Cat fishing in the winter?

It's not a waste if you don't expect them to be as active as in the warmer months. I live just south of Chicago and fish mostly in a small lake. Carp and cat are my favorites. My catch rate with cats is from around 1/2 to 1/3 in the winter as at other times of the year. I even catch a few through the ice when I can stay out there long enough.

It will be slower, they aren't as active, but everything has to eat eventually.

I don't consider fishing to ever be a waste of time, regardless of the outcome.

No, It's definitely not a waste of time, Winter is actually one of the best times to catch blue catfish especially the trophy blues. During the summer the shad are scattered in different places and can be almost anywhere and since the blue catfish almost always follow the shad they are also harder to find but during the winter the shad are less scattered and much more predictable and so are the blue catfish.

Since I don't want to write too much I will just summarize and give you a good basic idea of how to catch them. The first thing I would recommend you do is get a good quality sonar (fishfinder), It is best to get a color sonar that has a 5'' screen (diagonal), you can get a smaller grayscale one but the catfish will be much harder to identify, I would either suggest lowrance or humminbird, Right now I'm using humminbird because it provides a much better picture (in my opinion). A really good beginner option is the humminbird 500 series fishfinders (I'm using the 598ci si hd).

Second thing I would recommend is good quality gear, I like to use a medium heavy (MH) rod usually around 7'6'' to 8'6'' with a fast action tip (for setting circle hooks. I use an Abu Garcia 6500c3 but any round baitcaster with decent line capacity will work. For line I like 20lb test monofilament, if you have your drag set correctly then this will be all you need, There are many great brands of line but I like Berkley Trilene big game monofilament, It is also best to buy high visibility colors (I'll explain why later). You will also need leader line for catfish I like 40-50lb monofilament, I would suggest not using fluorocarbon for leader because it is much more expensive and will not be able to handle as much shock and since catfish aren't line shy then the invisibility is not needed. Make sure you have good quality hooks for smaller channel or blue catfish I like to use either Eagle Claw 5/0 circle sea hook ( http://www.academy.com/shop/pdp/lazer-sharp-single... ) or Team catfish 3/0 double action circle hooks, for bigger blues I like to use a mustad 10/0 demon circle hook (39951BLN) or a Team catfish 8/0 double action circle hook. Some of the other things you'll need are: sinkers (1-2oz), barrel swivels 1/0 (any brand), sinker slides (team catfish or bottom dwellers tackle), and rubber beads (bottom dwellers tackle) or sinker bumpers (team catfish). Rod holders are also very useful (unless you want to hold your rod the hold time) I like Bee Ready rod holders or Driftmaster rod holders. And last but not least I would strongly suggest getting an 8ft cast net if you are going to be fishing for blue catfish (for catching bait).

For bait for big catfish I would recommend fresh shad (and by fresh I mean fresh, under 24 hours old and not frozen) or skipjack herring (frozen or fresh), and for smaller catfish I would recommend fresh shrimp from the grocery store, not bait shop shrimp.

When fishing for catfish in the winter always fish near structure or cover, I prefer structure, This can be anything from points, humps, flats, channels, or even man made structure (like old house foundations), and if your area has them try dams or near power plants.

there are 2 ways I fish in the winter for catfish, drifting and anchored, When I look for catfish on my sonar I look to see if they are scattered or if they are close together, if they are close I anchor if they are scattered I drift. When I'm drift fishing I like to stay around .5mph but if it's really cold then I will go slower (the colder the water the slower you drift) when I'm drifting I will start on one end of the boat, cast the line then go to the opposite side and repeat, this is the best way to keep your lines from getting tangled when drifting, try to cast as far as you can then wait for it to sink to the bottom then engage the reel (take it out of freespool) for drift fishing you have to wait so Try to make the longest drifts you can, but when anchoring try not to stay any longer than 5 minutes. For drift fishing you can either use a trolling motor, a drift sock, or both but I prefer drift socks since they are cheaper but if you are fishing with no wind to push you then try a trolling motor. When you are drifting or anchoring make sure you watch your lines and rod tips, if the line suddenly goes slack then start to reel fast and set the hook, the rod tip will bounce a bit, this is usually just the sinker dragging across the bottom but if it is a fast bounce then it might be a fish, unless the line goes slack then I will let the hook set itself.

there are tons of different rigs you can try for drifting and anchoring but I stick to these three: Santee cooper rig, carolina rig, and the three way rig. I use the santee rig the most, for the santee rig I like to use a 2''; slotted foam peg float fro smaller baits and a 2.5 to 3''; slotted foam peg float for bigger baits.

Here are some sites that may help with some of the info on winter fishing

http://discovercatfishing.com/

http://www.learntocatchcatfish.com/

http://www.catfishedge.com/

http://www.catfish1.com/forums/forum.php

And here are the sites where you can buy most of the items I mentioned

http://www.teamcatfish.com/

http://bottomdwellerstackle.com/