I live in Springfield and was wondering if where the good spots are for big cats?

I'm a bank fisherman and I'd like to add a round reel baitcaster to my set up and I was wondering what is a good rod and reel for channel cat fish that is easy to travel with. Tia

Sorry for the terrible pic.

Looking for opinions on a new set up. I fish for blues mainly in north Texas from the bank around the lakes. Currently have been fishing with the same generic catfish rod and reel combos from walmart for years. Looking to be able to cast out farther and hopefully hook some bigger fish. Been looking at the mad Katz 7’6 medium/heavy rods with the xalt 6550 reel. Would that do the job for me or any other recommendations to go with?

Looking for a place to catch bullheads. Ever since the big flood in 2019. I haven’t been able to catch them at Haworth park.

For anyone interested we just finished a tour with Spencer (River Certifed). It was AWESOME. Almost 200lbs of fish in the boat across 6 fish including a 60LB monster. Highly recommend his services.

Should I go right after they got thrown into the water, wait a couple hours, or go the next day?

I ask as I’m only now getting into bait casting, and don’t wanna go all out in my first reel. Amazon has these on sale for 40 bucks, and it seems attractive to me. However KastKing has a Royale Legend II for about the same price. Which would you guys pick? I don’t have interest in round reels cus I tried that out yesterday and personally didn’t work for me

I went fishing last Thursday night at the Trinity River here in Texas, and it was my first time fishing a river. I could get the bait out just fine, but the current would pretty quickly pull my bait along the side of the bank, and I think it wasn't staying as deep or far out because of it. Do I just need to use more weights? Will using heavier wieghts reduce my hookup odds? I'm also just generally looking for any advice people might have for fishing rivers in general, I intend to go back next weekend and some knowledge would be appreciated

I know the Red River of the North, Lake Winnipeg, Clear Lake in California, and Lake Dominguez produce one of the finest trophy channel catfish that I ever seen, is there any other lake and rivers that produce 20+pounds channel catfish?

No blues or flatheads.

I'll be taking a trip to the Ozarks this weekend and I'm after big cats, blue and flathead mainly. Any tips on bait and rigs I should use to land one from shore or a kayak

So everyone in Texas knows how little public access land there is in the state which is unfortunate

But recently I've wanted to find some places that I could launch a kayak into a river and go up or downstream, camp for a night or two, and end up back at the truck or even use a shuttle if I needed

I've done the 20 mile trip below PK once and loved it, but I know there's better stretches of river for finding monster catfish than that stretch.

Not looking for spots, really I'm just looking for places to put in, Ill figure out the rest! Any recommendations are appreciated

Also, I'll go ahead and say distance isn't a problem for me.... I've gotta make a pretty good drive to get anywhere with decent catfishing anyhow

I’m looking to catch some catfish in the river. And the reason I say small, is because they ARE small. I have nightcrawlers, but idk if the catfish will know what they are this time of year. I don’t trust hotdogs, just don’t seem like a good bait. I may try to get some stinky chicken liver, but it may take too long to get stinky. So I only really have that dead chub. Any suggestions?

4 lbs shad 1 1/2 lbs chicken liver 1 1/2 lbs chicken gizzards 1 1/12 lbs flour 2 cups garlic powder

Mixed it up let it sit for 4 days in the sun then smoked on over the fire for 20 mins.

After I smoked the bait to bring out the oils I poured it back into the mixing container and shaped them

Hello My dad says he hooked into a large channel Catfish at one of our trout spots a few years back and I want to return and target them. The spot gets stocked fairly well with trout this time of year and the hole he says the cats hang out in is right below the trout stock point which got me wondering Has anyone ever seen or heard of catfish eat stocked trout?

Anyone have experience with fiblink catfish rods? I've heard their surf rods are generally favorable for those on a budget, but the ones marketed as "catfish" rods have me interested as I'm looking for two piece spinning rods, 8foot-ish, that can handle up to 4oz of lead plus bait. I'm mostly throwing 2oz lead fishing the DC area, bank fishing the potomac. Anyone have any experience with these, and any comparisons between the MH and Heavy to help me choose?