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Catfishing
Techniques
By: Ron Wilson
October 17, 2002….
I am not sure just how much anyone has studied Catfish habits and what
they do, but I know a lot of people that just like to go catch them!
Do
catfish migrate to spawn like other fish? Personally I believe they do,
but have no evidence to back it up. However, I have watched schools of
larger Cat’s moving upstream in the Los Banos area and when I caught a
fish that was migrating through the shallow water it was usually a 3 to
8 pound channel catfish full of eggs.
Just
add water to a flood control area like Sutters Bypass, when they divert
from the Sacramento River and you can catch catfish in one to two feet
of water that used to be a bean, alfalfa or corn fields. The fish leave
the river system to feed on worms and other creatures that are there.
Fishing
for catfish can be simple and easy or it can be as complicated
as you want to make it, it depends on how you approach the art of
catching or fishing for them.
Most
anglers target a certain species of fish and they tend to overload their
brains with all kinds of technology and forget that maybe a single hook
and worm will catch them.
Lets
start with the bait that you are going to use. My personal choice is
fresh chicken liver. Its bloody and the whiskerfish seem to follow the
blood scent right to the hook when your fishing in an area where there
is current, like a slow moving stream, river or possibly a wind blown
point in a lake. However, I have used a lot of other baits in my
lifetime to catch catfish. Have you tried garlic dough balls, hot dog
wieners, clams, squid, sardines, mackerel, anchovies, shrimp, crawdads
(whole or just the tail peeled), live minnows, worms (both garden and
nightcrawlers) and bottled stink baits, with chunks, or those with
liquid that you have to use a sponge and a stick to get it on in a
sufficient quantity to catch catfish. Some of that stuff smells so bad
that you need a very strong stomach just to get near it!
These
different baits will work in our lakes and reservoirs for the
whiskerfish but my personal choice when I pursue them in the rivers is
still chicken liver. Be sure and remember to take a towel to wipe your
hands as its messy!
There
is one good side of the chicken liver; the side with veins will hold the
liver together well enough to get a hook in it. The other half is almost
like a clot of blood and you need sewing thread to wrap the bait on the
hook in order to cast it out without it flying off.
Chicken
Liver is my favorite bait, but a person should never get stuck on one
type of bait. I have went fishing on the San Joaquin River for striped
bass and catfish and took along sardines for the stripers and chicken
liver for the catfish. In areas I fished with chicken liver I caught
stripers and in the areas that I fished with sardines, I caught catfish!
I guess fishing is fishing and one should be prepared to feed the
catfish whatever they prefer to eat that day.
The
methods vary greatly from fisherman to fisherman. Some like the old
striper rigs, which is a sinker with two single hooks tied above it
about 10 inches apart. Some like the slider sinker style rigs because
they can let the catfish grab the bait and take off without feeling the
weight. Myself I like to use just enough splitshot to get the bait on
the bottom. Normally, a large buckshot on 10-pound test line, with a
single number 2 hook.
I
tie the boat right next to the bank and throw the bait into the current,
letting it roll to the bank. Catfish, when feeding, will cruise the bank
looking for crawdads, minnows etc. so I feel most of the time close to
the bank is the place to be.
I
never stay in one spot more than a half hour without action. I move,
move and move again until I find active catfish. Then once you find them
and they quit biting move again and find some more!
It’s
much easy for you to go to them than sit and wait for them to come to
your bait. There are times when they will not come to the scent flowing
in the current and you have to go to them.
One
of my favorite areas is riprap on the bank. What I call riprap is large
chunks of concrete usually dumped along a section of the riverbank to
support the levee. This is an ideal place for crawdads to hide and feed
and a good place for the catfish to feed on them.
I
will toss the bait out, set it down and wait about 15 minutes, If no
action I move down stream about 20 feet or so and throw out and wait
another 15 minutes. I keep moving a small distance at a time until I
find feeding fish.
I
don't know if the fish are coming up, following the scent of the bait,
or that I just move until I put the bait in front of a fish that decides
to eat!
This
has been one of my most successful tactics to catch catfish. There are
exceptions to any rule and sometimes I like to anchor out in the current
at a bend where the water flows into an eddy in deeper water. The
catfish like to lie in the holes at times and let the food come to them.
As
fishermen we all have our own ideas as to what to do and how it should
be done. I hope that this column will help you catch a few more fish. If
nothing else you will get to see more territory by trying the old wait 15
minutes or so and if no action, move a few yards downstream method! |
