Channel your efforts — or not

Tuckertown Lake has all three major species of catfish most-often targeted by freshwater fishermen: flatheads, blues and channels.

According to biologist Lawrence Dorsey of the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, only channel catfish are native to the Yadkin River system.

“Flatheads are only native in North Carolina to the New River system, and I think the Little Tennessee River,” Dorsey said. “The Commission stocked flathead catfish in the Cape Fear River system in 1967 and 1969, and sometime after that, about 1972 or 1973, they were found in the Yadkin River system.”

Dorsey said flatheads have likely taken to Tuckertown because of the lake’s turbidity — it’s propensity for stained, dingy and muddy water.

Channel cats are the predominant species in terms of numbers in Tuckertown, and Dorsey said it appears that flatheads far outweigh blues — which were first stocked in the Neuse River system in 1965 — in terms of numbers.

Guide Stanley Correll said fishermen can target flatheads and channels in different areas of the lake, using different baits. When he’s fishing for flatheads, he rarely leaves the main-river channel, sticking to the lower half of the lake from August through November and fishing live crappie and bluegills. If he wants to load up with small channels, he’ll go up the lake or to the backs of tributary creeks and fish in 5 to 20 feet of water with cut bait, stinkbaits or chicken livers. The bigger channels, however, will be hanging in the main-river channel with the flatheads.

“For catfish in general, gizzard shad are the best baits,” he said. “Live crappie are the best baits for flatheads. A big channel cat will pull a crappie down, but he won’t get hooked. You’ll catch more big channel cats on live shad.”