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When I am not trophy fishing I like to go fishing for a new species of fish. I took a long lunch to run to Lake Royal in Fairfax Va in an attempt to catch a Brown Bullhead Catfish. This small dumpy catfish which is best loved as flathead bait is rare in Fairfax Va and something I haven’t ever caught so I am embarrassing the challenge of trying to find and catch one of these little guys.

After studying biological survey data and google maps I picked my spot and this is what I caught. Better luck next time. On the up side the goose put up an…interesting fight and was released safely though my Daiwa Regal Z spinning reel seems to have a broken clutch now.

A nice Canadian goose on rod and reel.

An Awesome Catfish Po-Boy Sandwich!

Ingredients:

• 4-6 catfish fillets, about 1-2 pounds (remove skin)
• 1 cup milk or buttermilk
• Salt
• 3/4 cup fine cornmeal (do not use coarsely ground cornmeal)
• 1/2 cup flour
• Old bay seasoning
• Oil for frying (use peanut oil if you can)
• Lettuce
• Tomatoes
• Sub roll

For Tartar Sauce

• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 6 tablespoons sweet pickle relish or finely chopped bread-and-butter pickles

• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Directions:

• Heat oil to 350
• Mix all the tartar ingredient in bowl
• Mix the flour and cornmeal
• Pour the milk or butter milk in a bowl and soak fillet for a few minutes
• Pull fillet out of milk and salt it and sprinkle it with salt, pepper and old bay
• Roll fillet in flour/meal mixture  and shake off excesses
• Fry catfish until brown on both sides
• Let catfish sit on towel get rid of excess oil.
• Serve with tartar sauce on a roll with lettuce and tomatoes
• Enjoy one awesome catfish po boy sandwich recipe

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”.

If you want to attach a swivel or hook to your line a basic fishing knot is the improved clinch knot. The improved clinch knot is far and away the most common knot I tie when I am fishing. Its strong, easy to tie and quick.

This video explains exactly how to tie the improved clinch knot. Practice a few time before heading out to the river and bring your smart phone with us in case you forget.

Here are some tips about tying an improved clinch knot that are not in the video:

1) If you are fishing with mono-filament line and your hook breaks off, examine the broken end of the line. If the broken end is curly like a pigs tails this means the knot slipped off because you tied it poorly. Make sure you are doing it right, perhaps use more wraps and make sure to wet the knot before tightening it up.

2) The smaller the diameter of line you are using the more wraps you need to make the knot hold. 80 lb mono-filament may only need 5 wraps but 4 lb line will need 8-10 wraps.

3) Dress the knot properly. Dressing a knot means tightening it in a way that results in the knot looking proper. The improved clinch knot should resemble a hangman’s noose when dressed properly. To dress the improved clinch knot properly put tension on the main line, tag end and the hook all the the same time but begin pulling the tag end first. Use your finger nails to help the wraps bunch up onto of the hook eyes if needed.

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.

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