help with catfishing

[Tery Songz]

i went catfishing today i used texas rigging hooks and put bluegill heads as bait, they were heads from about 3-5 inch bluegills pretty small (when i was cutting up the bluegills i found a parasitce\nematode worm in the bluegill yuck) i had caught them a day before at went fishing with em at about 4-6 o clock i casted out all 3 rods and i got a bite on 1 of em then about 20 bites in total, i could tell they were catfish bites not bluegill, i never hooked any of them, i used the heads on all 3 rods i hooked the bluegills through the eyes (it was dead lol dont worry) and it had room for the catfish to get hooked on the rod that got the most bites i had the bluegill hooked through the nose or above the  mouth and i reeled in and found a huge bite mark on the head far from the hook and the hook had went back into the bluegill? I don't understand any ways i was using a caralina rig what i do is i reel my line until its tight to see if i get any bites, did i do anything wrong? thanks

i had also frozen the bluegills and unfroze them this morning

[IndianaFinesse]

Try using a large circle hook from a quality brand like gamakatsu instead, I think you will find that it ups your hooking percentage quite a bit.  Another thing is that I usually hook the heads through the lips so that the bait doesn't roll over onto the point preventing a good hook set.  

Are you sure they aren't just bullheads?  They will often pick up a big bait and just swim off with it without getting the hook in there mouth.  A good way to tell if they are bullheads is to tie a small circle hook on a thread a nightcrawler or small piece of bluegill meat and if they are in the area it will only take a few minutes to find out.

[Bluebasser86]

I prefer Kahle hooks or beak hooks for catfish. I prefer to hook bluegill heads through the nostrils. It's a tough place but thin so you have plenty of hook exposed to set the hook with. Those are smaller bluegill heads so you shouldn't be having any issues with hooking fish. If you're fishing for channels, I'd try a 2/0 Kahle hook and see if that doesn't help.

The rest of the bluegill is good cutbait too, not just the head. 

[Tery Songz]

hey thanks for the replies  im sure they arent bullheads, its a manmade lake at a park stocked with channels and blues, there isnt any bullhead catfish there

also should i be tight lining? because what i do is i reel in until the line is tight so i can see if im getting bites, or should i give some slack? my wieghts arent big either

[Tery Songz]

edit: also i forgot to mention. the way they hit the bait is they would bite then let go. all that happend was that my rod tips were going down about 1-2 inches for a second or 2 then nothing else. not even enough time to set the hook

[Bluebasser86]

49 minutes ago, Tery Songz said:

hey thanks for the replies  im sure they arent bullheads, its a manmade lake at a park stocked with channels and blues, there isnt any bullhead catfish there

also should i be tight lining? because what i do is i reel in until the line is tight so i can see if im getting bites, or should i give some slack? my wieghts arent big either

I only tightline because I have baitfeeder style reels so they can still pull line when they hit. Catfish have really sensitive mouths and will drop a bait very quickly, especially in places where they're pressured. I would take the weights off completely unless there's current or lots of wind. 

[Tery Songz]

1 hour ago, Bluebasser86 said:

I only tightline because I have baitfeeder style reels so they can still pull line when they hit. Catfish have really sensitive mouths and will drop a bait very quickly, especially in places where they're pressured. I would take the weights off completely unless there's current or lots of wind. 

i took the weights off and put kahle hooks, i dont have feeder reels so im gonna give the cat some slack when the line gets tight i set the hook, im also using wire leaders, is that ok or no?

30lb steel leaders

[Bluebasser86]

No need for steel leaders for catfish, another potential reason they're dropping your bait.

 

Before I had baitfeeders I used to flip the bail and they set a small rock on my line in between the reel and the first guide. When a fish hits and takes off with the bait it knocks the rock off the line and it can pull line freely from the reel until you flip the bail and set the hook. You can also use a little mud, a small stick, whatever. 

[Tery Songz]

ok so what im going to be using is just my plain mainline and a kahle hook with some bluegill and have the bail open with a rock to detect bites,ill post pics if i catch anything  one more thing, im going to be fishing today at my bullhead lake looking for channels or blues then tommarow at this local park with stocked catfish, the one with the bullheads has like nematode parasites in one of the blueglls i cut open, if i find a channel and want to eat it would it have the parasite too? i dont know why theres parasites there to begin with the thing is loaded with tiny baitfish that eat everything

[bigbassin']

Personally I've always found chicken liver to be the best bait for cats.  I Carolina rig my bait with about 3 foot of line between the hook and and a 1/4 ounce sinker.  I keep the line tight until I get a hit, drop the tip down to give about two feet of slack for the fish to play with, then set the hook once the fish takes up the slack.

[Bluebasser86]

Every body of water is going to have parasites. Pretty much every fish you catch during the warm months has a good chance of having them. As long as they're cooked properly it won't hurt anything. \

Here's a little video from last summer of me using the setup I described with a technique I call "Bass fishing for catfish". I did cheat on this day and fished a fish feeder, but it works just the same in areas away from them, the fish just aren't as concentrated. This lake doesn't even have a great population of catfish. Kansas stocks more catfish than anything and lakes with high populations, it's easy for 2 anglers to catch 50-100 catfish in a day with this technique.

 

[Tery Songz]

nice  so all you used was a kahle hook with a bluegill hooked, i got 1 more question. i tried that to see what it looks like and there was some hook exposed but not a whole lot, is that a problem?

[Tery Songz]

update: i went to that lake with the bullheads and some one told me he saw a 15 lb cat and some guy caught a 9 lber when the water was real low. i tried cut bluegill kahle hook through nostrils. not one bite . ive never seem to have caught a channel or a blue there. all i remeber is 1 time i used some worms and got a bite so big my rod tip went down like 3 ft then let go

[Bluebasser86]

16 hours ago, Tery Songz said:

nice  so all you used was a kahle hook with a bluegill hooked, i got 1 more question. i tried that to see what it looks like and there was some hook exposed but not a whole lot, is that a problem?

Obviously not a bluegill or kahle hook, but this is what I'm talking about and a good illustration of how little hook should be inside the bait.

[Tery Songz]

yea i did it wrong i got it and it worked fine with alot of hook exposed. i tried cut bluegill and not a bite. now i know theres blues and channels from reports from other fisherman im trying to wonder why i couldent get one to bite. me and my dad caught like 7 bass there in like 2 hours . so i know there should be alot of cats there. just wondering why my bluegill heads didnt work

[CityboyFishing]

Last Sunday I just sliced up some small shad and caught 11 pretty good sized channel cat, maybe try some smaller bait unless your going for Goliath sized cats

[Tery Songz]

i dont mind what cats i catch just atleast 14 inches and up. the bluegill heads were about pretty small. thing about shad is i dont got a cast net

[Bluebasser86]

11 hours ago, Tery Songz said:

yea i did it wrong i got it and it worked fine with alot of hook exposed. i tried cut bluegill and not a bite. now i know theres blues and channels from reports from other fisherman im trying to wonder why i couldent get one to bite. me and my dad caught like 7 bass there in like 2 hours . so i know there should be alot of cats there. just wondering why my bluegill heads didnt work

I've seen times where they wouldn't touch the heads but they'd eat chunks from the sides and vice versa. Obviously have to be around fish to catch them too. 

[N Florida Mike]

I cut chunks of bream up but don't use the heads for anything but chum.If there's a catfish around he'll eat it.Don't have problems hooking them-they hook themselves.

[Tery Songz]

is lamb chunks any good? or cut bluegill?

[Bluebasser86]

On 5/20/2016 at 3:03 PM, Tery Songz said:

is lamb chunks any good? or cut bluegill?

Never used lamb but I tried deer liver once and they wouldn't touch it.

Cut bluegill is really good.

[riverbasser]

I I can't get fresh bait and don't want to use chicken livers(they work great tho) I'll sometimes pick up some mullet from the fish market and cut it into small strips. Works pretty good but nothing beats fresh bait for cats