My buddy and I have been catching catfish on jugs or trot lines in Amistad. I'm thinking about going to other lakes to try to catch some bigger ones. We have caught up to 30 pounders but would love to go after bigger ones. What lakes should we check out? Thx

Tawakoni has big cats.

That is one we are looking at. I've heard great reports from there.

T-wak is a mainstay.

We also used to catch big ones on Whitney. But it's been over a decade since I ran a line there.

Biggest catfish I've ever seen in person was at Lake Belton.

Aggiebrewer said:

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drive to Oklahoma & go noodlin

sometimes you catch the big cats....sometimes the big cats catch you.

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I went noodlin once with my redneck Okie buddy.

pulled a 6 foot watersnake out attached to my thumb. Will never do it again.

My buddy thought it was freaking hillarious.

C Loves L said:

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Biggest catfish I've ever seen in person was at Lake Belton.

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How big? Biggest we ever pulled out of Belton was a 68 lb. Biggest I've personally seen was a 74 lb. I know of a 90 lb that was caught out from Winkler Park.

These were all 20+ years ago. Belton catfishing is not what it once was, but then again, I don't run lines like I used to either.

BurrOak said:

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C Loves L said:

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Biggest catfish I've ever seen in person was at Lake Belton.

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How big? Biggest we ever pulled out of Belton was a 68 lb. Biggest I've personally seen was a 74 lb. I know of a 90 lb that was caught out from Winkler Park.

These were all 20+ years ago. Belton catfishing is not what it once was, but then again, I don't run lines like I used to either.

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63lbs back in the early-mid 90s

Livingston or Conroe is probably the closest place to you. Drifting juglines for big blues baited with big hunks of cut bream or gizzard shad will be your best bet. At sunset fished towards a shallow windblown bank or point that is also near deep water. If the wind isn't blowing, moving the jugs, expect it to be slow. Big circle hooks about 3ft below the jug and a 2-3oz weight about 2.5ft below the jug. The heavy weight slows down the drift and wont allow the jug to blow up so shallow that you cant get to it in the boat. Reflective tape on the jugs and a couple good spotlights.

Tawakoni is the place to go if you're looking for big catfish and\or meth

Uncle Slayton caught a great big old blue cat on a driftin' jugline at Lake Eufala.

I have seen some enormous cats pulled out of Amistad. You may want to be prepared to find that the grass is not greener in another lake.

Rivers have more big cats than lakes, surprisingly.

Of course, you set some local river trash with ZERO regard for bag/creel limits loose on those big cats and they can clean them out.

Biggest I have seen personally was at Canyon Lake in NB. Down deep in Old Sattler. My dive buddy watched me lose a fin to a 175-200# cat. I won't noodle for many reasons, the above is just one. Biggest me and my friends have caught was 87# in the Guadalupe down from Seguin Tx.

I think the record blue is around 130#. I can't imagine one larger.

We always had trot-lines running from our pier on Toledo Bend. We caught several flatheads in the 50-70# range over the years. This time of year is when we seemed to catch the biggest.

Texoma has the state record blue, but it is also a big body of water.

Ironically a small lake (52 acres) in my hometown had a guy catching some huge blues from it a few years ago (several 50+ pounds, one 100+).

When I was young I used to go with relatives and trot line the Brazos just north of Hearne. We also fished the Little River. Caught some nice catfish in both.

Duggins90 said:

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Lake Palestine

Big cats there but Idon't eat anything bigger than 5 lbs.

Bigger they are, the nastier they taste.


Possum Kingdom has big cats, really big cats.

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I've had plenty of good tasting yellow cats in the 30-50 range. Cut the extra skin and such and you're fine. I honestly can't tell any difference. I'll be glad to pickup the fish you catch over 5lbs

Ive always felt the bigger issue with keeping big cats (or any trophy fish, I've heard this about stripers quite a lot) is not taste, but that you are taking out the breeding stock. Wether or not that is biologically true, I'm not sure.

oscar9 said:

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Duggins90 said:

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Lake Palestine

Big cats there but Idon't eat anything bigger than 5 lbs.

Bigger they are, the nastier they taste.


Possum Kingdom has big cats, really big cats.

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I've had plenty of good tasting yellow cats in the 30-50 range. Cut the extra skin and such and you're fine. I honestly can't tell any difference. I'll be glad to pickup the fish you catch over 5lbs

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Agree. Never had any big yellow that was bad eating. Blues, however, if you don't go to all the trouble and cut out all the fat and red meat, it will taste bad.

BurrOak said:

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oscar9 said:

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Duggins90 said:

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Lake Palestine

Big cats there but Idon't eat anything bigger than 5 lbs.

Bigger they are, the nastier they taste.


Possum Kingdom has big cats, really big cats.

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I've had plenty of good tasting yellow cats in the 30-50 range. Cut the extra skin and such and you're fine. I honestly can't tell any difference. I'll be glad to pickup the fish you catch over 5lbs

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Agree. Never had any big yellow that was bad eating. Blues, however, if you don't go to all the trouble and cut out all the fat and red meat, it will taste bad.

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Yep, Ops are good at any size.... blues quality starts to diminish over 10 or so pounds.

76Ag said:

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When I was young I used to go with relatives and trot line the Brazos just north of Hearne. We also fished the Little River. Caught some nice catfish in both.

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I've fished the same area. Lots of yellow cats.

Caught a 60 lb blue on Richland Chambers. Several 35 + as well.

How many names are there for flathead catfish? Growing up on Toledo Bend we called them "ops" or opelousas. I've heard folks call them yellow cats. And down the bayou they call them gujon. They are a tasty catfish though. As you say, even a 50# op is good eating. We used to cut the tails off the big ones and let them bleed out before skinning them. I think the reason for the good taste is that they are predators. They don't scavenge like most catfish will. However, that brings up another issue. Mercury can build up in large predators in most freshwater lakes. Just something to think about. Not saying they shouldn't be eaten, but it's probably wise to limit consumption of the large ones to one or two portions/month.

Wow thanks for,all the replies. I agree Amistad has some big ones but just want to try some other lakes. Possum kingdom sounds intriguing as that's not real far from us. Anyone else have luck there? I like using jugs so may try drifting some across Conroe but that's a long way from home and will probably have a short trip.

Oh and hell no on noodling

C Loves L said:

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Biggest catfish I've ever seen in person was at Lake Belton.

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I live on Lake Belton and have never fished it for cats. I am about to get a boat though. Catfish are the first fish I will go for. I see jugs everywhere.

cottonpicker said:

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My buddy and I have been catching catfish on jugs or trot lines in Amistad. I'm thinking about going to other lakes to try to catch some bigger ones. We have caught up to 30 pounders but would love to go after bigger ones. What lakes should we check out? Thx

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When I was a kid in Del Rio we used to set trot lines on the Devils River/Rough Canyon area. It was lots of fun waking up and go run the trot line. Lots of fresh fried catfish for breakfast.

The trick to getting the muddy taste out of catfish is to put the filets in a bag filled with a mixture of water and plain yellow mustard. My grandmother and mother did it and it always comes out great.

cottonpicker said:

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Wow thanks for,all the replies. I agree Amistad has some big ones but just want to try some other lakes. Possum kingdom sounds intriguing as that's not real far from us. Anyone else have luck there? I like using jugs so may try drifting some across Conroe but that's a long way from home and will probably have a short trip.

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I did a lot of fishing on PK when I was younger. Fantastic lake- lots of boat traffic. Never jugging- just rod & reel. But, we used to catch some big ones around Hell's Gate. There are tons of bends and points, you could jugg the wind blow points pretty easily. We also used to catch them if the water was rising on freshly flooded shorelines.

Toledo Bend is where I would go. We have caught plenty of 50-70# Ops there.

Sure wish I didn't live in west Texas. Lots of good places to go but most are to far when on a tight schedule. Hopefully in a few years I can try some of those eastern Texas lakes. If we can work it out we'll give Tawakoni a try.