Catfishing!!!! Who Else Loves To Catch Them?

[jitterbug127]

I love catching a big hawg of a catfish. Bass are my favorite for sure, but i wanted to start a catfishing thread for advice.

Personally i keep it simple. 5/0 circle hooks, carolina rigs, 25 lb leaders and 50 lb braid is my go to set up with cut bait

[Inflatable Raft Bum]

I miss the catfishing (crappie and gillin' too), but i'm hopelessly addicted..

[ThatZX14Fella]

Catfishing is fun at times, but too slow to do very often. Bass and bluegill are my favorites to fish for. 

[jitterbug127]

when the monster cats are biting it is very fun, but it can be very slow. The thing i love about bass fishing the most is the chase. It is finding the fish and getting them to bite on the right lures. I think for me bass fishing is all about the chase and finding the fish more than the actual fish i catch. 

[Fisher-O-men]

Occassionally I catch cats on my Bass lures.  Good dinner on those days!  The bad part is the disappointment when my monster lunker bass is not!

[Snakehead Whisperer]

Don't really ever target cats unless I'm camping on the river. Night time catfishing is always a blast though. 

 

This year I've caught at least 50 blues on the tidal potomac on jigs, dropshots and crankbaits, with some going well over 20lbs. They always put up a good fight. I'm probably going to get into more as it gets colder and I start shifting my focus to walleye. I've caught some nice flatheads in deeper water while walleye fishing in the winter months. Those fish are built like a tank (both the blues and the flatheads, but especially the latter.)

[BaitMonkey1984]

I have not catfishes for a few years now. Back when I was first getting into fishing (still using live bait) I did my fair share of cat fishing at night. No better way to spend the night that to sit on the end of a dock with a few lines in the water using dinner's leftovers/hotdogs/or jerky as bait. Up here in NE, we have some catfish, but they are all very small, but still tasty. I hope to do more cat fishing this upcoming spring. 

[desmobob]

I wanted to try some cat-fishing on L. Champlain this summer.  A buddy and I went out and fished largemouths until after dark, and then got ready to fish for cats.

 

I lit a Coleman lantern and in no time at all, my boat was absolutely covered in a layer of tiny caddis flies.  They stuck to the dew that had settled on the boat after the sun went down.  They were so thick, they were burning up in the lantern and stinking.  Then, the mosquitos came out in force.

 

Needless to say, we packed it up and headed in.  It took me forever to clean the boat the next day.  Never got around to giving it a second try....

 

I saw a couple in kayaks several times who would be showing up when I was headed to the dock at dark, and would still be out there when I was out before sunrise the next morning.  They told me they loved to fish all night for catfish.  Early one morning, I saw them catch two in the 10-12 lb. range.  They would catch a few small white perch, then use them for cut bait for the catfish.

 

I'll give it a try again next season, but maybe without the lantern.  :-)

 

Tight lines,

Bob

[Snakehead Whisperer]

I wanted to try some cat-fishing on L. Champlain this summer.  A buddy and I went out and fished largemouths until after dark, and then got ready to fish for cats.

 

I lit a Coleman lantern and in no time at all, my boat was absolutely covered in a layer of tiny caddis flies.  They stuck to the dew that had settled on the boat after the sun went down.  They were so thick, they were burning up in the lantern and stinking.  Then, the mosquitos came out in force.

 

Needless to say, we packed it up and headed in.  It took me forever to clean the boat the next day.  Never got around to giving it a second try....

 

I saw a couple in kayaks several times who would be showing up when I was headed to the dock at dark, and would still be out there when I was out before sunrise the next morning.  They told me they loved to fish all night for catfish.  Early one morning, I saw them catch two in the 10-12 lb. range.  They would catch a few small white perch, then use them for cut bait for the catfish.

 

I'll give it a try again next season, but maybe without the lantern.  :-)

 

Tight lines,

Bob

You should have scraped the boat and used the bugs to make some catfish dough.

[Hyrule Bass]

i love catfishing. when i go to smith mtn lake i fish for bass in the day time and catfish at night. when the catfishing is slow, i will toss around a bass lure for a little bit at night too. but theres not much i like more than sitting on the dock all night catfishing there. radio blasting classic rock music, cooler full of ice cold budweiser, 3-5 poles out and various baits.

 

i like a slip sinker rig when i use cutbait or chicken livers, and a tight line with nightcrawlers. i also like a drop shot rig too, yes, drop shot for catfishing. i dont use circle hooks at all, cant stand them. my favorite hooks to use are eagle claw bait holders with the leader already attached to them and gamakatsu octopus hooks. at times i will even down size to the gold abeerdeen hooks if the fishing is tough.

 

next year i plan to try one of bluebassers suggestions, using no weight with cutbait...

[jitterbug127]

I was not a big circle hook guy at first either, but i have noticed losing less fish with them, and they turn in the catfish`s mouth which just makes for a better hook set. It is better for the fish too imo. Just what works for me. The little tug instead of the big pull hook set takes time to get used to. Another great way to catfish is cut carp on a bobber at night. Works really well. About 18 inches deep in the right hole can bring in nice cats

[guitarglynn1]

I did some catfishing this summer and caught a few smaller ones on fatheads. When I was a kid there was a pond not far from where I lived and me and my friend used to go there in the early mornings in the summer. It was real easy to catch very small perch, and we would catch a few and cut them up and use them for bait. Catfish loved them and we would never fail to catch some nice sized fish. 

 

One guy I was talking to who did a lot of catfishing told me to fill a stocking with bait and tie a rope around it and throw it out there and it will attract cats. Then of course throw your bait out there as well. I am yet to try it though.

[Jtrout]

Caught some good ones on bread balls

[Bluebasser86]

Catfishing is what I grew up doing. I still love fishing for them, but I prefer to target the big boys since I don't eat them. For you guys that say it's slow and boring, you're doing it wrong! I have a technique I call bass fishing for catfish. I use a 7' MH spinning rod with a Okuma 30 Avenger baitfeeder spinning reel spooled with 20lb straight braid to a 2/0 Kahle hook, no weight, bobber, snap, swivel, nothing. Put a chunk of fresh cutbait on the hook and cast it to likely targets (I prefer along weed edges and rocky flats where they hunt gills and craws). Let it sink and settle to the bottom. Once it's on the bottom for a few seconds, fish it like you're fishing a plastic worm in extremely cold water. Lift it very slowly and try to hover it just off the bottom, only moving it a short distance. There will be zero question when a bite occurs. I've caught literally thousands of big channel cats doing this, along with some really big bass and surprisingly, a couple really nice walleye. When they're active it isn't difficult to catch 30-50 or more channel cats up to 20 pounds in a day, makes for a really sore wrist and forearm by the end of the day  

 

If I'm not after big channels in the lakes, it's big flatheads and blues in the rivers. I prefer the river fishing because that's where the true monsters live (Kansas owns the world record for flatheads at 123 pounds and also has a blue cat record over 100 pounds). I've not even come close to those marks but I've gotten about halfway to them .

 

I used to guide for flatheads on a small lake when I was a teenager. We caught lots and lots of flatheads from the teens up to 50 pounds. Really miss fishing that lake now that it's been made private

[HoosierHawgs]

I enjoy catfishing as a way to spend summer nights w/friends. We go out before the sun rises, catch some cats, and have a little fish fry!

[blackmax135]

I grew up catfishing cause that's all my dad liked doing because of the pull from those things and the great meals they make.  He would wake me up at 12 midnight and we would drive 2 hours to lake marion and fish until 12 mid day.  I still love doing it, we would catch about 6 brim little smaller than hand size cut them in three sections and use that for bait but it had to be fresh.  We would get along I-95 going across the lake and drift those rocks all day until we got tired of pulling fish in.  20 to 30 pounders all day drifting the banks is the way to go. Get a big cork and set it to hold the bait 2 or 3 foot off the bottom and just wait for the rod to double over.

[guitarglynn1]

Catfishing is what I grew up doing. I still love fishing for them, but I prefer to target the big boys since I don't eat them. For you guys that say it's slow and boring, you're doing it wrong! I have a technique I call bass fishing for catfish. I use a 7' MH spinning rod with a Okuma 30 Avenger baitfeeder spinning reel spooled with 20lb straight braid to a 2/0 Kahle hook, no weight, bobber, snap, swivel, nothing. Put a chunk of fresh cutbait on the hook and cast it to likely targets (I prefer along weed edges and rocky flats where they hunt gills and craws). Let it sink and settle to the bottom. Once it's on the bottom for a few seconds, fish it like you're fishing a plastic worm in extremely cold water. Lift it very slowly and try to hover it just off the bottom, only moving it a short distance. There will be zero question when a bite occurs. I've caught literally thousands of big channel cats doing this, along with some really big bass and surprisingly, a couple really nice walleye. When they're active it isn't difficult to catch 30-50 or more channel cats up to 20 pounds in a day, makes for a really sore wrist and forearm by the end of the day

 

If I'm not after big channels in the lakes, it's big flatheads and blues in the rivers. I prefer the river fishing because that's where the true monsters live (Kansas owns the world record for flatheads at 123 pounds and also has a blue cat record over 100 pounds). I've not even come close to those marks but I've gotten about halfway to them .

 

I used to guide for flatheads on a small lake when I was a teenager. We caught lots and lots of flatheads from the teens up to 50 pounds. Really miss fishing that lake now that it's been made private

 

You just made me want to do more catfishing this up and coming year. As a kid we used sunfish as cut bait and it never failed. looks like you have found a method that really delivers. I will be looking forward to trying this method. Thanks for sharing it with us^5

[Catch and Grease]

I figured bluebasser would put up his awesome catfish catch photos in this thread... Seems like he is always looking for an excuse to show them off!

I'm jealous!

[*Hank]

Don't like em there it's a pain to wrench the hooks out of there stiff mouths.

[Bluebasser86]

I figured bluebasser would put up his awesome catfish catch photos in this thread... Seems like he is always looking for an excuse to show them off!

I'm jealous!

Just be glad I don't scan all my 35mm pictures in from when I was guiding for flatheads