Catfish?

[Fishaholic2]

OK, my wife had catfish for the first time this past weekend and now wants me to go it a bunch. I am an ocean salmon person, but do have a 16' river boat also.

Can you tell me the best spots to go that are within 4-5 hours of Olympia?

I would be interested in making this a 4-5 day trip if the fishing will be good.

Thaks for any help.

[Rauly]

Upper Columbia and lower Snake rivers. I have heard of a lot of 5 pound plus fish up there.

Rauly

[shalom]

Browlee resivior has a lot of CHANNELL CATS.
I tried a new way to fish for them last year.I would tell you , but CRAPPIE CHASER would read this also . We had our awards meeting last night and i had the largest catfish turned in for last year . It was 29 1/2 " long . :dance:
One morning while i was fishing for PERCH I noticed the catfish were going crazy. They were breaking the water and feeding actively.I put a small peice of cut bait on two hooks and casted it behind the boat i opened the bail on my spinning reel and let out about 75- yards of line.
I was useing a small spit shot and wanted to drag it on the bottem .I trolled as slow as i could dragging my bait and still maintaing boat control. I was pleased because i caught 3 nice sized catfish .I hope that this will help you catch some nice ones . You can catch catfish in all of the usual ways . :grin: . If you decide to go to BROWNLEE let us know . Maybe we can help you some more .

[Hunter56787]

I hear the John Day and the Snake River areas are real good for cats in late May & June. I'm planning on giving it a try up that direction this summer. Might be fun to get a few boats out together?


Hunter

[bucketmouth]

My brother worked at the mill at the Willamette Falls for 17 years. He used to tell me that there were channel catfish rolling in still water at the upper end of the mill property. I never caught one on the upper willamette but last summer I did see a guy bring in about a 8 pounder out of a hole about 4 miles up from the falls. Think I will chase them harder this year now that I know they can be caught nearby.

[Crappie Chaser]

Shalom,I can see I had better keep my eye on you.You have a pretty big bag of tricks. :wink:

[Fishaholic2]

Thanks for all the advise. I have to get going on some of this fishing, sounds like fun. I have not fished for warm water fish since I was a kid in Iowa.

Thanks again

[Beerbelly]

The East fork lewis, Yes the East fork in July and the water is 60 at Paridise Point down to I-5 bridge if you want a lot of bullhead catfish thats the place to go. :cheers:

[FelonFinder]

Brownlee is one of the best catfish places and would probably be worth the 4 or 5 day stay you are talking about.

[Rimshot]

Lower Yakima River in April/May can't be beat :wink:. PM me if you want more info. Average size is 3-5lbs with several each night going over 10. Brownlee is always a good bet too but Yakima is closer and better if you hit it right. Good luck.

[SuperT]

Silver Lake (Pierce County), Silver Lake (Cowlitz County), Harts Lake, Kapowsin Lake.

I haven't fished these in quite a while so I'm not sure how the fishing is anymore. Silver Lake in Pierce County falls into the normal lake season and can be pretty crowded the first couple weeks, but no one ever seems to be going after their huge numbers of catfish.

Harts Lake and Swofford Pond in Lewis County are the only ones that I know of in your area that have Channel Cats.

[Arc burn]

Hey I heard a good one last year. A junior high kid I know went to Brownlee catfishing with his family. No one was catching many catfish. So, he went to the camper got a box of cheese and macaroni. Started dipping his nightcrawler in the pouch of powdered cheese. Caught twice as many fish as anyone around. :applause: No reason it shouldnt work.