Snake River Cats

[The Floater]

Does anyone have any experience with Snake River Cats? Thinking about going this weekend and could use any pointers, i.e. bait, location, depth, etc. From what I have heard, around the mouth of the Tucannon is a good spot, using Chicken liver, cheese, nightcrawlers or catfish nuggets (Powerbait). Is this accurate? Where else in this general area will produce some big cats?

[Derrick-k]

I've never fished it but my freind uses the stinkiest bait he can buy, or liver.

[4 real]

use fresh shimp! do not use any thingelse. make sure you tye double hooks about 18 inches apart and use a three ounce weights or else your line will be pulled by the current. I use old spark plugs as weights they spin off the rocks and don't hang up as often as regular weights do.OH I go to Lambs market in seattle to get my shimp with the head still on, there usaully only 3 or 4 bucks a pound. Good luck (4 Real)

[beerman1981]

I've been catfishing the Snake for over ten years now, and have so much information to offer, so here goes. My knowledge of the Snake is based between Ice Harbor Dam and Lower Monumental Dam (Lake Sacagawea is what that stretch is referred to). The first location that harvests plenty of cats is located across the river from Levy Park. Levey Park is reached by taking the Kahlotas exit just out of Pasco. You'll need a boat. When you arrive at Levy, if you look directly across the River, you will notice a large cove. Inside of that cove a rip rap shore will start. This rip rap runs South East along the river and continues for a long ways. There is a railroad right above it. Fish along the Rip Rap outside of the cove in about 25-30 foot of water, and you will have guarenteed channel cat success. I have fished with shrimp, chicken livers and catfish powerbait on the snake, but nothing compares to the power of a nightcrawler. I catch far more cats on a big nightcrawler, than on any other bait.

A second hotspot is located directly across the river from Fishhook Park. Once again, you will need a boat. Right across the river from this park is another long rip rap stretch. Once again 30 feet seems to work well for cats. It is a long stretch of rip rap, but the whole thing seems to be quite productive. There are some other great catfishing gems on the river, but these are pretty far out of the way and require a pretty long boat drive to access, and unless you are familier with the river, they are kind of hard to find.

In all honesty though, it's hard to go to the Snake and fish with a nightcrawler and not latch into a catfish. Rip Rap is the best cover, but I have caught these hard fighting devils off of sand beaches and in weeds as well.... Good luck!

Joe

[littleriver]

I have some experience fishing the snake for cats but not as much as beerman..

I will, however, agree with his conclusion that nightcrawlers are the best bait.... I kept most of the cats I caught and cooked them in the old fashioned roll them in corn meal and throw them in some hot oil manner and virtually all the cats I cleaned had crayfish in their stomachs.. ditto for the bass and even some of the perch I caught in that stretch of water...... Despite this consistency of stomach contents I never, ever used crayfish for bait even though it's fairly easy to buy a crayfish trap and collect a few for the bait box....... So if you are very serious about catfishing in the snake and want to crank it up a notch I would suggest trying to catch a few crawdaddy's and try them out for bait....

I've fished the waters above Ice harbor all the way past lower granite a lot but mostly for smallmouth not for cats...


However, this doesn't mean you don't catch a channel catfish from time to time...... I've worked ledges where I would catch a smallmouth and then the next cast I would catch a catfish and then the next cast it would be a smallmouth again... so sometimes they hang together and work the same food base (i.e. it's mostly crayfish)....

my biggest was a 15 pounder just above the railroad bridge that crosses the Snake just before it flows into the columbia (e.g. below ice harbor)... caught lots of 2 and 3 pounders out of that hole as well....


now most of my cat action on this river was in water less than 40 feet but I used to have a fishing buddy who had a big boat and we went out a few times to fish at night and since it was his boat we had to fish his way....


one night we fished just upstream of the narrows east of charboneau park.. water is in the 100 foot range there and he just let his incredibly long anchor and anchor rope down and we dropped a worm to the bottom.... after an hour or so his line started twitching and he reeled in about a 14" (nothing too big at all) cat that was mostly yellow in coloration....


I've never seen anything like it..... There apparently is a species called "yellow cat" but I'm not sure at all if this was an example of that brand of catfish.......... all I'm saying here is that there are a lot of catfish in this river and if you are patient and if you stick with their favorite food (e.g. worms, but don't be afraid to use crayfish if you have a source) and you fish after sunset you WILL be successful........

[dbaker]

I've been meaning to fish the mouth of the Snake at Sacajawea park. The only problem is the park now closes dusk. That really irks me. It seems like every time I turn around the state is giving is more restrictions on public land.

[Bodofish]

Boat on the water. don't park at the park.

[zen leecher aka Bill W]

your yellow cat may have been a small flathead.

[dbaker]

some of us are poor fisherman and have no boat.

[littleriver]

That's an interesting point Zen....

wouldn't be something if there were flatheads in the Snake River...


I'm definitely not a catfish expert but for a few years I went after them as a target of opportunity
for the most part because I came to learn there are so many of them in the Snake and Yakima rivers....
and once you learn how to cook them they are really good eating...


and the primary reason that particular cat stuck out in my mind is because when my buddy lowered the anchor and I saw the depth was in the neighborhood of 100 feet I just rolled my eyes and said to myself that I better get some sack time because there ain't nuttin down that deep that's going to bite a little worm....

[Proverb]

I caught a catfish today on the snake and I had to throw it back because I heard they have poisonous barbs? And I do not know how to fillet them safely. Could someone here offer some advise or a good website that teaches how?

I caught it using a crappie jig (red with white tail) and a tiny bit of worm on it instead of crappie nibblets. I know sunday guys where catching them off the shore with just worm and bobbers.

[Rob1]

They aint poisonous, fillet em like about anything else. Good how to video's on you tube. They are very good eating in my opinion.

[Proverb]

Thanks Rob I'll go check out youtbue.

[gpc]

they will sting you if you grab the barb on their back. You can fillet them like any other fish. Another way is to make a slit w/ a sharp knife around their neck, only cutting deep enough to cut the skin, drive a nail through there head, to a pick nick table or any thing sturdy, grab the skin w/ some pliers, pull the skin off and brake of their head. Never done it, but it works.