Catfish On A Lipless Crank

[Texas Hawg Hunter]

I was at a pond this afternoon throwing a lipless crankbait in muddy water.  Suddenly a good sized fish surfaced when trying to strike the lure but missed.  I didn't get a good look at the fish but it looked dark and wide like a catfish.  Do catfish eat lipless cranks?  I thought they only liked stinky bait.

[A-Jay]

Catfish are serious predators that do swim after, catch & eat live prey.

 

Seen them taken on a variety of artificial baits including jerk baits.

 

A-Jay

[F14A-B]

They sure do, it's not like there is a buffet of chicken livers, gizzards in the waterways.. In fact, at the local BPS aquarium I watched several Ohio river Blue and flatheads decimate around 50 blue gill in the course of about 10 days.. The fish in the tanks are fed quite well by the staff. Tell the catfish that! Lol..

[everythingthatswims]

They seem to be very fond of 6XD crankbaits in shad colors 

 

When you catch them in the right mood, they will really get agressive.

[Bluebasser86]

I've caught catfish on nearly everything. Just wait until a channel cat blast your topwater, they put a bass strike to shame! To answer your question, yes, they do eat lipless baits. I've caught channels up to 15 pounds on them. 

[drew4779]

I've caught them on everything from hollow bodied frogs to square bills. Around here, they really seem to like fire tiger spinners with gold blades.

[heyitskirby]

For everyone who thinks that dead and stinky bait is the best thing to catch catfish on, we catch flatheads on the James almost exclusively on live bait.  In fact the flatheads about destroyed the SMB population.  Most of the guys I know who fish upriver kill flatheads when they catch them because of that.

[RSM789]

Channel catfish strikes, especially on slower moving baits, at the ones where it feels like they are going to rip the rod out of your hand.

 

When a bass grabs a jig or plastic worm, he inhales it & in most cases knows he is done, so he will either sit there or slowly move off (except in the case of dinks or schooling fish).  The "prey" is trapped inside the basses mouth, he has no place to go & the bass knows it.

 

A channel catfish on the other hand is trying to kill & swallow the prey as fast as possible.  They will violently grab the bait & it seems like they quickly swim off in one direction or another.  Then they run a line of snot slime up your line that is near impossible to remove...

[Bankbeater]

Instead of moving around like a bass, a cat will stay in pretty much the same spot and just pull after it is hooked.

[fisherrw]

I've caught catfish on roboworms before. They like 6 in morning dawn.

[RanndomUndead]

Ive caught catfish on everything except cranks and jerks really...probably 15+ different plastic rigs, football jigs, 2 on spoons...and 1 on a top water which confused me to the extent that i just kinda sat and stared at this catfish with a bubblegum rebel pop-r in its mouth for who knows how long

[Bluebasser86]

Ive caught catfish on everything except cranks and jerks really...probably 15+ different plastic rigs, football jigs, 2 on spoons...and 1 on a top water which confused me to the extent that i just kinda sat and stared at this catfish with a bubblegum rebel pop-r in its mouth for who knows how long

I used to fish a Storm Deep Lightning Shad in bluegill color exclusively for flatheads. Guys around here troll Rebel Crawdads for channel cats when they follow the gar to the rocks to eat their eggs. A strike on a crank from a catfish is way harder hit than a bass. I've been disappointed by more than one channel cat while throwing jerks for smallmouth too. 

[chrisdm4]

I have got catfish on crank baits.  The bigger fish will hunt bait fish down.  They need bigger meals so they turn into predators.  Still will eat off the bottom but they will make an effort to go after living fish.  

[Bluebasser86]

I have got catfish on crank baits.  The bigger fish will hunt bait fish down.  They need bigger meals so they turn into predators.  Still will eat off the bottom but they will make an effort to go after living fish.  

Small catfish are very predatory as well. They don't turn into predators as they get larger but are very opportunistic their entire lives. They don't prefer rotten, stinky stuff, which is why stinkbait rarely catches big fish and why so many large cats are taken on live or fresh cut baits. My favorite technique to catch channel cats of all sizes is a technique I call bass fishing for catfish, that is very similar to fishing a plastic worm for bass. I've had them destroy hollow bodied frogs, blast buzzbaits, slam spinnerbaits, countless numbers have eating crankbaits, jigs, and plastics, and I've caught so many on my bladed jigs that I can call what it is almost as soon as I set the hook. 

[Kevin22]

Ive caught cats on every type of lure there is. Got into them real good one day a few years ago on topwater frogs and buzzbaits.

[F14A-B]

Small catfish are very predatory as well. They don't turn into predators as they get larger but are very opportunistic their entire lives. They don't prefer rotten, stinky stuff, which is why stinkbait rarely catches big fish and why so many large cats are taken on live or fresh cut baits. My favorite technique to catch channel cats of all sizes is a technique I call bass fishing for catfish, that is very similar to fishing a plastic worm for bass. I've had them destroy hollow bodied frogs, blast buzzbaits, slam spinnerbaits, countless numbers have eating crankbaits, jigs, and plastics, and I've caught so many on my bladed jigs that I can call what it is almost as soon as I set the hook.

^^ This! ^^

Around here, in the White or Ohio river if your not using large bluegill or redear ( 1 pound ) for flathead or blues, your wasting time.. They absolutely hunt living prey.. Most all giant cats are caught on big live bait presentations, at least around, lol.. Of course it's pretty important to know where these fish hunker down at then make your presentation..

[Choporoz]

5+ pounds of ornery on a DT-6

[fishinphilly]

i caught one about 18in on a crankbait before lol i couldn't believe it

[RSM789]

I looked back over my logs for the past few years and saw that I have caught channel catfish on crank baits, jerk baits, jigs, worms and Senko's, but none on topwaters.  Here were the 5 largest:

 

14 lbs. 5 oz, on a jerkbait (Rapala XRap);

12 lbs. 13 oz on a plastic worm (Berkley Turtle back);

12 lbs. 9 oz on a 3" craw (Berkley Chigger craw) on 4 lb test line;

12 lbs even on a plastic worm (Roboworm);

10 lbs 4 oz on an jerkbait (Rapala X-rap).

 

The only two I have ever caught here over 15 lbs were on bait, crawdad & cut mackerel.

[heyitskirby]

^^ This! ^^

Around here, in the White or Ohio river if your not using large bluegill or redear ( 1 pound ) for flathead or blues, your wasting time.. They absolutely hunt living prey.. Most all giant cats are caught on big live bait presentations, at least around, lol.. Of course it's pretty important to know where these fish hunker down at then make your presentation..

Rumor is the world record blue that was caught out of Buggs Island a few years ago was caught on chicken breasts marinated in red kool aid with garlic powder.  I'm not sure if it was true, but it did work to catch a few fish.  All of my biggest blues at Buggs were caught on fresh cut bluegill.  On the tidal James River we usually gill net mud shad (gizzard shad on steroids) and cut them for bait.  For flatheads you definitely need live bait.

[*Hank]

I cuaght one using a spoon one time.