Bank Lines

bigredneck · 05-23-2005, 08:21 AM

Do any of you run bank lines? I was thinking of running them this summer i went with a guy a couple times last summer seemed like fun. Just wondering if you can tell me any tricks of the trade or just anything you know or heard what to do and what not to do.

Thanks

RiverBottomBowHunter · 05-26-2005, 08:02 AM

What are you fishing for?
River?

I run bank lines on the river for big cats.

Hunter06FlKy · 05-27-2005, 12:48 PM

i've done it for catfish on lakes. it depends alot on what you want to catch.

bigredneck · 05-27-2005, 10:02 PM

I have them out on the river, and would like to catch some big cats or some mississippis

Hunter06FlKy · 05-30-2005, 04:59 PM

you can just hook a small blue gill through the back with a good sized hook put some like out and throw the fish out and tie it off to something stable and leave it. if you leave it overnight you'll generally get one.

RiverBottomBowHunter · 05-31-2005, 08:05 AM

We went out this weekend on the illinois river. Had a good weekend. Caught 36 fish. 32 flatheads, 3 channel, 1 white/blue. Our biggest fish was a 70 lb flathead(new personal record). Our smallest was a 4 lb channel. We caught 5 fish over the 30 mark.

bigredneck · 05-31-2005, 12:58 PM

wow, what were you using for bait? were you fishng the shallows like sand bars, or fishing steep banks and deep holes?

ELKINMTCWB · 05-31-2005, 01:19 PM

Nice Riverbottom
My biges is 72 lb on rod+reel. Did you get them on live shad? That seems to be the best bait for me. Hard to keep alive but man are they good.I did not know IL had nice fish like that. Mine where in the MO river in MO.

Riverbottomhunter Do you use limb lines,jugs,or long lines?My self I like the limb lines.Love to see the hole tree limb pulled down in the watter.

Now I live in Montana. Not much for good fishing here close to helena.NO cats at all.There is a lot of flathead indains here though and every just rools when I talk about hanging A big flathead in the tree to skin it.

RiverBottomBowHunter · 05-31-2005, 02:40 PM

We use the biggest bluegill and bullhead we can find for bait. They stay alive longer and are easy to catch. The big one was caught on a bank pole.( a piece of pvc pipe with a line on it). We usually use straps, Pieces of innertube with nylon string and hooks on them. We hang these from nails in the middle of log jams. The bank poles we used only caught the big one. There were some guys jugging all night and I believe they were running our lines when we weren't there. I also had two hooks straightened out. I'm thinking I had a ocuple of true monsters on to do this. Right now the big cats are spawing so now is the time to hit them.
The only tip I can give ya is the big fish like the bigest bait you can find.
good luck
RBBH

RiverBottomBowHunter · 05-31-2005, 02:43 PM

Quote:

wow, what were you using for bait? were you fishng the shallows like sand bars, or fishing steep banks and deep holes?

We set our lines up a creek off the main channel. The water was really still. It was fairly deep(10-15ft) where we were at. Usually I just pick log jams, seems to work the best for flatheads. As you can tell Flatheads are my fish of choice, even though we will hook a big blue once in a while. I would say our average fish is 10-15 lbs.
BTW
this was our best weekend of fish in about 2 years.