I am thinking about going to Taylorsville lake this year near Louisville Kentucky in the summer time. I used to go with a Kayak and camp out in cove with a trot line loaded with chicken livers in which I had moderate success. But because the park rules say you cant camp out what should I do for shore fishing for catfish. It seams like it takes about 30 hooks of chicken livers to catch one large catfish in this lake over night. I dont want to set up a trot line in the day time because I think its illegal. Can you think of any effective ways to catch catfish in an all day trip from sunrise to sundown only using less than five poles off the banks on foot. I normally use chicken liver and like I said its not all the very effective and fairly expensive too. Im in college right now so I am on a budget. 500 bucks is the most I can spend on summer fishing gear.
Use multiple rods if your state regulations allow you. 2 or even 3. Have each one set-up with a different bait. One with chicken liver, one with cut-bait (cut up shad or bluegill works fine), and one with a night-crawler or two. Just give the fish some time to get to your bait. Let me remind you that it is still technically Winter and fish aren’t necessarily active yet.
I like Charlie’s suggestion. Having different baits on different rods will likely get you at least a few. I live about 45 minutes south of Louisville and have been to Taylorsville lake. Water clarity doesn’t effect what you should use for Catfish like when Bass fishing. They feed by smell so switching colors probably won’t do you a whole lot of good, of course color doesn’t even apply when fishing with chicken livers. Normally chicken livers are pretty productive in any condition for Catfish. Do you use a floater when Catfishing? If so, variate your depths until you find where most tend to be holding. Consider fishing without a floater also. If the chicken livers don’t get the job done, try out some cut bait or maybe even a whole Bluegill. You can get you a few Bluegills about the size of your hand and cut them up into 3 or 4 pieces or if you catch a few smaller than your hand you can put the whole thing on the hook while it’s alive. Then of course, you have all of the dip baits and stink baits on the market. If you take this route consider a Crawfish flavored scent for this time of year.
Experiement with different baits at different depths at different locations. Experiementing will surely get you a few.