Notice: Hooked on Catfish has moved to Hookedoncatfish.com! Please vist my new site for the latest in Ohio River catfishing, I no long update this site.....thanks......Doc
This is a very graphic intensive website it may take awhile for these pages to load up if you have a dial-up, please be patient!
Here is the making of a 40# Flathead, this little guy ate a six inch Shad or attempted to eat it, he got it in his mouth but the recurved teeth held on too it, a predator even at a young age!!!
This website is dedicated to my Grandfather Galey, one of the greatest fishermen who taught me,at a very young age how to catch catfish on the rivers of Ohio.
Hi, My name is Tim Lange
to my Catfish web Site, most people know me as "DOC".
Site constructed as a tutorial to help people who want to fish the rivers of Ohio for the most beautiful fish out there the catfish, just ask me I'll tell you! All cats caught on rod and reel and pictures taken and released alive to be caught another day, Please practice catch and release, it takes years to grow these brutes!!!
Site updated 11-30-2002 Click on the Starship to go to the latest update. 
My Mission: To Go Where no Fisherman has ever Gone Before!!! "Mr. Scott, warp factor 3 we have fish to catch"!!!
Equipment: My wife Lynn and I use Abu-Garcia 6500 C3 reels spooled with 30# Trilene Big Game Flourescent Green Line, 8/0 Gamagatsu circle hooks, with #2 brass swivels, all knots are tied using the Polamar style knot. Depending on the current we use 3oz. flat style sinkers when the current is cook'in, or the egg style sinkers when there is no current to anchor our baits to the river bottom, I use Berkley E-Cat #4-7'6" rods, these things are built so that you can really lean on these big brutes, Lynn uses Rhino Rods that are 6.5 feet in length. We fish mainly the Ohio River from the Meldhal Dam to Cincinnati, Ohio to Lautery Creek Island in Indiana. Our electronics are a Lowrance LMS-350A with a GPS unit
Our boat is a 20 foot 2001 Smokercraft deep V It is powered with a 125 Horse Mercury Saltwater series Outboard has an 8 inch jackplate and has two 32 gallon livewells on board. Here is myself and my good friend Bob on the river in Indiana.
Bait: We fish mainly with live Shad or dead fresh Shad and also Skipjacks if we can find them. I prefer the live Shad but Lynn will use nothing but cut Shad or Skipjack.We own a Grayline baitank System to keep the Shad alive, it's a round aerated livewell that lets them swim in a circle, it holds 30 gallons of water and I put around two to three cups of pickling salt in the tank, pickling salt is very pure type of salt and contains no Iodine which will make shad turn belly up in a matter of minutes, the salt "locks" there scales down on there bodys, the water is quite salty but they will not get rednosed which is a sign of overcrowding,or stress. I also use "Shad Saver" when I can find the stuff.
I use a 22lb. Crab Claw
anchor to keep the boat in place,( in 1998 and in 1999 it wasn't hard,lack of rain creates lack of current.) We anchor the boat from the front with 150' of rope this allows the boat to move freely in the current it may sway a couple of feet from side to side or more when one of the barges or big boats go by, but the current will make the boat come right back, this is probably one of the best anchors on the market for river anchoring, I will use two of them if the current is cooking and it is tough to anchor down, for safety I always keep a knife by the front cleat in case you need to get out of the area in a hurry. I fish mainly out the back of the boat. We place the rods in rodholders that are in different locations on the boat.
Locations: When I'm fishing the Ohio I'm looking for different things on my Lowrance, one of those things are bait fish ,mainly shad, they show as clouds on the screen
and where there are shad the catfish are right behind them, most of the time they are always working up the river against the current.
Drop off's are very important, they allow catfish to rest and also hide to bust an unwary shad should he come close. One of the best place's on the Ohio is the channel runs that the barges use to navigate the river, the sides can drop very sharply and deep, and catfish use these as a highway for food. Look for areas that have sharp changes in depth,not gradual changes,trees will pile up in these areas and draw shad and catfish,seen a couple of cars in these areas in 1998 and they were a magnet for catfish.
I look for current,and in 1998 and 1999 it was tough due to the lack of rain, but what current we have found we have caught fish. A very good place to fish is near the mouths of the many marinas located on the Ohio, bait fish like to hang around the chunk rock that is placed to cut erosion down around these openings and catfish love to hang in these areas, I usually fish away from the area near the channel line, and try not to fish in the mouth itself so that I don't bother the boat traffic that runs in and out of the area.
Tributaries are another hot spot, where the water flows in is usually where the catfish lie to ambush there prey. Bait fish gather in these areas and the catfish move in eagerly to feed on them.
Hot water discharges from the power plants like this one, located at Tanners Creek in Indiana concentrate baitfish and bring cats on the run for an easy meal. Be careful when fishing around the barge areas, they have a tendency to move on there own, they are a great place to catch flatheads,the barge cuts the current.
Gars can be a real pain on the Ohio, there a lot of fun to catch as when they get near the boat they like to do tail walking and head jerking from side to side to get rid of that hook, I always manage to catch one of these things only when I'm fishing in a Tournament I have found if you go to deeper water they will not bother your bait as much, they seem to like the shallow waters. Where gars are Channel cats are nearby, keep that in mind.
Heres some information on the times to fish the river.
January-March
Provides some good fishing for Blue cats and Channels that are concentrated in small areas. Large numbers of fish are caught during these months.
April-May
Good time to catch Channels,Blues,Flatheads.
May 20- June 20
Very good time to catch big Flatheads before the spawn.Big channels are also caught during this time.
June 20- September 10
Good Flathead and Channel cat fishing.
September 10- October 25
Provides some great fishing for big Flatheads that are schooling, Big channels are also being caught at this time.
November-December
Best time to catch Blues and Channels in large numbers, Average 20 to 25 fish per day.
You are Catfisherman
Thanks to my wife Lynn, she picked all the music for our site and we put a lot of hours on the river fishing and working on this webpage,We tournament fish all through the summer and I have one of the best partners in the world when it comes to chasing down Flatheads " Baby you are the best" Thanks
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