Wet a line and stay awhile!
CELEBRATING over 19 YEARS of providing excellent CATFISHING information for ROD BENDING ACTION in the Cincinnati area of the Ohio River. Blue cats, Flatheads, and Channel cats can be hooked right here in the Downtown Cincinnati river front area. I am just an ole retired guy that likes to catfish, I am NOT a catfish guide, I do have a link to a GUIDE for this part of the river on this page if you are seeking a catfish guide trip. Catfishing baits, bank fishing spots, tips from a catfishing guide. Tips for saving money on YOUR catfishing tackle. Information on catfishing baits I have used to catch catfish. Where to go to Catch HUGE Channel cats in Canada.
For 2020 I wish everyone GOOD HEALTH and TIGHT LINES!
Since the commercial fishermen are monitoring catfishing web sites I will be editing my updates this season for the fish I catch on the river. I will only state the size of the fish and bait used. I will also be blocking out the back ground on any photos, for I do NOT want the C.F. to clean out that area!!
Here is a video of what the COMMERICAL FISHERMEN are doing to the Ohio River where I try to fish!!! So you can understand the rod & reel fishermen frustration knowing these big catfish will never be retunred to the river.
We have had such warm temperatures for the past week I thought I would get in some fishing. So Dec 27th I picked up my grandson at 11:00 for a trip to a new pond to check out. WE stopped off at our local bait shop for some wax worms, and I had some other. I took bait for catfish. We arrived at the pond about 12:00 the water was clear. I took out my wireless fish finder to check the depth of the different sections of the pond. The deepest area was only 10 feet, and the fish alarm did sound off a couple of times.
I finally got my lines in the water around 12:25. My grandson was using a small fly and he caught a small crappie on the other side of the pond. I tried my wax worms for bluegills and chicken breast for catfish. I was not getting any bites, while my grandson was catching bluegills.
I decided to go over to his side of the pond, but left my fishing bagat thaat spot.
I took both rods with me; I cast the catfish rod out into the 10 foot area with a large dead creek chub as the bait. My grandson was still catching the bluegills, now with wax worms I had. I moved around that part of the pond. Finally I did catch 1 bluegill on the wax worms. I just had stare in amazement as my grandson was hammering the fish. Nearly every cast he caught a fish or had a bite! He was fishing dead line no weight at all, then a tiny round bobber. I had a long thin clip on bobber with 1 tiny split shot for weight.
When the wax worms ran out I tried some corn, it did get bite but did not catch anything. The wind on the water did blow my catfish bobber rig onto a snag; when I tried to reel it in I had to break the line. The bobber did get blown back to the shore anyway
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We called it a day at 15:00and packed up our gear. My grandson blew me away on this trip. He caught 39 bluegills, 1 crappie! I caught 4 bluegills. I just do not understand how he does it! Odds are we will check out the pond again this season. Not a bad way to end fishing for 2019.
Here is my update summary of my fishing trips from Aug 25th to Oct 26th.
My largest catfish of 2019 was a 9 pound Blue Cat. I caught it on a chunk of garlic seasoned chicken breast. Here is the photo of that fish.
Aug25th my wife and I fish a local county lake. No catfish but bluegill action. She caught 2and I caught 7 bluegills.
Aug 29th. Boat on the river 1 small flathead and 1 5pound 10 ounce flathead, small channel cat .5 pound.
Sept 2nd. My wife and I went back to the same county lake. We had better results this time. She caught 5, and I landed 20 bluegills.
Sept 6th. Another boat trip on the river. Caught 1 small Blue cat, 14 inches one pound.
Sept 14th. Ohio River trip in my boat. It was my BEST day of catching catfish all season! 1 blue cat 4 pounds 15 ounces, 5 channel cats ranging in weight 4 pounds 7 ounces to 6 pounds 15 ounces. All were caught on chunk of strawberry seasoned chicken breast.
Sept 17th. I went down river in my boat. Caught 2 channel cats,one was 5 pounds 2 ounces. The other one was on my bobber rig was 3 pounds 1 ounce. Tat fish hit cherry seasoned chicken breast.
Sept 24th. I went down river again to fish. I caught one blue cat it weighed 6 pounds 10 ounces. I missed about 3 bites on cut skip jack.
Oct 10th.I enjoyed a productive trip with my boat on the river. Down river I caught one blue cat 4 pounds on strawberry chicken breast. One 4.5 blue cat on a piece of bacon! I hooked another blue cat on a skipjack head, it was 21 inches long. I then went up river to my favorite spot. I hooked my biggest fish of the year there, a 9 pound blue cat on garlic seasoned chicken breast!
Oct 17th I went fishing with my grandson in my boat. There was a very strong up river wind with white caps. We tried to get out of the wind but never found a good spot. We marked fish, but never got even a tap!
Oct 18th. I went fishing with a friend to the pound he has access too. It was nice sunny morning, and as usual the fish were biting. I did not catch any catfish, but my friend did, one channel cat 4 pounds on “Red Hot Smokie”. The other channel cat was 2 pounds 5 ounces on the same bait. He also caught 2 Large Mouth Bass. I caught 2 Large Mouth Bass, both were 1 pound. One hit a wax worm and the other one hit a chili seasoned piece of hot dog. I also caught 4 niece size white crappies. 14 bluegills that hit everything it put on a hook. I missed hooking as many bites as I caught! I am ALWAYS eager to go back to that pound whenever my friend asks me to go!
Oct 24th I went down river in my boat. I had plenty of live creek chubs and other baits. Sunny day; slight up river wind, and slow current at the start of the day. Later in the day the wind caused white caps. Skunked only one tap for 5 hours of fishing! Not a fun day at all.
Oct 28th. I tried to get some shad with my casting net. That did not work out at all. I did have a load of live creek chubs so I felt I would have some action. I did get 3 taps, but not bites. Skunked again it was a very frustrating day.
YOU can sharpen up your catfish catching skills by reading this informative Kindle e-book. Just CLICK on the photo and it will connect you to the Amazon book store! So check it out, it cost less than a dozen night crawlers at the bait shop.
August 16th. Update: I went with my friend Joe to a private pond. I had collect about 2 dozen live creek chubs for bait. We got our lines in the water at 08:30, and Joe missed his catfish at bank at 08:35, so we knew the creek chubs were working. The Large Mouth Bass really loved to eat them.
We had plenty of action during this trip. Joe landed around 10 bass and 2 turtles and missed several more fish. He did catch 2 bass with a Shad Rap lure; first time ever caught a bass there on a lure. I caught 2 13inch bass both on creek chubs. I also caught 4 channel cats on 3 different baits.
As I was packing up my gear to call it a day my big rod got hit. I ran over to it and the line was still going out even after I pulled back. It took a little while until I was able to turn the fish. I yelled for Joe to bring the dip net for I knew this was a big fished. It was 33 inch Channel Cat, I did not get to weight for my digital scale was not working. That fish swallowed a chunk of cherry flavored chicken breast! That was the biggest Channel Cat I have caught in years.
It was a great way to end our day, I am eager to go back with Joe any time he invites me!
August 8th. Since I was having trouble with my outboard motor I needed a shakedown trip to be sure the motor would work in the future. So I did combine a catfishing trip that stayed close to the ramp in case the motor did fail. I finally got my first fishing trip with my boat on the river for this SEASON! The evening before I put my minnow trap in the creek for some Creek Chubs. I then came home to hook up my boat and get my back up bait out of the freezer. I picked up my grandson at 07:30, and then down to get the minnow trap. It was loaded as we expected.
We arrived at the ramp I noticed some current and an upriver breeze. I tried to net some shad, had not luck. We got our lines in the river around 08:10and ended our trip at 12:20. We stopped at 6 different spots using all the different baits besides the creek chubs. For our efforts my grandson got 3 bitess,2 of the were Garr that hit a live creek chub.
Seems the fishing gods still have a curse on me. I have not caught a catfish out of the since last July! My grandson and I now have a motto “AT LEAST WE TRIED”. Not sure when our next trip will be but intend to fish down river by the grain terminals.
Three trips in one week.
June 7th. My wife and I went fishing at 2 different lakes today. We got red & wax worms for bait then headed to the first lake. We got our lines I the water around 10:30, slight breeze and cloudy skies. I finally caught a small channel catfish at 10:50 on red worms. This little fish was 12.5 inches long and only 7 ounces. My wife got the big fish of the day, a small Flathead catfish. This was her first flathead ever; it was only 13 inches long. It joined the other catfish to get bigger. The bluegills were not biting at all so we packed it in to head to another lake after we got something for lunch.
The second lake was up a little from the rain from the other night. The bluegills were slow at the start, but I did catch a 8 inch L.M.Bass on a red worm to break the ice. I switch to the wax worms, and then I started to get some action. The fish were still just tapping the bait so we missed bites. My wife did finally hook a bluegill with the wax worms. I had a total of 10 bluegills and the 1 Bass for the few hours we were there. The last bluegill I caught just hammered the bait and was a slab size fish. All the fish were released back to the lake. The bluegills I caught were bigger than they were last year.
June 11th. I picked up my grandson at 09:00 for a bluegill fishing trip to a farm pond. We got ready to fish around 10:30, my grandson caught 2 bluegills even before I was able to get my lines in the water. He was using red worms. I decided to use the wax worms I had from the other day. He then tried to catch some bass with live creek chubs, while, I stayed with, fishing for the bluegills.
I did have a dead line rig on up my catfish rod, with chicken liver for bait. I was getting bluegill action, even caught a few nice ones for a change. I did miss several bites due to my closed face reel having problems picking up the line. The bluegills were very biting hot and cold the whole time we were there
At 13:30 my grandson was up 13 bluegills to my 11. 14:00 I had 16, he had 15 so I felt like I might beat him this trip. At 15:30 we called it a day, he came back with a total of 19, I had 18. We caught several hand size bluegills this time. The worms were the bait for that place. Nothing hit on the catfish rod.
My grandson got two 8 inch bluegills and the big one of the day a 9.5 inch slab size bluegill. The weather was perfect all day sunny slight breeze temps in the mid 70’s. We gave 11 nice bluegills to the farmer's barn cats to have some good eating for some time. So it was a win-win for all concerned.
June 14th. My wife, grandson and I headed out for some bluegill fishing. We stopped at our favorite local family owned bait shop. We loaded up with one small tub of wax worms and 2 tubs of red worms.
It was 11:00 when we finally got our lines in the lake. My wife caught the first bluegill of the day at 11:15. I caught my first fish at 11:21; my fish was a small black crappie with a wax worm. Our grandson hooked his first bluegill at 11:25 on a red worm. So we were getting action right at the start of the trip.
The action was hot then cold for the next hour each of us catching bluegills and missing a number of bites as well. 13:00 our grandson caught a small snapping turtle which he returned to the lake. At 13:10 my wife noticed our grandson’s fishing rod headed to the lake. She yelled and I was able to get the rod before it got into the lake. Our grandson came over and I gave him the rod, then the fight was on with the fish. I had to help get the fish up the bank so as not to break the line. That is why there is dry grass on the photo of the catfish. It was a 23 inch, 5 pound 3 ounce Channel cat! The fish had hit the live bluegill he had caught earlier.
I ran out of was worms around 13:50 and used red worms for the rest of the day. We finally called it a day around 14:45. The weather was sunny with a slight breeze that made it a pleasant day outside.
Once again my grandson caught most and biggest fish of the day. He caught 29 bluegills and 1 nice Channel catfish. I caught 22 bluegills and 1 black crappie. My wife caught 8 bluegills. She would have caught more if it was not for the wimpy rod and thin line getting knotted up on the rod in the wind. She had to spend so much time straightening it out than fishing. I am now in the process of changing that rod and putting better line on that reel, so she will have more fun the next trip.
May 21st.UPDATE: My grandson and I were invited to go fish in a farm lake to clear out some Bluegills. We got our lines in the water around 12:35. The creek chubs really did not work very well at the lake. We only had few worms and corn as back up baits.
There was another fisherman there that was using red worms and he had a nice load of fish in his basket. It had a number of Bluegills a couple keeper L.M.Bass.
I tried for catfish with the creek chubs with a dead line rig. I never even got a taps the whole time. Had a bobber rig for the Bluegills, I did catch 2 of them for the day. They were not very aggressive when they did bite. They just seemed to nibble the corn and the worms of the hook.
My grandson had much better luck with the corn, for he landed 11 nice Bluegills and 8 inch L.M.Bass. The bass was returned to the lake to grow some more. We packed it in around 15:00 and headed back home.
Next time we go there we will HAVE read worms or night crawlers, maybe some wax worms as well. I am certain it will increase the number of fish we catch.
May 11th.Trip: I picked up my grandson around 09:00, then headed to get his minnow trap. It was loaded with large creek chubs that we used for bait.
We had our lines in the water around 10:30 at the lake. My grandson missed 2 small L.M.Bass in the thick moss! Then he landed his big L.M. Bass of the day at 11:30. The fish was 18 inches and weighed 3.1 pounds. He was getting all his bites on the live creek chubs that we got from his trap.
I got my first bite and missed it at 11:20, by then my grandson had landed two more small Bass. 11:35 he caught a 1 pound Bass. 12:00 he hooked a small turtle! I finally caught a fish at 12:55. It was an 18 inch Channel Cat, could not get scale to work so not sure what it weighed. I hooked it on a dead creek chub on a bobber rig about 4 ft deep.
13:45 we called it a day, my grandson had about 14 bass to my 1 catfish. He also had the biggest fish of the day. All the fish were caught on creek chubs. We did learn there are catfish in that lake for sure. Next time we go there we will try the deeper area of the lake, and try to stay away from thick moss. This was another good trip for us, looking forward to going back in a couple weeks.
April 16th UPDATE:
I had a good day pond fishing with some friends yesterday. We got our lines in the water 10:50 due to the cold morning tempts. 11:10 I landed my 1ST. catfish of this season! It was a nice channel cat that was 23inches long, and weighed 4 pound 5 ounces. It liked my cherry jello seasoned chicken breast
11:40 & 11:50 I caught 2 decent size bluegills. I gave them over to Joe to use as bait for the bass or catfish. 11:55 Joe hooked into and landed a nice L.M.Bass. He caught it on a shiner minnow. The fish went 4 pounds 11 ounces and was 23 inches long. At 12:40 Al caught a big crappie; so none of us were skunked by that time.
My open face catfish reel got a big knot with the Spider wire line that prevented me from casting the reel. I had to just fish for Bluegills the rest of the day. I did have plenty of bites. I missed hooking a lot of those bites. By the end of the day I did land 13 bluegills all on small pieces of the cherry chicken breast.
We called it a day 14:15, and headed off for some lunch. It was a pleasant day to be outdoors. I am always eager to head to that pond whenever Joes calls to go.
My 2019 Catfishing Plan
I hope to be able to use my boat to go catfishing more in 2019 than I have the past two years. Right now the Ohio River is non fish able again, as it has been too many times in 2018. Should the Ohio repeat the conditions again this season than I will become a lake fisherman.
My local lakes are on the small size so the use of shad is NOT allowed. I will try using catalpa worms next summer if I can find them. There are only a few catalpa trees in my city and not sure if the will have worms on them.
I am considering driving to the larger lakes to use my boat. I will have to contact some local folks to help me catfish in those lakes. Hopefully I will be able to have them go out in my boat to harvest some cats for the freezer.
Should the Ohio get into good fishing shape then I would like my hand at fishing a local catfish tournament. My big concern is I am not sure my live well is big enough to hold a couple of 15 pound catfish.
Oct 10th.2016 A decent size flathead catfish from the Ohio River near Cincinnati Ohio!
On May the 14th. 2016 I got a small freezer at an estate sale yesterday for my FISHING BAIT! My wife is also happy that the bait is out of our big freezer. So I now have a place to keep a load of Skipjacks. With the river getting down I hope to start catching some in the next couple of weeks. I should finally get my boat in the river to go after some catfish.
I also did some shopping at my hometown city wide yard sale. I came home with an open face fishing rig for skipjacks and a backpack to carry my bluegill & skipjack gear. I got great deals at both the estate sale and the yard sales. Proof again that YOU can save money shopping at such places.
Professional Cincinnati catfishing guide Dale Broughton puts the cards on the table as how he goes about catching big catfish out of the Ohio River around here. Check out
NUGGETS FROM A CINCINNATI CATFISH GUIDE
CATFISH and OTHER GUIDES
SAVE GAS!! TIME! MONEY!
My Favorite Catfishing Information And Supplies Web Sites
I have information about COLLECTING as a HOBBY for FUN & extra bucks at
I have made up a page about BANK FISHING spots for CATFISHING on the Ohio River. These spots are around the Downtown area AND EAST of Cincinnati Ohio. Included are some photos to show some of those locations. So check it out BANK FISHING FOR CATFISH
My 15 pound BLUECAT that like red hot smokeys.
I have a page of all the HOT CATFISHING SPOTS WHERE I have CAUGHT CATFISH out of my BOAT around Downtown Cincinnati over past years. Just send me an e-mail requesting the information. I will send the information back to you via an e-mail attachement!
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For all the different baits I have USED for CATFISHING check out.
CATFISH BAIT
UPDATED 01-05-2020
Catfishing Basic Equipment.
- Decent reel with clicker.
- 10 to 20lb test line for channel cats.
- Bag to hold hooks, sinkers, knife etc.
- Cooler for food and drinks.
- Camera and weighing scale for evidence of the BIG 1!
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