Giant catfish taking over reed piles

Anyone out there ever had that problem, giant catfish taking over your reed piles, fished about 20 today and almost every pile had a 20 plus catfish on it, huh guess what they where eating….After that I put in 2 fresh piles of reeds, done something new this time, got 20 ft reeds 5 per pile, put 4 in a fan type pattern then put 1 across about 15 ft up the reed and wired them like a turkey fan, then put 20 oz coke bottles on all 4 reeds and put 2, 2 liter bottles on the horizontal one, very hard to haul it out because the spread of those 4 reeds was about 25 feet. Put them out in 27 foot of water with the top coming up to the top of thermocline, that what makes brush of all kinds have more fish (in my opinion).
thanks for looking
Danny Lang

Those big cats like crappie as much as we do

one bud told me he ketched a big blue around 25 lbs and he kept and cleaned it and found 6 crappie inside it :yikes

That catch and clean saved a lot of crappie

We use live bream for the big blues (over 100 lbs) at Buggs Island. But I think it is illegal to use crappie.

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Originally Posted by Barnacle Bill

We use live bream for the big blues (over 100 lbs) at Buggs Island. But I think it is illegal to use crappie.

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it is here for sure , crappie are gamefish in Texas and the use of gamefish as bait will result in a fine in most cases .

The only way to get rid of them is to catch them. DO NOT RELEASE THEM BEFORE DOING THIS!!! Take them home, coat them in flour with a little salt and pepper. Dip them in 300 degree cooking oil for about 10 minutes. This is a surefire method that they will never come back. :biggrin

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Originally Posted by Kevind62

The only way to get rid of them is to catch them. DO NOT RELEASE THEM BEFORE DOING THIS!!! Take them home, coat them in flour with a little salt and pepper. Dip them in 300 degree cooking oil for about 10 minutes. This is a surefire method that they will never come back. :biggrin

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I usually tack them them for a boat ride about a mile down the lake, but it looks like them come back, or it may be there brother or sister. Yea I agree with the dipping them in 300 degree oil, but I don’t like catfish that much.

small blues are very tasty , them there grocery store size ones are real good table fare ....

Let me know the location of your piles and I will gladly take care of your cat problem! rotfl

Dumb question - what’s a reed pile?

Assuming it is a brush pile…

A reed pile is bamboo reeds the grow wild, I cut them down sometimes 20-25 feet high, and sink them as a brush pile in the lake.