Catfishing Tactics Archives – Page 2 of 2 – CatsandCarp.com

Catching catfish on a lure is an absolute blast, especially on light tackle. There trick is finding the right place to do it.

I find that the best places to use a lure on catfish is when you have catfish holding in river current or jigging vertically from a drifting boat.

When fishing in current you tend to find gravel bottoms with fewer snags. Additionally, the catfish are snatching up food that is drifting down stream so they rely more on their sight then then their sense of smell. The current also means they have to grab their meals fast rather than examining and picking leisurely at it.  These are great conditions for lure fishing.

A pretty channel cat caught on a white 2″ tube jig and an ultralight rod with 4lb Firewire

The best type of cat fishing lures mimic natural prey, are something that can be fished slowly across the bottom and be relatively snag free. I like to use 4″ silver tube jigs with a 1/8 oz Gamagatsu jig head. Sometimes I will tip the jig with a small strip of cut bait.

I bounce the jig across the bottom, letting it sit on the bottom for the count of 2 or 3 every other time I lift the rod tip. If I feel a nibble I twitch the rod tip a couple times.

Jigging vertically from a boat also works great. If you have relatively non-snaggy structure like a steep underwater slope or a hump on the bottom, jigging can be great. Use a fish finder to locate bait schools and jigg aggressively underneath the bait. Or if you are working without sonar, simply drift across these structures, jigging as you go. A 4″ spoon work good for this and can be tipped with cut bait if you lack faith in your lure.

Two great cat fishing  lures. A jig and a spoon.

I have had great times kayaking with my wife up the Potomac river and then drifting back down, jigging for catfish the whole way back.

While lure fishing rarely ever outproduces bait fishing in the exact same spot, where lure fishing gives you an edges is when you are trying to locate the catfish. Cat fishing lures allows you to cover a lot of water very quickly. Drift down a section of river with your jigs or working a stretch with a tube jig and you’ll discover the sweet spots a lot faster then you would with “bait-n’wait”.

These pellets are fabulous for catching lots of catfish with the added advantage of not rotting in the trunk of your car.

When I was boy my mother used to find all sorts of horrid surprises in the pockets of my rain jacket and fishing coat: week old salmon eggs, fish belly, bugs, you name it. As a man I have enticed the wrath of my wife by forgetting cut shad and shrimp in the trunk of the car.

But the smell is not the only problem with cut shad, chicken liver, shrimp and all of our other favorite fresh baits. When you only have a few hours to sneak in a trip to the river, you don’t want to spend half that time looking for or thawing-out bait.

Consequently, I always like to carry a bag of Dynamite’s Marine Halibut Pellets, or their Carp Tech crab and crayfish 20mm boilies in my tackle bag.

These pellet and boilie baits don’t have to be refrigerated, have a very long shelf life and don’t make a mess, but just open the bag and any cat fisherman worth his salt will be able to tell they make a great catfish bait.

Halibut pellets are used with a small hook (#6 to #10) and a “hair rig” like this one.

Using pellets and boilies also helps when casting long distances. They are so tough and aerodynamic that you can cast them 120 yards easily with the right rod and not have to worry whether they will come flying off the hook mid-cast or disintegrate when they hit the water.

The price is hard to beat too. you can get a 2.2 lb bag of Dynamite Halibut Pellets for under $7 from www.bigcarptackle.com. Because of the durability I typically only use four or five pellets for an afternoon of cat fishing, so a 2.2 lb bag will last me all season. When you compare that to spending $5 on worms that lasts one day, or $6 on a bucket of chicken liver that is not allowed anywhere near my wife’s refrigerator, then $7 per year is absolute bargain!

When the temperature drops a lot of species turn “off” for the winter. Flathead catfish seem to disappear once the water dips below 50 degrees, but the channels, bullheads and blue catfish don’t seem to mind at all.

If you can stand being outside, winter is a fabulous time to catch blue catfish. On this trip we landed five 3-5 lb blue catfish fishing from shore with the water temperature in the 40’s. A couple hours produce real steady action (enough to keep the circulation flowing so we didn’t mind the cold).

This winter don’t miss out on some great blue catfish action from shore or from boat.

An average size blue catfish.