Place to find cats around St.Cloud

[JakeT]

New to the area and looking for decent cats and what to use for bait. Any help would be much appreciated!

[Brad B]

Check out the St Cloud Forum. there is a lot of good info in there. but a stating point in that area would be Wilson Park, Riverside Park(by the dam), the new regional park out by the Mc stop. as for bait cut sucker is my preferred bait followed by chicken livers in this area. the average cats are 3 to 5 pounds and 20 to 24 inches long in this section. there are bigger one in there but you won't find many. Do Not over look the Sauk River over by Richmond and Cold Springs. there is a lot of cats in that river and chain of lakes.

[JakeT]

I read a little bit on the St Cloud forum most of them fishing cats appeared to be fishing out of a boat down on the chain and don't have access to a boat. I've fished the Sauk a couple times right in Cold Spring not for cats though. I used to fish them a lot and always used stink bait, is it worth using around here or does cut bait seem to be the big thing?

[Brad B]

the stink bait will work but you tend to get smaller fish with it. I am going to try and get out at least once or twice yet this year with the boat and go chases some cats. I always have a open seat so if you want to join me sometime just PM me and we could try to work out a date & time. if you don't mind driving down to Monticello(or I could drive up to St Cloud) I can show you a lot of shores spots between St Cloud and Ramsey that can be good for catfish.

[Mr Special]

On the chain u cn fish off of the bridge on hwy22 or rite n town. Cut bait will produce bigger fish

[Mike_Bennewitz]

I grew up in Annandale and fished the St.Cloud area quite a bit for cats. In the winter hit the Horseshoe Chain lakes for cats. I caught my first Channel Catfish doing that years ago. Another option to try is the area just below the dam in Cold Spring. On chicken liver I caught my largest Channel Cat to date at almost 20 pounds (it maxed out my 15 pound scale with ease). I would also suggest any fishing piers on the Sauk or Mississippi rivers you can find. I never had access to a boat and caught fish from Horseshoe Lake all the way downstream to Monticello. Don't forget the Crow down by French Lake if you can get there. I pound the Channels in the late spring like you wouldn't believe. I've lost count around 50 a number of times before.

For bait I would stay away from prepared baits like stink bait or those Gulp Catfish Chunks. The best store bought bait is either nightcrawlers or cut sucker minnows. A 3/0 Circle hook will work perfect for either bait. Good luck!