Catfishing Help Please!

[Bass_Akwards]

Fishing for Largemouth yesterday at a local pond. Would up fighting what I think was a monster cat before losing it after an epic 6 minute battle.

This fight got into my soul. I'll never forget it. I want that fish. I want his dad. I want his Mom and I want his children. I want to catch them all. I want to lpick them up, look them in the eye, and let them know I finally won. I want them all to tell me I'm their daddy, and then I want to release them unharmed physically, but with their pride crushed.

I have no idea how big a cat needs to be to fight with a 200 pound, in shape 39 year old, for 6 minutes on 10 pound test, maybe you guys would know, but someone PLEASE, tell me how to catch this monster and others like it.

Circle hooks? Chicken Liver? What about the cat itself? Does it search for cover? Is it a cruiser? Do they hang deep? Shallow? Tell me about the channel catfish, and how to catch them please!

The place I'm fishing is a 50 acre gravel pit filled with 1-8 pound bass, perch, crappie, bluegill carp and even trout in it.  

T

[Scott C]

You'll get many answers on this one.....and they will probably all be different. but here is what i like....

In my experience, we have landed good size cat on liver, yes, but the biggest ones were always caught on live shad or shiners.

Personally, I will rig up one of two ways.....I dont' know the technical names for them, so just bear with me:

If I am drifting a channel or trying to find fish, i will tie a big sinker to the end of the line, and tie off 2 seperate trailer type lines about 3 feet and 6 feet up from the sinker. Then will rig one with liver, and the other with a nightcrawler. This covers a few depths and baits at the same time....helps locate for the day. If I'm bank fishing in current, ill do the same thing, but with only one trailer type line and use live bait, or liver.

If I am just going live bait in calm waters, i will just put a fair size inline sinker up the line about 3 feet from a hook, and just go that way.

Hooks I like: standard eagle claw 3/0 or 4/0 bait hook

Line I like: recently discovered and loved how tough the Trilene XT is!!

I have read this on another site, and from what I have experienced, The storm front part could actually have some validity. Though it does seem contrarty to other fishing tips...

"Catfish eat day or night, they seem to feed best just as the sun cracks the horizon for 1-2 hours and will feed heavily as storm front approaches until it passes and then start again 2-days later back to normal. "

For locations try on flats or if there are none, something near deep water, or near a natural creek channel that was once there...if it exists.  

[SenkoBasser]

d**n dude. I'm into fishing but man! You're INTO fishing! Interesting fact about catfish:  they are the second or third most diverse vertebrate order, and one of of every twenty vertebrate species is a catfish. Another fun fact:  there is one catfish species (Phreatobius cisternarum) that is know to live underground in phreatic habitats, which I think means "near the water table". Crazy

[XbassmasterX]

bluegill, circle hooks and a good size rod to handle that fish

btw more that 10#  8-)

[Popeye]

Several weeks ago when we were leaving Lower Otay for the day we saw this guy with an 85 pound cat in a wheel barrel in the parking lot. He told us he had broken the lake record for cats a few weeks earlier with a 98 pounder. Of course we asked him what bait he was using. Cut Mackeral (which you can buy frozen). Might want to try some of that and beef up the rig you're fishing with. Honestly, that 85 pounder he had in the cart had a head and mouth so large that it could easily have eaten a WHOLE good sized mackeral, not just a cut off/up piece of one! He didn't mention anything like that, though (trade secret?? - this guy is well known at the lake for consistantly catching LARGE cats).

PS: in my opinion, catching large cats can be as fun as catching bass. It's also a much more relaxing way to fish. Rig up, throw out, and sit back and wait for your line to zing away (chances are you'll end up with a carp or two as well).

[Bass_Akwards]

Whats the biggest test line I can still use with a spinning reel?  What brand is best.  I've tried a couple 15# tests and they're like piano wire.

[VolFan]

I use Fireline Crystal on my spinning reels up to about 50 lb test that has the diameter of 10 and it works well.  I landed a 45 lb (ish) blue on it a week or so ago.  The Crystal works great but needs a few casts to break in.  I caught the blue on a spinnerbait, purely an accident.

[CL]

depends on what the reel will hold. I am using a baitcaster for the pond cats around here. if it broke the 10lb i would go somewhere @15lb. another thing we do is get them close in and not reel them all the way, we back up on the bank and drag them on to the land by walking backwards. this will put less stress on the line.

[slammen cats]

it wont really matter what line u use as long as the reel can handle it i got a big bell type w/50lb test its cajuane redline my other is a baitcastor it has 30lb big game what i look for is the smallest dia.i can find cause u can cast it alot better u try to find cats around log jams deep holes and u fish these places up stream from them cause cats will go up stream to find bait hte bigger cats tend to feed more at night or early morning nite u find cats around shallow areas feeding day time your log jams and deep holes are more affective

[JShrock07]

I use Fireline Crystal on my spinning reels up to about 50 lb test that has the diameter of 10 and it works well. I landed a 45 lb (ish) blue on it a week or so ago. The Crystal works great but needs a few casts to break in. I caught the blue on a spinnerbait, purely an accident.

The best way I have found to stop your line from getting tangled up is by taking the spool off the reel itself once you have filled it full of line and put it into a pot of boiling water for about 30 seconds and then take it out and let it cool until you can pick it up with your bare hands. That way it loses it's memory from the original spoll and grasps the memory of the spool on the reel. Trust me it works on ALL line no matter what size

[BirdNestBen]

they are not hard to catch...

I've had luck on nightcrawlers under a cork.... and believe it or  not on hot dogs.... also, cut shad under a cork... and occasionally off the bottom on minnows, and nightcrawlers....

Some of them may hurt your feelings and snap that line... so I'd use a nice big stout hook and a leader..... and set that drag nice and loose....

[Bankbeater]

I use to fish for cat years ago before I got into bass fishing. Cat are not line shy, we use to use gold 20 lb line, but for what you are describing I would up the line to at least 50. I prefer an 8' heavy rod rated for light salt water use, and a reel to match. The best baits I ever used were cut up bluegill, cut up shad, and large shiners. Cat are bottom feeders unless there is nothing on the bottom, then they will start to cruise around hunting for anything they can eat. I use to throw out one bait on the bottom, and one bait under a large slip bobber to find where they are, and how they are feeding.

Good Catching!!

[Jake P]

How would a Revo S measure up for catfishing?

[BirdNestBen]

not sure... be interesting to find out....

wanted to tell you something funny... took a buddy to the catfish pond... told him to bring heaviest you got....

He brought his surfcasting spinning reel and rod with 50 lb. test... he got them all in, but still they were stripping drag..... he had a blast........

[FishTank]

I don't tend to fish for catfish much anymore but I use to use a homemade dough balls made from Wheaties, syrup, shrimp, and flour.  I would catch all kinds of catfish with this mixture but now I have been using Berkley Gulp Catfish bait.  I easy to keep in my tackle bag but it really stinks.

For a rod and reel I use a Shimano Calcutta and the an old 7' heavy rod.  I will use an octopus circle hook with about 12in of leader tied to a 1/2oz egg sinker.  I will just let it sit there until something hits the line.  

[Daniel My Brother]

Chicken livers and nightcrawlers will catch catfish all day long.  CORRECTION, they will catch little catfish all day long.

If you want BIG catfish you first need to identify what species you're after. Big flatheads like live bait, sunfish are perfect.

Big blue cats prefer cutbait, and they prefer the head of a skipjack herring over a fillet. Stomp on that head so the juices are flowing, then rig it on a big circle hook.

Good luck getting your revenge!

Dan

[powerman970]

We usually just wade out there and find holes under boat ramps and catch them with our hands but if I'm gonna catfish with a rod and reel (and I do quite a bit), I have found that one of the best baits in the world is cheese hotdogs.  Cut them into about 1" pieces and put them into a large Ziploc bag.  To the hotdogs add 1 pack of grape kool-aid mix and some garlic powder.  I use Whisker sticker hooks and 30 test Stren super braid on a BPS Tourney baitcaster.  Good luck.