Lake of the ozarks blue catfish!

Lake of the Ozarks has a fantastic blue catfish fishery.  Anglers come from far and wide to experience a battle with these tasty fish.  There are mutiple methods utilized to catch them; Rod and reel, trotline, and jugs.  All methods are productive when the fish are located and hungry.  You can utilize large hooks (7 - 9 size) and we prefer to utilize Kale or circle hooks.  The fish will hang out in areas with accessibility to bait (shad typically) and deep water.  Depending on the time of year, the shad will migrate and the fish will follow them.  In the heat of summer both will be located near or in deep water.  The big blue catfish like to stay in the vicinity of larger shad and finding them will help you zero in on the larger catfish.  Side imaging is a great tool to find the shad and fish.  Once located, present your baits to the fish at the level of their depth in the water column.  Forward imaging and 3D down imaging are also useful in presenting baits to the fish.   In terms of bait, most utilize cut shad in Lake of the Ozarks but one can also utilize shrimp, bluegill, chicken breast, or pieces of pork butt.  Adding scent to the offering can also be helpful.  Some add strawberry Kool Aid to their bait and others utilize commercially prepared scents such as Blood Red or Catfish Nectar.  Crappie and Bass fishing is also great at lake of the Ozarks but in terms of eating fish blue catfish are hard to beat.  Once fileted, we prefer to cut the fish pieces into chunks and fry them.  Get on the water at Lake of the Ozarks this summer and put some blue catfish in your freezer and onto your plate!