Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Around the Campfire => Topic started by: upstatenybowyer on June 27, 2017, 07:23:03 pm
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Anyone got any tips for catching catfish? My plan is to throw some chicken liver into a spot where I know they are. Anything else I should be aware of?
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Bring beer?????
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Bring beer?????
LOL ;D
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Frozen shrimp has become my go to for channel cats.
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Helps to have a hook on the line >:D! They like smelly baits, like ripe liver or limber get cheese, and blue cats will hit a lure. Real good dipped in egg batter and corn meal served with corn on the cob and hushpuppies and beer! Have fun!
Hawkdancer
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Channel cat?.......Never mind.
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Ive caught a lot mixing strawberry jello powder in with the chicken liver. Circle hooks work pretty good if you dont want to use a treble hook (which i dont like to use). Flatheads and Blues prefer a more lively bait usually. If its a area with out a lot of rough fish you can never go wrong woth nightcrawlers
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Check out this old post I started a while back. It has some good information in it.
http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,33420.0.html
I caught my biggest catfish ever on a chunk of freezer burnt deer meat. We didn't have scales but it was 47 1/2" long and 21" around the middle
(http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r55/clintanders/catfish2.jpg)
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Nice fish !
I'm not a fan of chicken livers except for chumming up the water. I like using gizzards. I take three quarters of the package and Chum up the water. I prefer to use a crappie rig with a heavy sinker. I try to keep the bait elevated a foot or two off the bottom
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That's a monster Outlaw. (A) Awesome thread too... has just about any and all the tips a feller could need. I think I might try Pearl's shrimp idea tomorrow. Fresh chicken liver was no good for me tonight. :'(
Thanks for the input boys!
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Good luck and let us know what you catch
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Hang the livers out over night to ripen a mite. Limburger cheese, any thing that smells works, there are a couple of commercial baits that work, the shrimp should be a bit ripe as wellL. Nice pic -I'd cut one that size into steaks! Good luck, this thread is making my reel finger itch >:D!
Hawkdancer
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Flatheads, love live bait - a live Bluegill is the preferred bait here in Michigan )F( ! Bob
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I like to do what Hawkdancer said. Let some beef liver get a bit ripe. Another thing is not to set the hook to quickly. Our Chanel Cats like to pick up the bait and drop it. I've watched them do this in our pond at least. I usually let them hold it awhile before it set hook.
Bjrogg
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They tend to be most active around midnight.
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I know a lot of fellas like stinky baits and I know they work. I have targeted channel cats for the last 20 plus years and my best, most consistent fishing comes on fresh cut bait or fresh frozen shrimp. Plus, my hands and nose prefer fresh :)
It all works, try several baits every time you go. Its never the same preference twice. I'm getting ALL excited just talking about fishing!
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One other tid bit. Channels have an under bite which makes eating food just off bottom easier for them. Flatheads have an over bite and that makes eating bait right off the bottom easier for them. For channels I prefer to use a slip bobber with my weight on the tag end and my hook/ bait tied off 4-6" up the main line. The weight on the bottom keeps you pegged right where it lands while the bait hangs just off bottom. You will get more bites this way and hook for fish that do bite. And if you fish at night you can push a small chem light into the foam bobber. It makes seeing takes VERY easy.
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I like to do what Hawkdancer said. Let some beef liver get a bit ripe. Another thing is not to set the hook to quickly. Our Chanel Cats like to pick up the bait and drop it. I've watched them do this in our pond at least. I usually let them hold it awhile before it set hook.
Bjrogg
Pressed for time so I agree with BJ totally. I would use a live minnow rig in the Deleware River. Run an open needle tru from mouth to butt then snap on double hook to swivel. The Cats in my back yard N.VA are way different.
Maybe this advice is posted above. Best ever catfishing is during or right after a heavy rain.
Fresh bait is best, chicken livers good but you need to know how to keep em on hook.
Nightcrawlers UNIVERSAL. Large totally fresh cut bait for big channels. Oh fast water near bank or the center of a backwater swirl. Zuma
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That's a monster Outlaw. (A) Awesome thread too... has just about any and all the tips a feller could need. I think I might try Pearl's shrimp idea tomorrow. Fresh chicken liver was no good for me tonight. :'(
The problem was the fresh part, i set it out in the sun all day, hotdogs too. I have taken old frozen sardine from salmon fishing and let it get ripe and it worked good too. Caught a 5lb blue cat on the top 5ft of a fenwick fly rod with the reel tapped on, that was a ride😀
Thanks for the input boys!
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Well, I went the stinky route all day goin' for channels and I came up with nothing. I was using rotten bullhead cuts. Tried hotdogs too.
Pearl, next time I'm following your lead. Fresh shrimp, and I'm gonna study what you wrote above about getting the bait in the right place before I go.
Zuma, holy shinikies! Those are some beauties. I'm gonna try what you said as well.
I refuse to give up! )F( )F( )F(
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Best bait I ever used for cats was soft shelled crabs. We would catch them and wrap in a wet paper towel and put them in the fridge until we went fishin. Try it you'll like it.
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A buddy from the bay used frozen shrimp here and did ok. May resemble the big ole June Bug
larva. May be very good for the more northern cats that hold and turn there catch before swallowing.
On a good day I could fill the bottom of a John boat with the cats here. )F( -C-
Zuma
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I love catching catfish! Blues, channels, and flatheads are all very different fish and to really catch them, you need to give their habits some thought. Flatheads are serious predators. I target them in deep holes in the outside bend of a river where they spend their days waiting in ambush in woody cover. They hunt the nearby shallower flats at night. Use live shad, bream, or big goldfish and don't skimp on your tackle. 50 pound flatheads in heavy cover can rape light tackle. I think of big blue cats as being a pelagic baitfish school follower. They hang out underneath big schools of shad. Some of my favorite blue cat days have been drifting down big open water stretches on the Tennessee River in the winter baiting up with big cuts of skipjack herring. For any old fish fry the best tasting fish to me is a channel cat under 5 pounds that is pulled from a swift flowing undammed creek or river. Tight line the deep holes with night crawlers, minnows or shrimp. Dang it! It's raining outside. With all this catfish talk, I want to hitch up the boat!
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Howard you're my brother from another mother!
You will catch fish on fresh cut bait or shrimp If you are certain there are channels in the river/stream you are fishing. The shrimp represent crayfish. They have almost zero vision so Its all about scents and oils and shrimp smell just like crayfish. Replace your baits every 20-25 minutes of soaking. Keep them fresh and keep the scent rolling down. With channels you have to move often. They are either right there and will eat, or they aren't. Its not uncommon to hit 15-20 holes/runs in a 3-4 hour fish.
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I use shrimp and deer liver. Works great for butter cats and channels.
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;D you are speaking my language Chris and I agree with you about keeping on the move with channel cats. I think they are the perfect species for float fishing small rivers. Alabama is blessed with canoe streams that have everything a catfisherman could want. I have spent many a summer day paddling from hole to hole and taking the hungriest 3 or 4 cats from each spot. It may be the only thing that rivals bow hunting as my favorite means of acquiring protein!
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1200 miles apart and we fish the same river :)
We have a river called the Maple, its more of a big drainage that collects dozens of small drains over several counties. Its exactly as you describe. 3 or 4 hungry cats out of each hole or log jam, every hundred yards or so. Its slow moving, stirred up murky water. Every once in a while we will pull a smallmouth, northern pike or walleye out. An occasional juvenile flathead will eat our cut bait. I've had some great float trips the last 20 years.
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I use shrimp and deer liver. Works great for butter cats and channels.
I saved some deer liver and tried it the next spring.
They threw it back on the bank sinker and all. ???
Zuma
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Okay, first of all, Pearly, you are absolutely right about the shrimp... they love it! I had about 2 hours yesterday to fish and they were hitting almost instantly on every cast. But... I still didn't catch one! PLEASE tell me where I went wrong...
I set the shrimp on a barbed Eagle Claw hook (not sure the number, but fairly large) with a heavy split-shot 4-6" above that, and a slip bobber above that. This kept the rig in place in the slow-moving water. The cats would start hitting and then stop. I'd reel in a bit and discover I was snagged. I'd then get it unsnagged, they'd start hitting again right away, then I'd get snagged again... repeat, repeat, repeat until either I got totally stuck and lost the line, or was too close to shore. >:(
I moved around to different spots, but this kept happening. Do I have to just keep moving till I find a spot where I don't get snagged, or is there a way to avoid the snagging?
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Fresh whole shrimp stay on the hook better, but like Pearly suggested, you have to change your bait often. Once an unpeeled shrimp gets mushy, it won't stay on the hook very well. For channel cats, a big hook isn't necessary. My favorite hook for eating sized cats is a No. 1 or 1/0 Eagle Claw 84. A channel cats mouth is pretty fleshy and a small hook will catch a big fish, but a big hook just isn't going to catch a small fish. Depending on the bottom composition, weight of my tackle, and the current, I use anywhere from a 3/4 ounce to a 4 ounce slip lead. Run it up the line and tie on a barrel swivel. Tie 14 to 20 inches of line below the swivel and tie your hook at the bottom. Your lead should be heavy enough to hold the bottom with all the slack reeled up. I favor bright colored line in muddy water and a more natural color in clear rocky streams. I am sort of old school and haven't embraced the new braided lines. I like an abrasion resistant monofilament like Ande, Stren or Berkley Big Game. Spinning rigs for small cats are usually spooled with 20lb test. One bump of the rod is time to reel up slack and wait. Multiple bumps or lateral movement of the line is a reel up the slack and set the hook type of proposition. Bigger fish usually don't play around with your bait - when you set that hook you are usually rewarded with one spiraling his way to the frying pan. Little pecker heads can be aggravating bait stealers and will send me to the next hole. Big flatheads in heavy cover are a whole other ball of wax. Nonbelievers see me heading down to a little muddy stream called the Sucharnochee River here in Livingston toting heavy saltwater looking catfish rods with 80 lb. Ande line, 4 oz. sinkers and 6/0 hooks with 3/4 pound goldfish in the bait bucket and they think I am delusional - until they see the 40 - 60 flatheads that come out of those root wads and tree tops. Tackle for catfish really depends on what you are fishing for. Rain again today - this is killing me. :(
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Get yourself some Dutys baiting needles. The ONLY time I use snelled hooks is for cats. Hook the needle on the loop end of the snell. This allows you to thread the shrimp on the hook and up the line. I start at the tail so when Im done the hook is just off its tail. Haint nothing getting away! I agree with Howard on hook size. Consider most fish you are messing with are 1-4#. I do this for two reasons. It keeps my bait on securely for long casts and short bites.
Your biggest issue last night was baby channels. They will HAMMER that bait like they are 5#, but yet never get hooked. Keeper cats don't bite, they simply eat and run in about 3 seconds. I cant tell you how many times I reached out and barely got a hold of my rod flying off the bank or out of the boat. You turn your head and next thing you know its gone.
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Another one I found that works real good and stays on a hook is frozen squid.
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Okay, first of all, Pearly, you are absolutely right about the shrimp... they love it! I had about 2 hours yesterday to fish and they were hitting almost instantly on every cast. But... I still didn't catch one! PLEASE tell me where I went wrong...
I set the shrimp on a barbed Eagle Claw hook (not sure the number, but fairly large) with a heavy split-shot 4-6" above that, and a slip bobber above that. This kept the rig in place in the slow-moving water. The cats would start hitting and then stop. I'd reel in a bit and discover I was snagged. I'd then get it unsnagged, they'd start hitting again right away, then I'd get snagged again... repeat, repeat, repeat until either I got totally stuck and lost the line, or was too close to shore. >:(
I moved around to different spots, but this kept happening. Do I have to just keep moving till I find a spot where I don't get snagged, or is there a way to avoid the snagging?
I think what's going on here is there are no big cats there. :o
If they were they would swoop that bait away from the mini fish in a heart beat. :)
Actually it's a good sign if the small fishes start bitting. I will start a feeding frenzy.
Then the big boys move in. Anywho, how'd ya know they were cats if ya didn't score any?
Those fish will educate you because you ain't afraid of no Cats. >:D
IMO if you use a Carolina rig and can successfully score 10 lb cats you are ready for
almost any fish with bait. I use the basic same rig for Sheep head, snapper (turtles too)
Whiting, Redfish, Black Drum, shark,Grouper, bass, sunnies, chubs, suckers eels etc on and on
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Zuma
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Holy #$$%! That is one beauty of a snapper Zuma!
Well I actually caught one! Not the biggest cat in the world, but my first. :) It's probably between 1-2 pounds. It put up a good fight though, fun as heck. I know there are bigger ones cause the record in this river is something like 30 pounds. I know a guy who caught a 20 pounder out of this exact spot.
Now that I got a taste of this catfishing I think I might have a new addiction. O:)
Thanks to all of you for getting me started. I'd love to get down where some of you are to go for some real monsters one day.
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Congratulations. That is a thing of beauty! ;D Whisker fish can be habit forming....
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There you go Jeff, can't stop now. I think lb. for lb. catfish put up the best fight of any fish I've ever caught. However my fishing has pertty much been pike, bass, walleye, perch and suckers. Might have to add to that list some day but I do enjoy catching cats.
Bjrogg
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Congrats on the catfish. That's a good size to eat.
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YeHaaa :) ;) :D ;D -C-
Zuma
OK now how did you do it?? LOL
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Those aren't Snappers, upstatenewyorker, Croaker, Redfish, and Sheephead.
Chris, I target catfish more than any other down here, always food on the table. I started using very small treble hooks buried in the bait and that solves the problem with the "pecking" the smaller ones do. I'll let them swallow the hook and get it out when I clean them.
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Now, that's a nice Cat, Congratulations!
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Don't overlook "bank bait" either! Frogs have surpassed every bait I have ever tried, and as a great plus, they are tough baits and can be re-threaded on the hook after a mauling. One night three of us fishing caught 11 channel cats in the 5-7 lb range. We took a pound and a half of shrimp and caught one frog. The guy using the frog put seven of those 11 fish on the stringer in the first hour and next four took all three of us another three hours.
I have had pretty good luck with freshwater clams that I only rarely find in this creek. Grasshoppers, too.
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Nothing wrong with that channel. That's a fine fish. Those guys definitely aren't the ones short biting your bait.
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Congrats Jeff.Nice fish.During the right time of year in the summer I pick up my bait right at the river.Tiny little toads.They stay on the hook good and the cats love them.Otherwise I bring frozen chubs with me.Still a night crawler is the most universal bait there is.
I remember fishing a secluded pond once found while coon hunting all night using crawdad tails.Caught 150 catfish wit the biggest 8 pounds.I personally think the size you got there are the best eating kind.
I always get a kick out of cat fishing.Especially when they bite & then the fight of course.They give you 2 maybe 3 warning thumps then off they go on a run.I give them an arms' length distance of a run and set the hook.Within a few seconds you can tell if you got big one.
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When I caught that big one he didn't put up a fight until I got it near the bank. When I was reeling it in I told my friend that was with me that it wasn't anything big. I got it to the shallow water and it exploded. That was a fun fight.
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Sometimes the channel cats move up into the swift water below the damn on the Missouri River here in the Dakotas and will hit shallow Rapalas close to shore. One night we were working eddies for walleye and doing ok, but then the cats moved in! It was both thrilling and terrifying at the same time. Thrilling because they were running around 8 lbs each, strong as an ox from constant effort while living in the current, and fast as cheetahs with Ben-Gayed buttholes! Terrifying because it was almost moonless and were were dashing around on wet, slimey, slick rocks the size of random pieces of furniture...but they were NOT comfortably upholstered or cushy.
We ended up with a lot of excellent filets and some epic bruises.
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"fast as cheetahs with Ben-Gayed buttholes"
;D ;D ;D JV, can I use that sometime? That's hilarious. Is that original material?
Ed, sounds like amphibians are great for cats. Bet you had plenty of delicious dinners after that epic evening! (=) -C-
Clint, that one in the pic didn't fight much until I got it near the bank either. From there it was like Smackdown City. )P(
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9 pounds!
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I'm done giving you advice!
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Is this going to be like your bows, a better one each week?
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Bingo!!!Way to go.You've got a nice place to fish there it looks like.Congrats.
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Nice cat Jeff, getting close to bow backing size :OK looks like your getting the hang of it )F(
Bjrogg
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Pearly, I owe you big time. It's all about a big enough slip bobber with heavy enough weight and shrimp on the end!
DC, you know just what to say to make a guy feel special. :D
Bead, the Genesee River is known mostly for the beer made next to it, now we know it for it's cats as well!
BJ, you said it. There's more than one thing to do with a skinned cat. ;)
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Where you fishing ? I don't hear much about cat fish here ,just bullheads,,it's been a bad spring fishing for me,,knot much luck,,,,Seneca lake isn't the same? JeffW btw nice fish!
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Couple of nice cats Jeff. Long time ago 3 Rivers was a great place for big blue channel cats. The Oneida , Oswego and Seneca Rivers all meet just off of Rt. 57 between Liverpool and Phoenix. There was a group that would come up from Elmira to night fish for them using cut bait. 15+ lbers .
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Jeff W, I was in Scottsville on the Genesse River, right near RIT. Not the cleanest waterway in the world but there are tons of fish in it!
Linc, wow, I wonder if there are still cats in there. Only one way to find out... you're closer than me. Have go and let me know what you catch! )F(
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I would imagine there are still cats there. Also get fresh water drum there. Some perch and walleyes every once in a while. I do not night fish. I have a hard enough time staying up till 10:00 PM. :-\
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Proud Poppa and his 9 lb baby!
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Nice Cat. :)
Pappy