Fast Action Cats at Reelfoot

Reelfoot Lake is nationally known as a panfishing destination, and most Tennessee bass anglers also know about it's stout and strong largemouths. Sometimes overlooked are the lake's abundant channel cats, which serve up fast action all summer long.

Blue Bank Resort guide Billy Blakley keeps thing simple when he targets Reelfoot cats. Focusing on shallow flats that are littered with downed trees, he moves from one downed tree to the next, fishing each with a night crawler under a Thill slip float that is set to suspend the worm just off the bottom. He'll anchor 20 or 30 feet from a tree on the upwind side, pitch his float rig next to the cover and wait for the float to dart under. Most trees have at least one willing cat sitting beside them. Some have three or four.

As long as it's not too windy to keep a float rig in place, Blakley can almost always fill a cooler with cats. Most are channel cats in the 1- 5-pound range. A few, though, are notably larger, and occasionally one of his clients will set the hook and find a big flathead catfish at the other end.

During the fall, the cats get under groups of cypress trees where water turkeys roost and Blakley targets them with shad, but that's another story for another day!

Reelfoot Crappie Legends

 I can't imagine a better way to learn about crappie fishing on Reelfoot Lake than to spend the morning in Ronnie Capps' boat and then spend the afternoon with Billy Blakley. That's exactly what I got to do today, and the education and fishing action if anything exceeded expectations. Ronnie, who grew up on Reelfoot's banks, is the winningest angler in the history of tournament crappie fishing, and Billy is the longtime head guide at Blue Bank Resort. Both are legends at Reelfoot.

We spent the day working stumps in the "deep water" (10-foot range), mostly fishing spreads of minnow rigs, also known as Reelfoot Rigs. Ronnie and I actually began the day fishing eight jig rods, and I was amazed how he wove through the thick stumps with all those jig rods out and presented his jigs with precision against the cover. The fish clearly wanted straight minnows, though, and the action almost immediately turned furious after we switched to minnow rigs.

Reelfoot supports one of Tennessee's most consistently strong crappie populations, with a nice mix of black and white crappie available and plentiful opportunities to catch fish a lot of different ways during the year. The current population contains the most big fish that Ronnie Capps ever remembers seeing in the lake. October marks the beginning of the fall bite, which in the minds of many local anglers is the best bite of the year. After today, I surely won't argue.

Catfishing is at the top of tomorrow's list of plans, although bass fishing isn't far down the list.