Juggin For Blues in OK

Before I moved to Oklahoma, the extent of my catfishing experience was pulling in mass amounts of bullheads on some local lakes when I was younger. Although those are some very good memories, it is nothing like my experiences have been since I’ve been on the waters catching cats here in Oklahoma.

I have always thought catfish were just bottom feeders, not predators. Oh, how wrong I was. Before coming here, I really didn’t know there were so many different species of catfish. If my memory serves me right, I had only caught bullheads and channel cats in my younger years. Here in Oklahoma, the two species targeted the most are Blues and Flatheads although channel cats do come up on the hook at times.

We fish for cats 2 different ways. We use rod and reel and we use juglines. I think everyone can figure out the rod and reel part but juglines is something that I’d never heard of until Tommy caught my attention one day. Its a very simple way to maximize your time on the water. Basically just use a flotation (2 liter bottle, milk jug, etc), tie about 20 ft of braided cord on it, tie a couple inline Kahil hooks and a large weight on the bottom. Bait them up and toss them out and let them “soak” while you go off and do some rod and reel fishing or even go to work for the day and check them later.

Like I said earlier, I always thought catfish were bottom feeders but I was very wrong. Blues and Flats love fresh bait. We use cast nets to find small threadfin shad. We cut the tail off from just behind the dorsal fin down through the back of the stomach to open up the good stuff. The messier, the better. Blues and Flats love fresh cut shad. We use it for both rod and reel fishing and on the juglines. Now you can buy frozen cut shad at the local baitshop but the fresh cut is much better.

As you can see from the pictures, we have done fairly well in what little bit of time we’ve had on the water. We even hooked a decent spoonbill on one of our juglines. What an amazing site that was to see coming up alongside the boat. And the kids were with us so that got an experience of a lifetime.

Please watch for future blog posts about our catfishing experiences in Oklahoma. As I continue to learn, I will start sharing more specific techniques with you.