jbball50
6/8/2013 12:19:00 AMThat sucks but yeah I'd stick to the slow moving waters for fishing. You should try catching some pikeminnow for bait, I mostly don't even mess with worms for bait anymore for catfish and I've never caught a catfish on that commercial stinkbait stuff. On another website one of the guys does pretty well and I think he fishes the twin bridges road area? I've never tried it there but he's caught a bunch there I guess. If you really want to catch a bunch of catfish I'd say take your boat and head to the mouth of the Palouse now. I'll be heading there next weekend for fishing the area and they have a get together for people from the other forum I guess if you wanted to pick their brains about fishing the area.
losaturn
6/8/2013 3:25:00 AMThe only bait I could get Channel Catfish to bite consistently on the Eastside with, is raw white shrimp.
zen leecher
6/8/2013 7:48:00 AMThe mouth of the Palouse is slow, shallow water. It may be that the fish are in the slow downstream water where you are fishing.
sucksatfishing
6/8/2013 6:55:00 PMI've lived near the yakima river my entire life ( yakima county, yakima canyon) and I've never heard of channel cats being in it. I wouldn't wast my time unless its near where it empties into a bigger body of water. ( the Columbia I think????) channel cats do love raw, bloody steak though. The bloodyer the better. Just make sure it's never been frozen. They won't bite on meat that's been prev. frozen. Good luck. P.S. if you want channel catfish, go fish in Ayer boat basin on the snake river between lower monumental dam and Lyons ferry. There's lots of good channel cats in there.
snyderman399
6/8/2013 8:25:00 PMyes there ARE channel cats in the Yakima.i used to fish with my dad and we caught them from the mouth all the way up to the horn rapids and again the favorite bait for them is fresh chicken livers
chongo469
6/8/2013 10:50:00 PMI used to live in richland and used to fish the Yakima right behind where Walmart is now..... Take liver and cut into chunks and leave in the sun for a day..... stuff into water balloons but dont tie them..... make sure hook goes into liver and ballon so bait stays on good.... fish the current lines or in side of them in the slack water..... I just plunked and didnt use spinner or spoons..... I could hook 3-5
tluedeke
6/9/2013 9:28:00 PMThere's a ton of channel cats in the Yak, and plenty get into the 20 lb range. I'm mostly just struggling with figuring out the behavior of this species in rivers like the Yakima, and trying to learn how to read a river to find structure and holes (I don't have a lot of experience with river fishing, and my frustration is showing). There are plenty of places 1/2 mile (even better, a mile) mile downstream of the dam, where the river starts to wind and does the typical carving out of holes in the bank, or creates real holes for fish.
sucksatfishing (sorry, but what a completely mistaken name, unless you've a taste for irony..), I've seen reports about Ayers Boat Basin (yours?), and I just bought one of the Fish-n-Map Co maps for the Snake. However, I'm not sure I understand what you're doing, since that area seems typical for the Snake River (immediate drop-off to 100' of water) - are you fishing the drop-offs, finding structure, or fishing the actual shallow basin there? There are others supposedly great catfish areas on the Snake (e.g. Deadman Creek inlet, mouth of the Palouse River), but most of them are just a really long haul from the Tri-Cities, and there are much closer places like the mouth of the Walla Walla River I've not explored, or the mouth of the Yakima that I've not figured out. That said, the remoteness of Ayers may actually help the fishery there!! :) Sounds like a wonderful spot.
sucksatfishing (sorry, but what a completely mistaken name, unless you've a taste for irony..), I've seen reports about Ayers Boat Basin (yours?), and I just bought one of the Fish-n-Map Co maps for the Snake. However, I'm not sure I understand what you're doing, since that area seems typical for the Snake River (immediate drop-off to 100' of water) - are you fishing the drop-offs, finding structure, or fishing the actual shallow basin there? There are others supposedly great catfish areas on the Snake (e.g. Deadman Creek inlet, mouth of the Palouse River), but most of them are just a really long haul from the Tri-Cities, and there are much closer places like the mouth of the Walla Walla River I've not explored, or the mouth of the Yakima that I've not figured out. That said, the remoteness of Ayers may actually help the fishery there!! :) Sounds like a wonderful spot.