Available Fishing Guide:
Website: Darrell & Dads Family Guide Service
Decided to try Liberty to see if I could catch one of their rare large channel catfish. Headed to the NW corner and fished various depths. After that we went to the exact opposite end of the lake.
Here is what I learned:
The NW corner is the best and seemingly only spot with fish. I didn't mark any fish except under 10 ft of water. 10 ft deep was the golden depth. I caught 40 catfish, only 1 was a channel...... All were 10 inches or smaller. I was simply amazed that these tiny catfish were even able to bite on to my gear when I was using an 8/0 hook. The bait that worked was raw chicken breast.
The notable story:
I had a friend with me that was using the same exact thing. The only slight difference is his chicken was frozen. He only managed to catch one fish. I think that's very telling about the quality of meat you're using. Sure there were plenty of jokes I threw at him such as, "was your meat free range?" "Did you get the organic chicken without the hormones?" "You know maybe the fish only wanted to be friends with the Spokane native" "did you take a shower today?". Ultimately I think it was those jokes which led him to want to go to the exact opposite side of the lake where we didn't catch a single fish. Back to that northwest corner I even had him anchor up 10 ft away from me. That's actually when he caught his one fish of the night. Either way catching so many tiny fish kind of left me with a bad taste in my mouth as well. Think I'll stick to the Snake River when I want catfish.
What Worked:
Kentucky rig....it's basically a drop shot rig using 8/0 hook and a 2 ounce weight
Fresh raw chicken breast
10 ft water
NW Corner
What didn't work:
Ego(again!)
My jokes
SE Corner
Anything over 10 ft deep
Available Fishing Guide:
Website: Darrell & Dads Family Guide Service