Any tips for catching catfish?
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How can I catch catfish? I did not do well last year.
I sneak away to go fishing often and catch crappie and large mouth bass very well but would like to catch more cat. I tried all the stuff I read online last year with no success – fishing off shore. I don’t have a boat.
I have several large & nice lakes near me in north Texas but not any good rivers.
The Trinity River is supposed to be polluted.
Can anyone help with advice?
What is the best way to catch cat ?
What is the best time – day or night?
Baits?
Techniques?
Anything else?
Thanks for your help!
.
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dusk, ive had good luck with night crawlers, a good technique is to cast twords the side if there is tall grass growing over it, they will nest there alot
I live on Lake Texoma and fish quite a bit. My best luck for cats is finding somewhere a crick, runoff, or any other water source flows into a bigger water body. Cats are most active the first few hours in the morning and the last few at night and then throughout the evening. I personally like live bait, chicken livers, and shad sides.I like to fish live bait whenever possible and usually put my weight behind a barrel swivel with a bead to protect my knot and then tie about 10-15 inches of a leader onto the barrel swivel. I run braided line 65# and use a 7.5 foot Bass Pro shops Catmaxx combo. I also like to fish using a slip float system with live bait and a glow stick at night. Thats all I have.
Best way to catch them?
You’ll get several different answers. You can use a simple hook with a 1/2 ounce to 1 ounce weight tied about a foot or so up from the hook. You can also use a leader. You can Google what they are. Basically it’s seperating your line into two sections. One for your hooks and the other for the weight.
Best time?
A very common misconception is that Catfish will only bite well at night. Not true at all. I’m not at all saying that some nights may be more productive than day time but more times than not there’s not a huge difference. I personally like early morning best myself but you can catch them throughout the whole day usually.
Baits?
There’s a number of baits which will catch them. A very tried and true bait would be chicken livers. My only gripes about chicken livers are:
1. It is flat out hard to keep on the hook at times. You can help with this by wrapping the chicken liver with some kind of thread or even panty hose. Simply put the chicken liver on a hook and wrap your material around the bait and hook.
2. A lot of smaller fish tend to mess with it, especially Bluegills.
Another bait would be cut bait. This is my personal favorite for the Catfish. You can catch a few Bluegills and cut them into a few pieces and use each individual piece for bait. I’ve pulled up a lot of bigger Catfish on cut bait as well. Also, Bluegills won’t mess with it.
Techniques?
My only advice that would involve somewhat of a technique would be regarding where to cast. Another big misconception is that Catfish only feed in deep water. Again, not at all true. In fact, Catfish are much like Bass and what not when it comes to where they feed. Catfish will hang tight to cover in shallow waters on a lot of occasions. Find structure in the water like logs, stumps, rocks, etc and fish them.
Also, be patient when Catfishing. Catfishing requires a lot of patience and waiting at times. Time and time again I’ve seen people get too bored and eventually give up on them. To me the wait is well worth it when Catfishing. They put up a great fight and are a hard fighting fish, which makes them a very fun fish to catch.
Given his proximity and knowledge of local habits, Micaiah’s response is the one you should be listening to here…. The only thing that I’d say differently is this…. I catch more catfish between 8:00 pm and 11:30 PM then I do at any other time here in NC…. Good luck…
Try these sites for ideas,
http://www.learntocatchcatfish.com/category/catfish_bait/
http://www.catfished.com/bait.html
http://www.learntocatchcatfish.com/
http://www.articlesbase.com/sports-and-fitness-articles/homemade-super-catfish-dough-bait-recipe-554340.html
http://www.catfished.com/bait.html
http://www.whiskerkitty.com/
Ive used bottom fishing for the best of luck, with a 1/4 to 1/2 ounce weight tied above a 12 inch leader, connected by a good barrel or snap swivel.
Livers, dough baits, Night crawlers work great too, Channel cats are pretty omnivorous as to their diets, Blue and Flats prefer more live bait offerings.