I don't know anything about fishing! My fishing experience goes as far as
putting some velveeta cheese on a treble hook and casting it into a lake and
hoping a trout will bite it.

I've heard that catfish need to be handled a certain way to not get cut or
poked or something like that. Is this true?



Been catfishing since I was 5. Last year was the first time one of
them stung me. It will be the last. It hurt so bad I actually had the
urge to cut my hand off. Didn't do it, I ain't stupid, but I do not
doubt that it would not have caused more pain than that catfish did. I
still have a mark on my hand where it got me and that was back last
May that it happened. Wanna know pain? Stick a catfish spine in the
back of your hand. Then you will know pain.









Is there any reason not to just grab onto a catfish when you catch one?

An aversion to extreme pain would be a reason, wouldn't it?

In a small stocked urban lake setting what are the basics of fishing for
catfish?

I've got to get my son up to speed even though I'm completely ignorant on
this subject.

thanks

Toss a nightcrawler on a hook, toss your line out in the water, wait.
That is all it takes.