Blue catfish can be caught all year long though fishing for blue catfish during the spawn can be tough. For numbers of blues I like the Spring starting in early to mid-March and running through mid-April for red hot action , big numbers of blue catfish, and some trophy class blue cats mixed in.
Fall also offers some excellent blue cat action as well. If I could pick just one time of the year for flatheads it would be September and October. The fish are feeding heavily getting ready for winter and fishing during this time has always produced the most flatheads and the biggest ones as well.
What I use as a professional catfish guide. The Ultimate Guide To Catfish Tackle — Everything you need to know about catfish tackle and gear from hooks to a fishing line and everything in between. Use this get to get the right catfish tackle and save money in the process!
Everything you need to know to set up for catching catfish. The Ultimate List of Catfishing Tips — Our great big list of catfishing tips to help you get on the path to catching more fish. Chad Ferguson is a pro catfish guide with over fifteen years experience fishing professionally for catfish, outdoor writer, photographer and noted authority on catfish fishing. Get more exclusive catfish fishing tips here by email , make sure to subscribe to my Youtube channel and follow me on Instagram and Twitter.
Is one time of the year better as far as catching cats? Winter Catfishing in the Winter is one of my absolute favorite times of the year.
My favorite Winter catfishing is for trophy blue catfish. As waters warm, fish shoreline areas where the wind is blowing against and causing dead baitfish to windrow or accumulate. Channel catfish possess very keen senses of smell and taste. Additionally, the channel catfish has taste buds distributed over the surface of its entire body. This combination of exceptional senses of taste and smell allows the channel catfish to find food in dark, stained, or muddy water with relative ease.
Channel catfish are omnivorous, which means they eat a wide variety of food items depending on what is available in their environment. They are most attracted to foods that have a strong odor and they have a strong sense of smell to guide them. The diet of the channel catfish is influenced by their size, their location, and the season. Smaller catfish feed mostly on bottom-dwelling organisms such as insect larvae and invertebrates such as snails and clams.
As they grow larger their diet changes to include a wider variety of food. Once a channel catfish is larger than 16 inches, live and dead fish become the main source of food. During winter months, especially where ice is present, they will eat the dead fish at the bottom of a lake or river. Throughout spring and summer, channel catfish will feast on an abundance of worms, fish, frogs, crayfish, insects, algae, and any other plant or animals that they find tasty.
During the fall, fish and frogs become a larger part of their diet. It is also important you let your baits soak longer at night. Because catfish will be out hunting, they will eventually find your bait. Give your bait at least 45 minutes before casting elsewhere.
For a complete breakdown of the best gear, baits, hooks, rods, and electronics to catch more and bigger catfish, check out my recommended catfish gear list. For catfish in the early spring right after ice melt or the final freezing night, catfish will still behave similarly to their winter customs.
You will probably catch more catfish during the middle to the latter part of the day than you will at night and in the morning. Catfish will become more active as the water temps rise. Later in the spring as summer nears, fish at night.
Sunset until sunrise tends to be the hottest time for me. These fish will come and find your bait more aggressively and you can do well fishing from shore.
You can catch cats during the middle of the day but I find they tend to be in much deeper water. During the summer, the best time to catch catfish actively out hunting seems to be at night.
About an hour before sunset throughout the night until about 2 hours after sunset seems to be the perfect time window. Catfish will emerge from those deeper holes they spend their days in and come up into the shallow bays and flats chasing bluegill, perch, and shad.
I do a lot of fishing from the bank so the nighttime offers be the best access to hungry catfish. Just remember to let your bait soak longer at night before moving because catfish will be out and about hunting so give them some extra time to find your hook. If you have a boat and are able to find deep drop-offs with laydown timber, you can make a killing on daytime catfish all bunched up close together. To learn how to catch catfish during the summer and warm weather in general, check out this article.
During the fall, the shad bite really turns on for catfish. Shad start schooling up and catfish go on hunt mode. Later in the fall as water temperature plummet and start to look more like winter, go with more fishing towards the middle to the latter portion of the day. Use live or cut bait for these fish. I like using living small bluegills for big flatheads and cut shad for blue and channel cats.
The early fall is one of the best times to hook into good cats. During the winter, catfish will be trying to stay as warm as possible. In these locations, look for the deepest holes. If you catch catfish during the winter and their bellies have some mud on them, you now know why.
The best time of day to catch winter catfish is probably late morning through near-sunset. It will be too cold out. By far my favorite time to catch wintertime catfish though is anytime you have a snow or rain event that causes air temperatures to rise some. Big catfish, especially flatheads will come alive and start biting.
For a complete breakdown of fishing for catfish in winter , check out my article I wrote. Also, fishing during and after rain and flooding can yield big catfish. One of my usual fishing partners opens the bails on his reels and then closes them when he is ready to yank on the rod to set the hook.
With a circle hook, there is no need to yank on the rod to set the hook. When the catfish swims away with the bait, the line slips out through the corner of the mouth and circle hook catches the corner of the mouth automatically. Jerking hard on the line usually causes the circle hook to pop out of the mouth of the fish instead of catching the corner of the mouth.
When the rod bends down, you just pick it up and the fight is on. We use a very large landing net with a beefy frame to boat the fish. If the fish is large, we lift the net by grabbing the hoop and some of the net instead of the handle because the handle would collapse under the weight. Earlier, I mentioned that we were fishing under very low light conditions. Most of the time that is our only source of light. Even though it is not a lot of light, the white rods and orange lines are easily visible.
When we need more light to bait a hook, unhook a fish or work on tackle, we use flashlights or clip-on LED work lights. Catfish are nocturnal feeders, so they will avoid the area if you light up a propane lantern or other source of bright light.
In addition, a Coleman lantern is a magnet for insects. We learned that lesson the hard way! If you are shore fishing, turn your lantern down low and set it on the ground several feet away from where you are situated to keep the bugs away and so that it does not illuminate much of the water where you are fishing.
This five pound walleye bit on a catfish line. The fish looks larger because it is being held toward the camera using a 30 inch long fish grabber! When you go catfish fishing on the Ohio River, you never know what you will or will not catch.
You might hook a two pound catfish or a 50 pound catfish or a leatherback turtle or a gar or something else. On one trip, I caught the five pound walleye in the picture above on a piece of cut bait. One summer, my boat partner caught an eel about 30 inches long on the West Virginia side just north of Beech Bottom Marina! Last summer, our ten year-old grandson caught the 18 pound flathead catfish shown earlier in this story. Our largest two catfish so far weighed 35 pounds, but we have caught a lot that weighed between 10 and 20 pounds and have caught a number that weighed between 20 and 35 pounds.
On a typical evening, most of the catfish that we catch weigh 6 to 8 pounds and we often catch one or two that are over 10 pounds. We take pictures of the larger fish and then return everything that we catch to the water. However, you may want to do so, especially if a qualifying fish is caught by a child. You may document the eligibility of the fish for a citation by taking a clear photograph that shows the length of the fish, so be sure to take along a tape measure that has large enough numbers to be read in a photograph.
The minimum qualifying size for a channel catfish is 6 pounds or 25 inches. Channel catfish that size are fairly common when fishing the Ohio River. Flathead catfish need to either weigh 10 pounds or be 29 inches long and those are also somewhat common in this part of the Ohio.
Please qualify your catfish by documenting the length of them using photographs so that you can release them back into the river unharmed. If you are going out onto the Ohio River for the first time, there are some tips that are important to remember:.
Notice that Heath was wearing a properly fitting life jacket when this picture was taken. It was a good Coast Guard approved design which was comfortable to wear and had closures that would keep it from coming off in case he went into the water.
This model also has a full back which provides a lot of Hypothermia protection. Heath is also a good swimmer.
0コメント