Bassing and Cating

[torelaxandenjoy]

Hi, you all, need some advice. As I said earlier my son now has me interested in bassing with artificial and even natural bait, but I still have the urge to snag a big ol’ cat and I don’t want him have to drop anchor to do some cat fishing. Can anyone suggest some techniques to use that will allow me to just go with the flow on both bassing and cating?
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“Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing it is not fish they are after.” - Henry David Thoreau

[Rebbasser]

I'd guess it would depend on what he is fishing. If he is throwing a jig or worm that is fished slow throw out the kittie rod and if the boat is moving go bass chashing.

Don't discount catching cats on bass tackle. Last October I caught a 15 lb flathead on a Senko in a flooded treetop. 2 hours later on the other side of the point we were fishing danged if I didn't get a 12 pounder on a tube. Bill Murray getting slimed in Ghostbusters had nothing on what those 2 cats did to my boat. Looked like the boat got hit with a snot bomb.

[fishin' fool]

While he is bass fishin, you could try drifting a piece of your favorite cut bait behind the boat. You maybe proned to snags especially if your in bass waters, but it can be a very affective rig for channels and blues.
The drifting rig: A 3-way swivel tied to your main line. Off the bottom of the swivel, a leader (length varies) with a bell sinker or a no snag sinker. I like to use a leader that has a breaking strength less than my main line incase the sinker hangs up, I wont loose the whole rig. Then off of the the center eye on the 3-way, a nother leader (length varies) with a good cat hook, like a kahle or circle hook with your bait. So essentially its almost like a drop shot rig for cats. I've noticed that hook companies are making worm and kalhe hooks with weed gaurds, I haven't tried them yet to see how weedless they really are, but I'm sure they would work.
When we drift for cats we use a drift sock to slow the drift, but this might be tricky if ur son is bass fishin.
Or if your son is slowly working one area for bass, you could throw out a big slip bober with bait on it. In the past 2 years I've use big slip bobbers more and more for cat fishin and have had great success. I caught my biggest flat head on rod and reel on a slip bobber and a big hunk of night crawlers!
Good fishin

[torelaxandenjoy]

Thanks for the replys Reb ahd Fishing fool, will follow up.

[pignjig]

Relax- Somehow, just about every tournament, someone tangles with a cat on artificial. I've caught them on tubes and cranks and a guy caught one last year dead sticking a senko at Lake Gaston. Your son will be glad to help you catch that lion-sized purr fish, I'm sure. The coolest thing would be to run into some of those butt-ugly flatheads Reb was talkin' about. They're just tiny-eyed appetites with a skin stretched around 'em.

-Pig