beat he goes in head first!!!  We couldn't believe this.  After a few seconds he comes up and out of the water with a 12lb catfish!!!!  Said he caught an 8lber the day before in the same spot on the same topwater bait.  After a minute talking to us he left with his supper.  That was the craziest thing I had ever seen while fishing.

Cliff

Caught a nice 4 lb channel on a tiny torpedo the other day.  Had cast out and then took a call from a friend on my cell phone.  My bait must've been sitting out for about 3 minutes when the catfish finally decided to hit.  Pretty cool.

I caught a blue cat on a brown crankbait last summer. I was almost disappointed when I got it in the boat and saw it wasn't a bass.

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This is a true story. When I was stationed at Ft Hood weused to go out and fish the tanks on post. My and a buddy had been at it all day on one tank with nothing to show for it. This "good ol boy" comes walking down the bank past us a ways, back in this really thick flooded timber. He had nothing but one rod with what appeared to me to be a Rapala Skitter Pop. He threw it out there a few times then we here the comotion. Fish on. He get it close to the bank and reaches down with one hand to land his catch, and the lure comes flying back at him. Without missing a beat he goes in head first!!! We couldn't believe this. After a few seconds he comes up and out of the water with a 12lb catfish!!!! Said he caught an 8lber the day before in the same spot on the same topwater bait. After a minute talking to us he left with his supper. That was the craziest thing I had ever seen while fishing.

Cliff

That's an amazing story with great agility and awareness.  Reminds me of when Mike Iaconelli jumped out of his boat to catch his line and hand line his fish in.

We troll Bandits for crappie a lot in the summer and catch cats sometimes.  I think Van Dam caught a big one on a Redeye during the classic.  Of anything I've used while bass fishing, Gulp has by far caught the most cats!

I caught a 40 pound flat head on a Rapala dt last spring and it is not uncommon to catch chanel cats from 5 to 10 pounds in this section of the Ohio river on cranks. They can turn a slow day into a bunch of fun.

In the last week I have caught:

6lb blue cat

2.3lb crappie

2lb cat

10lb drum

I caught a channel cat once in about 20 feet of water on a floating rapala...

Fishing a lease pond several years ago just after dark on a black jitterbug, no moon, so I couldn't see much. Sounded like a 5 gallon bucket falling in the water. It was about a 10-11 pound flathead. That was fun.

I've also caught a lot of catfish trolling hot-n-tots.

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