Need catfish advice

[The_Punisher]

Okay, I've only caught one catfish in my life, and that was about a 3lber that I caught on a Rat L trap during a rainstorm.  I'd love to actually catch a few on purpose, but I have no experience and know no other fishermen in my circle who have any.

How do you rig for a catfish?  Is it as simple as throwing a few splitshot on a line with a big hook and throwing it out?  I've heard you should let it lie on the bottom, but I've heard people say that if you can get it to float a few inches above the bottom it's easier to get bites on.  Anyone with experience here to tell me who's correct?

How can you actually tell if you have a bite?  Just sit and wait until the line rips out or does anyone have little "tips" or "cheats" they use to know when they're getting a nibble?  Heck, I've heard of people using bobbers... does that even work with cats?

Also, I live near a pond that I've heard has some big cats, but I've never seen any or met anyone who's caught them there.  Should I be fisihing in locations such as weed beds, tree limbs under water, ect?

Sorry for my ignorance on cats.  I've often told my friends the worst day fishing is still better than the best day of doing anything else (other than, maybe, at a race track)... it would be awesome for it to start taking up my nights, too.

[Ballpark Frank]

PM sent

[done]

I catch them in Wylie all the time. I have most success with live bait (usually night crawlers). Equally amounts of success on a bobber just off the bottom or on the bottom.

In Lake Wylie, I have come across 2 "personalities", in how they hit. My favorite, grab the line and go. Almost set the hook themselves. The others, seem to nibble a bit, then slowly take it. They can be REAL fun though and huge.

I don't much care for eating them but my bud does.

[CookieMonst3r]

Stink baits work great, as do punch baits and dip baits. A ball of night crawlers on a 3/0 or 4/0 circle hook will work great. If you can't get the crawlers to stay on the hook mix it with bread and you should be fine. I f you don't have access to crawlers try earthworms, I guess.

As for the rig if you're fishing a river try a dropshot weight, 1oz. or more to make that weight stay on the bottom. if you can, get it to float 6-12" off the bottom. Catfish don't really on cover and structure as much as bass so, it's not a neccesity. Just cast it out and hold tight. And don't worry the catfish will have no problem finding your bait.

When you're being nibbled just let them nibble as there isn't much you can do, just wait for them do really bite it then just start reeling (with a circle hook it will hook itself). As for bobbers, eh I don't know.

Other baits you can try are Berkley Gulp Alive baits, they are pricey but are worth it, cats can't stay off it!

Good Luck.

[moby bass]

I don't normally fish for cats but I thought I'd give it a try several weeks ago.  I got one 20" cat doing this:

A catfish rig from WalMart. Has 2 swivels, heavy line a bead and a weight.

I put a treble hook on the end, pressed some Berkley blood bait on the hook and attached the whole thing to a swivel on my line.

I cast the rig out as far as I could, set the pole in a homemade rod holder, put a little loop in the line between two of the guides and attached a small bobber.  That way when the fish took the bait the bobber tapped against the pole and alerted me to a fish.  Waited about 1/2 hour and fish was on.  I understand some better places are where stream or river channels run nearby flats or pockets of slow moving or backwaters in rivers.  It was a blast, I'm going to try it again.

[basspimple]

catfish are fun, if you can find em. in a pond is the easiest way that i know of. a no brainer rig to use is a slip sinker rig, kinda like a carolina. thread a good size egg sinker anto the line, tie a swivel, put about a 1-2 foot leader on it with a pretty stout hook(i personally use trot line hooks ) on it and bait it up and let it fly. if your planning to not keep the fish, try some circle hooks, much easier on the fish. i personally dont use em much, because i just let the fish swallow the whole thing, hook and all. since i keep pretty much all the catfish i catch, i can just get my hook back later .  im not to picky when it comes to bait, although fresh cut 'gill or shad seem to be more consistent for me. crawlers, hot dogs, dough bait all works well. i tend to shy away from dip baits and the like, to much hassle and produce smaller fish imo. just go out and give it a try, night fishin is wonderful. even if they aint biteing, a cooler, pack a smokes and a buddy makes it a worth while and a memory to.

-j

[Captain Rhino]

Whenever I go catfishing, I take two poles.

On one, I put a couple split shot sinkers on it, a big hook, and a piece of hotdog. I throw this one out to the middle of the lake/pond (or just as far out as you can get it, if you can). This one will sit on the bottom and get any cats who are feeding down there.

On the other pole, I use a bobber, a big hook, a single split shot sinker (for casting distance), and a piece of hotdog. I don't throw this one more than 15 feet from where I'm standing. Lots of times I'll even throw it right along the bank in some shady spots.

I have found that hotdogs are the cleanest, easiest, and most attractive bait for catfish. They absolutely LOVE IT! Here are a couple of cats that me and my girlfriend caught yesterday (we didn't keep anything under 3 lbs.):

[done]

I can honestly say, I have never had any problems finding catfish in the lake I fish in. I could easily come back with 100 lbs of catfish in 4 hours of fishing.

Funny part is I never caught a single one when I lived up north.

[skronky]

For me the best set up for channel cats is chicken liver fished on the bottom with no weight. My theory is the liver sinks really slow, releasing more scent throughout the water to call in the cats. But if you are in more than 10 feet of water I would use some split shots. Don't use a treble hook unless you plan on taking some fish home.

Hot dogs also work well if there are cats near. They are certainly the "cleanest" bait I've used for cats. Chicken liver seems to attract more.

Once you are in an area with lots of cats, switch to cut bait for bigger fish. Liver can catch big fish but cut bait seems to do a better job.

Also night fishing is much more productive. Cats move around a lot at night, no so much during the day.

[Captain Rhino]

For me the best set up for channel cats is chicken liver fished on the bottom with no weight. My theory is the liver sinks really slow, releasing more scent throughout the water to call in the cats. But if you are in more than 10 feet of water I would use some split shots. Don't use a treble hook unless you plan on taking some fish home.

Hot dogs also work well if there are cats near. They are certainly the "cleanest" bait I've used for cats. Chicken liver seems to attract more.

Once you are in an area with lots of cats, switch to cut bait for bigger fish. Liver can catch big fish but cut bait seems to do a better job.

Also night fishing is much more productive. Cats move around a lot at night, no so much during the day.

Nicely put... That reminded me, like you said, catfish move around a lot at night. They come to the shallows when it cools down and gets darker to feed. So at night, I have found that it is more effective to drop the bait closer to shore. When it is hot and bright out during the day, drop that sucker down where the cats are staying cool on the bottom. You'll be pulling up some big ones from the bottom.

skronky is right on with his advice, as far as I'm concerned. If you try out these techniques, you will be pleasantly surprised.

[Bankbeater]

Whenever I go catfishing, I take two poles.

On one, I put a couple split shot sinkers on it, a big hook, and a piece of hotdog. I throw this one out to the middle of the lake/pond (or just as far out as you can get it, if you can). This one will sit on the bottom and get any cats who are feeding down there.

On the other pole, I use a bobber, a big hook, a single split shot sinker (for casting distance), and a piece of hotdog. I don't throw this one more than 15 feet from where I'm standing. Lots of times I'll even throw it right along the bank in some shady spots.

I have found that hotdogs are the cleanest, easiest, and most attractive bait for catfish. They absolutely LOVE IT! Here are a couple of cats that me and my girlfriend caught yesterday (we didn't keep anything under 3 lbs.):

Same thing here only I like to use a c-rig for the bottom and cut up bait.

[atx_newbie]

I picked up one in really shallow water (about 2.5 to 3 feet) Sunday morning at about 5:00 a.m.  Caught him on a bomber shallow crank.  He hit it like a freight train, I thought for sure I had a big bass on.  Then I was disappointed to find about a 1.5 pound cat.  Oh well.  Here in Texas and my home area of NW Louisiana, the waters are filthy with cats.  You can't spend a day of fishing, be it for perch, bluegill, bass, or whatever, without catching a fry-daddy's worth of catfish.

[FordNFishinLover]

Okay well i more than likely will miss something i will want to say, so if you have any more questions just p/m. Thats for anyone who wants or needs help with catfishing.

First thing to cover is your gear. When your catfishing there is no need to to finesse. Cats are not line shy so nor should you. I'd suggest using atleast 30 pound line for any situation. A heavy power rod with a good fast tip on it will work best. An a strong and sturdy reel. My self i use Abu 6501's reels paired with BPS Graphite IM7 Heavy power rods with 65 pound power pro braided line.

Next is your bait. But first off you want to match your hook size to your bait size. Bigger the bait the bigger the hook. I personally use 7/0 circle hooks for most of my fishing. I will go smaller or bigger depending on the way they bite. So when you think of baits many people are going to say, use livers, hotdogs, punch baits, bread, worms! Im gunna have to STRONGLY disagree. There is only one instance that your going to want to use those baits for catfishing. Thats if you want to catch 1-7 pound "CHANNEL CATFISH" for eating purposes. The reasoning for that is because once a catfish gets to a certain sizes hes going to be searching for more natural bait instead of eating anything in site. Which im not saying its not possible to catch a good sized cat on one of those other baits, but if you want some good quality cats than i recremend you using the baits i mention.

Now when you think of bait you must think first off what type of catfish your going to be catching! There are 3 primary species of catfish that most will be catching.Those are Channel catfish, which are stocked heavily on smaller lakes and many farm ponds. Flathead catfish, which are primarly found in smaller and the BIG rivers. Then you have your blue catfish, which you will find in many lakes and some large rivers such as the Mississippi.

The channel catfish- You can commonly catch these suckers in the 1-7 pound range with the variety of baits i already mentioned. But if you looking for some bigger sized ones you going to want to use FRESHLY cut shad/mooneye, or bluegill/sunfish. Also smaller 3-4 inch shad can be used to catch many 3-15 pounders. Just use a hook and worm to catch your gills or you can use a cast net to catch shad/mooneye.

Flathead Cats- Beastly fighters these are, yet they are very strict on their diet. Flatheads must have their food alive. A fresh 5-8 inch bluegill or sunfish is the best bait for these big boys.

Blue Cats- These big badasses can get huge. I know ive read stories (true or not i do not know) on these guys being caught on whole turkeys. Im not saying to use that (def dont want to be spending 20 bucks a bait either  ) but i just kinda find that funny. Now these guys just love cut bait. Weither its a shad head or shad tail or a good fillet of shad only you are too find out. If needed a cut bluegill will work good too, possibly better at times.

Okay so now you know what gear to use and what bait  to use. So now you need to know where to fish it and when.

Where/when...First off, when told that catfish feed primarly at night, thats just totally false. In fact some of my best fishing is during the heat of the day. Its all about being able to find the fish and where to put your bait. I think the reason many people say this is because during night catfish will wonder to the shallows to feed, so they assume they will bite better since they are more open to catch/find. Okay so night or day it wont matter. On lakes your best bet is too keep watching your sonor and try and find the fish. Search the deeps and remember that they will be where the bait is. One way to find bait is to fallow where the wind is blowing. Also pay attention to birds, fallowing them just might be the key to find your cats for that day! Now on rivers you too will be wanting to search the deeps but keep a look out for log jams where flatheads might be nesting. Also on deep river bends where the water slows a bit is a great area to check out.

Okay now you need to know how to fish it. Using a good sized sinker for rivers will help alot. Personally i use a simple rig. I tie a heavy duty swivel using a parlamor knot but making sure to leave about 1 1/2 feet of line. With a bit of line i then tie my sinker, 1oz for lakes, up to 5 oz for rivers, the bottem, again with the parlamor knot. Put your hook of choice on and its ready to fish, but be sure to get the bait as close as you can to your pinpointed area. With this rig it allows me to keep my bait off the ground (which you dont want) and hopefully right in the catfishs swimming zone, 1-2 feet off bottem for most of the time.

Now you got your bait and rig all set up and casted, now what? Nows the hard part, you gotta wait  ;D. It might be 5 minutes it might be an hour you just never know. But with these tips i hope it wont take long! As for bites there shouldn't be much worry. If its a cat of any size hes gunna just grab that bait and run like a freight train. Give it a good hook set and get ready for a fantastic fight! Be sure to have your rods sitting a sturdy area, loosing good equitment isn't fun  .

Now again i know i've missed something but i just havent thought of it right at this moment. An if you have any more questions dont be afraid to ask!

-CatfishKing2010

[skronky]

I was fishing the method I described above last night and I caught a 26.5 inch blue cat on CHICKEN LIVER just after dark. He almost yanked the pole out of my hands. It was awesome. Just goes to show liver can produce blue cats every once and a while.

Before that I caught a channel cat about 18 inches on a green Senko texas rigged...

[shaw24]

Whats the best way to take a catfish off the hook? I don' like catching them b/c i dont wanna get stabbed. So I dont fish for them ever but the pond I fish get stocked with them all the time.

[skronky]

If they are small enough grab them from the belly. Put your fingers around the spines and you don't have to worry about gettings stabbed as long as you have a good grip.  Unless its a bullhead, then use gloves. You can lip them like a bass. They'll bite, but it won't hurt that bite. Unless its a bullhead, then use gloves.