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Catfish bite all year. Even winter
produces in many parts of the country. Night fishing around a bonfire
offers a welcome spring or fall break as well. Few fish offer better
eating, and big catfish rank second only to sturgeon as a test on tackle
and angler. Even small yellow, black and brown bullheads and white
catfish offer a stout fight on trout or bass tackle. All these fish
share two more characteristics. They prefer bait to lures and if skinned
whole, steaked or filleted can't be beat to eat. At least we think so,
and we're very experienced fish cooks as my wife and I have written a
school of fish and game cookbooks.
Light tackle turns catfish into
panthers.
PHOTO: LOUIS BIGNAMI
My wife Annette and I also rank cold
water channel catfish with ocean-fresh salmon, and, when we go to
friends, she volunteers to "catch dinner" at their catfish
pond. Given the choice, I prefer stream catfish action to lurking at
lakes or sitting at sloughs. Like stream trout, catfish fight better in
current, and their texture seems nicer in the pan. Catfish save trips
when we travel too.
For example, we once traveled 250 miles
to prime coastal steelhead waters that we were told "were clearing
fast." Apparently, our informant kept geologic time. The maximum
underwater visibility never reached six inches. So, instead of fretting,
we switched to saltwater perch fish at the river mouth and catfish
upstream. We caught two to seven pound catfish on bait and returned home
with 50 pounds of fillets that justified the trip. My wife, Annette
fished with light spinning tackle; I stuck to a flyrod and worms. We
both enjoyed the pulling fight of catfish which, on light tackle,
resembles that of saltwater game fish offshore.
While I like lighter gear, I don't fret
about catfish tackle. Everything works. Some pros use heavy bass gear
and 20 to 50 pound test in rivers or still waters with shoals of snags.
I stick with eight or nine foot steelhead outfits with six to twelve
pound test and accept the loss of a few fish in return for a brisk
tussle fight from the small fry. Longer, lighter rods also permit longer
casts and a more delicate presentation.
Add a few split shot or sinkers. One or
two Water Gremlin split shot -- these have ears to they can be reused
and are softer than most others so they don't crimp and weaken line --
sink most baits. Flat disk sinkers work where snags are a problem, and
pyramid sinkers hold in current on hard bottom. Use a sliding sinker in
still water.
I once used heavy-duty hooks. However, I
find that I catch many more and larger catfish with smaller size 8 to 4
light wire dry fly hooks which keep bait lively longer and sink and hold
more often even on light bites.
Delicacy can count as catfish are not
dumb where heavily fished. Even where lightly fished, big whiskerfish
have learned that the weight of a hook or sinker means danger. So light
terminal tackle works best.
Big cats can, like this one, hit crappie
jigs and other artificial lures. Getting the hook out's the trick.
PHOTO: LOUIS BIGNAMI
Add a hook disgorger or long-nose pliers
to help unhook fish and a rag to wipe slime off your hands and you are
set.
Please, if you are slow on the strike,
and catfish swallow the bait, leave the hook in place and cut the leader
off at Mr. Whiskers' mouth if you release fish. Standard steel, rather
than plated hooks, soon rust out without damaging the fish.
I've caught channel cats on bass plugs,
spinners and steelhead flies, and taken flatheads on Fat Gitzits and
Grubs. However, bait ensures catfish results, but it need not smell out
the house or car.
- Fresh baitfish whole or filleted do
well with catfish.
Most anything works; a host
of commercial stink baits flood the market. Some use cheese. Others use
soap. A friend caught a 27 pound catfish on cat food and that catfish
had both a coot and a muskrat in his tummy. So catfish seem to sample
anything they can gum. However, I find live or fresh dead minnows and
nightcrawlers catch more catfish in most waters. As a bonus, live
minnows and nightcrawlers also attract black bass, steelhead and other
worthwhile species.
Liver seems a solid alternative bait in
still water, and it freezes well. In faster currents chicken gizzards
stay on hooks a bit better than most other baits.
Temperate Catfish
Muddy waters put catfish on the bite
anytime temperatures top 40 degrees, but the fish do bite best in waters
above 55 degrees. Bullheads prefer warmer water above 60 degrees which
you can most easily find in the spring. However, if you can find a warm
water discharge from a power plant in the winter you own the keys to the
whisker fishing.
Writer's puff: Homer Circle, the
long-time angling editor for Sports
Afield wrote the following comment on my. "Live Bait
Tactics is such a complete and excellently done book on nature's
best fishing lures. I'll keep it handy in my 'elbow library' and know it
will keep me sure of my facts when I write for these species."
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