Help for a Newbie Catter and his Dumb Newbie Questions!

[JC42]

Greetings all. Just moved to Iowa this year from Minnesota, took a teaching job down here. I love fishing and it sounds like the one of the best things to fish in Iowa is Cats.

I'm an hour or so from the Mississippi but I'm closer by the Iowa River and several small inpoundments. The Iowa River holds both nice flats and channels from what I'm told and the impoundments hold channels - some of which are really nice too for channels. I don't have a boat, YET, so I'm stuck to shore fishing.

I've done some research on my own, but am looking for others input into this as well. I'm from northern MN and am used to lakes not rivers, which makes it harder! So my dumb newbie questions are:

1. What are some good places to look for from shore that hold cats? When you come to a river segment, what features are you looking for to hold cats? I don't have a depth finder, so what are some "naked eye giveaways" of what is under that water that I can look for? And at this time, and as the water cools how do catfish locations change?

2. What are the best baits to start catching cats with? Channels and flatheads? Does it change as the year goes?

3. After looking at all of your GREAT pictures on here, is night always the best time for catting? I've went for 3 days to 3 bodies of water and caught nothing. Two of them were at night and one was during the day. Any advice would be appreicated.

4. How long do you wait before moving/recasting a bait? Do you just put it out and leave it or if it doesn't produce do you move the bait?

5. How long do you give a spot on the river before moving?

So there we go, I will keep it short and to the point. Again, I am REALLY looking for tips on where to find the cats in the rivers and smaller impoundments.

THANK YOU!

JC

[Lowblazah]

I would start here...most of your questions can be answered by reading Hanson's post

[JC42]

Thank you....exactally what I was looking for!

JC

[Bumpkin74]

And another thing. Like others have stated here recently, don't spray Cutter's on your hand, rub it on your body, then handle bait. Use Thermacell or those citric candle thingies . . .