... got two reports to make at once... I went with D.Carter to Buggs today (Sunday) and fished the Island Creek area for White Perch. Had a great day. We trolled spoonplugs pulling down rooster-tails to find decent concentrations of the perch and caught a bunch of perch a few white bass and largemouth bass trolling this way. After finding a decent group we'd stop and drop down red wigglers and cut perch on multiple hooked lines and enjoy the action untill the group moved on. The only "Downer" of the day were the Catfish ... while trolling we also had a bunch of large catfish hitting both the spoonplugs and rooster-tails and became a pest. I had one that After I fought it a little decided to let David have the fun (that much pressure hurts my back) and it ended up breaking 40 pound test "PowerPro" kevlar. I don't think it was a 40 pound fish but a biggun that found a weak spot. We ended up with a dozen or so big catfish - all caught trolling.

Sounds like a darn good time! Wish I could have been there!

If you like catchin' big cats - I wish you could have been there too. It kept the day interesting.

interestin??? i'd say excitin!!!nothin slams a trolled plug like a big blus cat!

Dan river do you get any specific size or whatever spoonplug? Rig them with a 3 way swivel any certain way, length of line, etc?

Thanks for the info!

I'll get a wide variety. Using Wednesday as an example - from 2 pounds to 22 1/2 pounds.
I use a 3 way swivel. One lead goes to the reel . the next lead consists of a 2 ft piece of line - a very small double barrel swivel and two more feet of line, a snap and the roostertail. The other lead has a two foot piece of line a snap - and the spoonplug. This combination was FISHDOCS idea and it works great. I use 40 pound powerpro and am letting out from 60-80 feet depending on the depth being worked and I have my best/most hits between 2.6 and 2.8 mph. The speed makes a world of difference. You have the Arkansas that will absolutely hammer it and if one hits but don't get hooked - knock the boat out of gear for just a second- throw it back in gear and you'll have another hit almost immediately. ... also when you pass thru some large fish but they don't hit (saw them on the graph) go back thru from another direction - that matters too. Usually going with the wind workls best but not always. Sometimes I'll get back in the middle of the school, will kick it up to about 5mph and immediately slow back down and this will sometimes make them strike. FISHDOC and I are going tomorrow, and I'm kinda hoping he'll be wanting to fight some cats. That's about as hard of a hit as you'll ever get trolling. I don't think that even a striper will slam one like a cat.

JSandy, we use th 250, 200, an 100 size most often for this type trollin at this time of yr. on superline, like fireline, this will pretty much cover the depth we fishin, 10-20 ft. if they much deeper, i go to a weighted line, wire or leadcore and have best look then on a model a bomber, 2A or 3A. they get suspended under big schools of bait latter in the summer. DRY musta missed ya first question

Thanks a bunch guys.
I was going today but realized my gear wasn't in order. I need to re-line badly and re-rig the few trolling rigs I have. Durn this is getting a bit pricey. lol. Fish finder on the blink too.
Sorta been out of fishing for a while but would like to give this type of trolling another try.
I used to go some for white bass using the white model A with a white rooster tail up around Bluestone.
Well let's go spend some money

thats how we found out the cats could be caught trollin, pretty much started that method of fishin for whitebass back in the early '80's.