There was a time when catfishing seemed reserved only for the spring and summer months. But that thinking has changed, and in recent years, catfish specialists have discovered that not only will catfish bite in cold weather, sometimes the action can be among the best fishing of the year. This is especially true for the heavyweight blue catfish.

Rodger Taylor of Catfish On! Guide Service with a nice wintertime blue cat. Photo by Terry Madewell.

Of the "big three" species of catfish, the blue, channel and flathead, the blues seem to be the most frisky in cold weather. According to many experts, right now is not only one of the best times of the year to catch numbers of blue catfish, but the odds of taking a trophy fish are excellent as well.

Lakes Wylie, Mountain Island and Norman are all loaded with blue catfish. Some of North Carolina's premier catfish anglers have provided the scoop on how to frequently slip the dip net under these big blue bruisers at these three lakes.

LAKE NORMAN
The first lake we'll look at is Lake Norman, which has been a red-hot lake for blue catfish for several years.

One of the top catfish specialists at Lake Norman is Chris Nichols, a professional guide on all three of the lakes we'll discuss (704/868-2298). But Nichols said his home lake is Lake Norman.

"There's no doubt in my mind that Lake Norman is a vastly under-utilized resource for blue catfish during the winter," Nichols said. "While there are largemouth bass and striper fishermen on this lake during the winter, we've pretty much got the lake to ourselves in terms of catfishing."

Nichols' partner in the guide business is Jerry Neely, and between the two, they have figured the blue catfish fishery out on this huge 32,475-surface-acre lake. You can visit their Web site at www.carolinasfishing.comfor more information.

The 42-year-old Nichols has been fishing Lake Norman all of his life. He's said that in the last five to 10 years, Lake Norman has become one of the hottest blue catfish producing lakes in the state, or Southeast for that matter. He compares it favorably to the Santee Cooper lakes in South Carolina where the blues are legendary for growing in prolific numbers and huge sizes.

"I still fish Santee Cooper some, but really, we've got just about as good fishing right here at Lake Norman," he said.

The pattern for the fall and winter is not difficult to understand, Nichols said.

"The key to blue catfish will almost always be the location of forage," Nichols said. "In the fall, the forage begins to move into the larger creeks on the lake. Actually, this is true throughout the lake, but I tend to focus on the lower end of the lake on Davidson, Mountain, Little and Ramsey creeks. But that's just convenient territory for me. The pattern is true throughout the lake.

"We've got a tremendous bait resource for the blue catfish," Nichols said. "That's one reason the blues do so well here. We have threadfin shad, blueback herring and alewives. As the baitfish move into the creeks when the water cools, the blues begin to stack up in there with them."

Nichols said the November through March period is the best time to catch a trophy blue catfish.