Catfish Setups
By: Catterman Adventures
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Some tips and tricks for the beginning catterman/woman:
So, let’s say that you’ve never really targeted catfish and now you want to. Great! Let me give you some tips. First off, you need to figure out where you’re going to fish for them. Is it a lake, or is it a river? If it’s a lake you will need to use different strategies to catch fish than in rivers. While rivers are constantly moving, lakes are not (at least not on the scale of a actively flowing waterbody). First off I’d like to mention that this advice is for the beginning fisherman just getting into channel catfish. I will write a different article for blue catfish and flathead catfish. Before I tell you any techniques, you will need to know what the fish are feeding on. If there are gizzard shad in the waterbody, they are most likely feeding on them. If there are not, then they will most likely be feeding on sunfish or perch or shines. Either way, figure out their food source and throw those chicken livers out (that is if you want to catch the big boys). The best way to catch gizzard shad is using a cast net, dipnet, or by snagging them. Always check your regulations before using a cast net or dipnet. If you plan to snag them, I would recommend buying yourself some snagging treble hooks and getting a small setup with 10 pound test line to attach it to. Here’s a youtube tutorial on how to snag baitfish.
To find gizzard shad, you need to find shallow water towards the first three hours of night that is lit up by some kind of light source. The shad are drawn to the shallows since they heat up the quickest during the day. You are also looking for lit up areas because these draw out zoo-plankton to rise from the bottom which the shad filter feed on. If you have a cold front come in, find a deep hole right next to the flats where you have been catching them at. If you get a couple shallow spots, as well as ‘cold front’ spots together, you will be able to find shad anytime you head out through process of elimination.
Now that you’ve got bait, let’s talk about techniques.
During summer months in lakes you will find channel catfish prowling the deeper waterbodies and ledges for food during the daytime, while coming into the shallows to feed at night. In rivers during the daytime in the summer you will find channel catfish in structure such as log jams or a rocky outcrop, as well as eddys where water pools up and slows down. At night they cruise along feeding lanes into the shallows as well.
During the spring time channel catfish will feed ravenously through day and night. You will find them, in both lakes and rivers, going into the shallows and filling their stomachs up with baitfish.
During the fall you will want to fish the shallows that are heating up during the day, while putting your baits onto the ledges leading into deep holes during the night.
For river rigs: I use one of two rigs. In less snaggy areas I use a no roll sinker/slip sinker going to a bead, which then connects to the barrel swivel. I usually make my leader about 12-18 inches and add a peg float about two inches before the hook (I always use a peg on both sides of the float, this makes it wear down slower). This will suspend the bait above the bottom. For channel catfish I prefer to use 6/0 Gamakatsu Offset circle hooks (if you accidentally buy in-line circles, you can always offset them yourselves). In my experience, offset circle hooks work much better than in-line. Pictured Below
For snaggy areas I use a T-turn-swivel. Thundermist lures makes great T-turn swivels. On the T-turn swivel rigs I will add a shorter line for the weight, and a longer line for the leader. I will make the line going to the sinker weaker than the main line. This is because if I do break off the weight I would prefer to still get the hook back, or if a fish takes it into a snag I will still catch the fish but lose the weight.
For lake rigs:
IN THE SHALLOWS: I use a slip float and figure out how deep it is until the bottom. I will then adjust the bobber to keep the bait around 6 inches to a foot off the bottom. Pretty straight forward.
FOR THE DEEPER PARTS: I will use a slip sinker rig, tied to a barrel swivel with a 12 inch leader, going to a Gamakatsu 6/0 Offset circle hook. I use between 1-3 ounce sinkers depending upon how far I have to sling the baits out.
Rods and Reels:
For beginner setups for channel catfish I would recommend:
Casting: KastKing Rover reel in the 50 size, or a Abu Garcia in the 6000 size, on a Ugly Stik Catfish rod. Spooled with 20 to 30 pound monofilament or 30 pound braided line.
Spinning: KastKing Sharky II baitrunner in the 4000 or 5000 size / Okuma avenger (with baitrunner) in the 40 or 50 size, paired up with a Medium-Heavy Ugly Stik Catfish rod. Spooled with 20 to 30 pound monofilament or 30 pound braided line.
For beginner setups for blue/flathead catfish I would recommend:
Casting: KastKing Rover reel in the 60 size, or a Abu Garcia in the 6000 or 7000 size, on a Rippin Lips Supercast Medium-Heavy/Heavy rod. Spooled with 40 pound monofilament or 65 pound braided line.
Spinning:KastKing Sharky II baitrunner in the 6000 size/ Okuma Avenger (with baitrunner) in the 65 size, paired up with a Medium-Heavy Rippin Lips Spinning rod. Spooled with 40 pound monofilament or 65 pound braided line.
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