Double-Dipping

EDITOR'S NOTE: I've never caught as many catfish in my life as I did when I fished at Blue Bank Resort on Tennessee's Reelfoot Lake last summer with Yo-Yos. Be sure to check out last week's "John's Journal" to learn even more about yo-yoing for catfish. Practice what you learn, and you'll have even more catfishing success this summer.

When fishing Yo-Yos, you can fish for two different species at the same time. Many anglers at Reelfoot Lake will put out 25 to 50 Yo-Yos in the morning before they go bream or bass fishing. After they've fished an hour or two, they'll check their Yo-Yos, collect the cats the Yo-Yos have caught, re-bait and return to their bream or bass fishing. Yo-Yos provide the opportunity for you to catch catfish and take home a mess of delicious-tasting catfish fillets, without having to give up your fishing trip for bass, bream or crappie.

"If you're bluegill or bass fishing and put out 50 Yo-Yos and check them every hour or two, you'll usually catch 30 to 60 pounds of cats during a day of bluegill fishing," Billy Blakely, a guide at Blue Bank Resort, mentioned. "If you just concentrate on Yo-Yo fishing all day, you should be able to catch over 100 pounds of cats during a summer's day here at Reelfoot. If you fish all night too, you should catch another 50 to 100 pounds and go home with all the cats you want to clean and eat.

"Catfishing with Yo-Yos is so easy and so much fun that any time we want to catch a mess of catfish for the table, we just put out a dozen or two dozen Yo-Yos. Then in a couple of hours we've caught a catfish dinner."

Yo-Yos cost less than $3.00 each. They rarely, if ever, wear out, which means most everyone always has at least a dozen or two around the house that they can have at-the-ready for catfishing at any time. To learn more about Yo-Yos, contact Mechanical Fisher, P.O. Box 1170, Diamond City, AR 72630; (870) 422-7715. For more information on Blue Bank Resort, write Rt. 1, Box 970, Tiptonville, TN 38079; (901) 253-6878.

As soon as I got home from my Reelfoot Lake bream-fishing trip with a cooler full of catfish fillets, I called Andy Anderson at Mechanical Fisher and ordered two dozen Yo-Yos. Now I prefer to Yo-Yo fish for cats and can think of no better way to catch more cats in less time or have more fun than fishing with Yo-Yos. Although you'll find Yo-Yos legal in every state, check with your local fish and game department to make sure what regulations govern fishing with Yo-Yos in your state. If you want to catch cats, become a Yo-Yo fisherman.