Fishing probably is down the list of things to do during Christmas week, but if the weather cooperates (no ice, snow or rain) and sunny days occur (temps in the 50s or low 60s) and you want a respite from endless football games on television, nothing could be finer than catfishing in the Carolinas.
Gastonia guide Jerry Neeley said channel cats are available for anglers at Lake Wylie (split by the N.C.-S.C. border south of Charlotte) and big blue catfish can be caught at Lake Norman (north of the Queen City).
“Lake Wylie is probably the best of the Catawba chain lakes for channel cats,” said Neeley (Jerry’s Guide Service, 704-629-9288). “The lake is slap full of them.”
His fishing technique is the same for both species, although he uses smaller hooks for Wylie channel cats that average about 6 pounds. Blues at Norman can be small but may weigh 50 pounds or more.
“I use a controlled drift,” he said, “with the wind, if there’s any, and my trolling motor set at .5 to .8 mph.”
He puts out six lines and places rods fitted with Abu-Garcia 6500 reels in the rod-holders set on the gunwales of his 22-foot Tidewater center-console boat.
“I use 30-pound-test monofilament with 50-pound-test leaders, a Santee rig cork and a slinky weight,” he said. “The slinky weight doesn’t hang the bottom and the cork (a 2 1/2-inch-long crappie float about 8 inches up the leader from a 4/0 Kahle or circle hook and bait) keeps my baits off the bottom.
“I’ll mostly use cut bait, such as shad, but sometimes I use bream or crappie if they’re available. But you can’t have less-than-legal size (8-inches long) crappie in your boat at Wylie or you might get a ticket from a game warden. Just fillet the sides for your cut bait and leave the carcass with the head and tail for the warden to see.”
At Lake Norman, Neeley goes with the same rig but larger hooks (6/0) for blue cats. Neeley looks for freshwater mussel beds on the shore that extend into the lake.
Norman blue cats can range from 6 to 50 pounds, but the average size will run from 10 to 20 pounds.
“Arkansas blues love mussels that make beds on the shoals,” Neeley said. “They come up and feed on them, then back off in 35 or 40 feet of water. They’ll be fairly shallow or deep.”
Neeley drifts across these shoals with cut bait until he finds the correct depth for Norman’s blue cats.
“Sometimes we catch big flathead catfish, too, but they mostly hit live bait,” he said.
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