Mio Pond Catfish

[ulrichdebrus]

I have bottom fished Mio Pond for years, hooking bowfin and bullhead and I know that carp come out of this body of water. However, I have never hooked a catfish in this lake though I hear that in the past few years the DNR released thousands. Some say it was channel cats and others maintain that it was blue cats.

I have used corn, nightcrawlers, and chicken liver (as well as chicken liver scented catfish dough - store bought) but no catfish.

Does anyone have a clue how to hook these fish? I know that similar fish bite differently in different bodies of water (the most consistent method of catching pike in Mio Pond is a chub suspended a little off the bottom). Has anyone caught catfish at Mio Pond?

*

[Jari22]

I'm up that way all the time and usually fish fletchers.... what's in Mio Pond apart from the speices you've mentioned?

[shametamer]

Follow me when i'm trolling for walleyes...we'll find catfish!!!!!!!!!!!!!.....lol

[waggleduck]

Ive never fished Mio but me and my brother catch alot of our fish on hunks of hotdog or pepperonis.

[Rondevous]

Are you nite fishing?

What depths and what is the cover like?

Current?

Catfish will comer into 4-6 foot waters looking for live bait just like walleyes do.

I have not been there for years but I suspect the area near the Dam would produce.
Try Sunfish with the head cut off for bait or large dead minnows
I also use a corky to keep my baits suspended alittle.
Yes even hot dogs will work, carful hooking them as they tend to fly off if casted.

[ulrichdebrus]

There are pike, largemouth, smallmouth, walleye, carp, bullhead, bluegill, sunfish, perch, bowfin, and supposedly catfish.

[ulrichdebrus]

"Are you nite fishing?"

Sometimes.

"What depths and what is the cover like?"

It varies up to twenty or thirty feet. All depths are accessible from various shore points (up until now that is all the fishing I have done there though I will soon be able to fish the pond from boat) though the greatest depths are near where the Au Sable begins to widen into the floodwaters. The shallower depths are, by and large, HEAVILY weeded, making bottom fishing troublesome.

"Current?"

From where the Au Sable begins to widen to the dam is a mile and a half or more and it is rarely over a third of a mile wide, usually less. I hope this gives you an idea of the current, assuming you are familiar with the Au Sable.

"Catfish will comer into 4-6 foot waters looking for live bait just like walleyes do."

Yet bottom fishing in the shallows, at night, near the twenty foot depths has so far yielded nothing but rock bass and walleye, so far as I know.

"I have not been there for years but I suspect the area near the Dam would produce."

It is in this area where the big fish stories that I have heard have come, but I've never seen a fish and never seen a photo of one at the local tackle and bait shops.

[ulrichdebrus]

There are also sucker, rock bass, and I have HEARD of crappie but have never seen one there. Someone told me there are ciscos there as well. Since the Au Sable is famous for trout, I am sure there are some in the pond but as I don't fish directly in the river very often and because I never have fished for trout (outside private ponds), I haven't caught any.

[Crusher]

I have a buddy that said when he was a kid he would take jelly
and mix it with cornflakes ball it up with a hook threw the cnter
through it out with a bobber. He said they ceral would flake off
almost like chumming they used to catch them all night. Haven't
tried it myself but it kind of makes sence.

Do you eat them?
Or is it just the fight you rlooking for?

Good luck either way.
Crusher

[MSUICEMAN]

if they are blues, I believe they like live prey just like flatheads. not too sure though. I know when I was living down south on our jug lines, the sun perch (sunfish) bait would have about two days to catch a flathead, then it would die and the only thing I could catch were channels (which is the norm when I talked to the locals).

hope this helps in your search,
steve

[Belair]

Our place is right up the road from there. I used to catch nice bass when I was a kid and also caught quite a few nice rainbows. All from the shore near the bridge. Never targeted catfish in there.

[ulrichdebrus]

"Do you eat them?"

Yes, though I've never had blue cat.

[ulrichdebrus]

"if they are blues, I believe they like live prey just like flatheads. not too sure though. I know when I was living down south on our jug lines, the sun perch (sunfish) bait would have about two days to catch a flathead, then it would die and the only thing I could catch were channels (which is the norm when I talked to the locals)."

Funny...the only flathead I ever caught was on a piece of cut bait - we had just caught a shad and we cut it up and fished with bobber. Very soon, I had the biggest cat of my life, where the Clinton River spills into Lake St. Clair.

[k8vol]

flats and blue , we have had good luck with shad rap's in the blue gill or a purlpe color thing that looks like a perch with purlpe top to it like the shallow runner my self . but never fished mio. good luck steve k8vol