cat fish ??

[nutleysigns]

Anyoneknow a good place to fish for cartfish and maybe some good baits ?? my mission is to try an catch a giant just cant find um.

[Fish n Jeep]

I'm not an avid cat fisherman, but I picked up some tidbits when I lived near the confluence of the Mississippi & Missouri Rivers in St Louis where the world record blue cat was caught. I would look for deep holes or areas with woody cover for the fish to hide in, and any sort of cut bait will work. Chicken livers or fish chunks. The larger more aggressive cats will take live bait.

Anecdotally, I caught a flathead by accident once on Mark Twain Lake with a 5" curly tail grub on a jig. A former coworker caught a big flathead in the Meramec River on a creature bait on a jig.

There are flatheads in the Delaware if you want to target them, otherwise channels have been stocked all over the place for a long time, and bullheads are almost everywhere.

[Eskimo]

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Nutleysigns, we need more info.

Do you mean New Jersey big or like Mississippi big?
Are you willing to travel for them?

I used to catch some nice-sized channel cats on the Delaware River in the Delaware Water Gap in the late evenings fishing with nightcrawlers. Then, a few years ago I was walking back to my car in the dark and almost walked into a bear that was eating out of a garbage can in the parking lot. (It was a bear-proof can, but somebody propped the lid open with a cardboard box, allowing the bear to pull garbage out of the can).

That really freaked me out and I haven't fished that section of the Delaware after sundown since then.

[NJ219bands]

I recently caught a 9.5 lb channel cat in Carnegie Lake with my homemade corn meal bait and a 4 lb channel cat in the Delaware River with chicken liver.

[lunkertaker]

Chicken livers or shrimp (ideally fermented at rt for 1-2 days at rt). Personal best in NJ was at Assunpink. Loads of cats there! Both channels and bull heads. If you don't have a boat, now worry as the depth along the accessible parking lot is rather deep and have seen folks with stingers full of em in the past. If your have a boat, pick a good spot.

[mcfish82]

im a bigtime catfish lover as well...i hit the potomac last year twice with a guide for bluecats...his name is josh fitchett and owns rivercatn guide service...we have taken numerous giants with him...a 25/30 lb cat is a small one...lol

[Denlon]

Originally Posted by nutleysigns

Anyoneknow a good place to fish for cartfish and maybe some good baits ?? my mission is to try an catch a giant just cant find um.

Nutley-

In the past few years I have personally seen two large Channel cats caught off the boat ramp in the main lake of the Assunpink WMA just south of Hightstown. One was measured on the spot (17 pounds) and released. The other was estimated at about 10 pounds, and I believe kept to eat. I don't know if you consider these "large" but they look large to me since the days I used to catch bull heads as a kid back in the 1940's. I don't know what the baits were.

PS- BTW I still have 6 of your fish decals on my truck window. They have been there about 4 or 5 years now and they look just a bright and clean as the day I stuck them on. Those things are really great!!!!

Denny

[AndyS]

WELCOME to the site Denlon. Some good info there, thanx.