What factors will cause catfish (channels) to stop biting for days on end? we have always caught channels on this particular small lake for years, but this spring/summer they have not been hitting any bait ,anywhere on the lake. No others have been getting them to bite either. The weather has been normal for the area, warm days with a few rainy days now and again. But it has been 2 weeks since a channel was caught. We have tried several locations and every bait you could think of. PLEASE HELP !!

As much as I hate to say this, sometimes cats just get off their feed. Particularly when it is very hot and there has not been much rain or relief from the heat, the metabolism of the cats goes down, and it just takes some cooler weather to wake them up. The good news is that when they do wake up, they are going to be some hungry catfish, and you should be able to make up for lost time. Consider fishing at night. Night fishing for catfish in the summer months really is the single most productive time to catch catfish. They come to the surface to feed though, so don’t try to fish the bottoms at this time. Also, consider not fishing with a bobber at all. Just fish your line, some good bait, and keep a finger on your line so that you can feel the first hint of a nibble. Also, you might want to check out some other species of fish normally in the area. Are they off the bite as well? If they are, you might want to speak with someone at the Corp of Engineers and see if there could be an over abundance of predators in the area or some other external factor inhibiting the bite of your catfish. Catfish make for some interesting fishing, and challenging fishing, but when they stop biting, that often means something’s changed.