Catfishers come in

[IronOutlaw]

Ok I love catfishing. I've always used nightcrawlers, pinks, and minnows and caught alot of smaller fish. Biggest I've caught is prolly 10 pounds.

I'm wanting to try for bigger fish. I've been going down to the altamaha river in ga with my grandfather and I think the record is around 96 pounds so I know there's big fish in there.

I usually go out at around 6 and fish till midnite using a cut up catfish or a live bream. My problem I'm having is hooking a fish when I get a run. I always get around two runs a night on the cutbait/livebait but just can't land a big fish.

What are yalls techniques? What hook do you use and how do you bait it? I try using the biggest hook walmart has and apparently it's not big enough. I use a Carolina rig on the bottom with a 12 ich steel leader cause once in a blue moon we'll hook a big gar.

I've tried letting the fish run before setting the hook and tried setting it immediately with the same results. My bait is either ripped in half or gone.

 

[RicMic]

Re: Catfishers come in

Are you sure its catfish that are hitting? I've never had a problem hooking cats, but as you probably know, if gar grab your bait, they seldom get hooked. Flatheads only take live bait, so they'd be hitting the bream. How are you hooking them? What size and style are the hooks you are using? Personally, I'd ditch the wire leaders, you don't need them for cats and even with all those teeth, gar seldom cut a leader either.

 

[IronOutlaw]

Re: Catfishers come in

I hook through the back on the bream and get the cut bait on there any way I can while leavingbthe tip of the hook exposed.

Truthfully I don't know what size hooks I have. Really they seem to small to use live bait though. I think my hooks are my problem. I'm gonna go to bass pro for a better selection but was wondering what brand, size and style hooks work for you guys.

It may be a gar but I haven't caught one in 3 years. I really think it's a cat or maybe a big turtle.

 

[Wbassemier]

Re: Catfishers come in

Try a size 3 circle hook and when i use cut bait i rig it with two hooks one in the front of the cut bait and one in the back.

 

[RicMic]

Re: Catfishers come in

If you want to catch the big flatheads, you have to use live bait and if you are using a good sized lively bait, then gar and turtles will be less of a nuciance. Both of them will drive you crazy on cut or smaller baits. For channel cats and such a #2 hook is fine, but for big flatheads, I'd suggest an octopus type hook, in at least a 6/0 and I have heard of guys using up to a 10/0!

 

[ninabl]

Re: Catfishers come in

hey! nice to see there another cat fisher in the area. im in winder right down the road from you. i usually use a treble hook what ever size a dough bait hook is but without the spring. in a lake i use a half oz weight.

 

[IronOutlaw]

Re: Catfishers come in

bought some 5/0 and 7/0 hooks tonight. Their alot bigger and better shaped than what I was using. Guess I need to quit buying tackle at walmart. Lol. If I can ever get a Monday off work I'm gonna take off to the river with alot of bream for bait and try for some big channel cats and flatheads.

And ninabl my dads from winder. Weird seein someone local on here with as many members there are on here.

 

[RicMic]

Re: Catfishers come in

Let us know how you do. I was trolling back to the ramp at the resevoir at 1PM on a bright sunny day, with a big white spinner bait, just below the surface in 30 some feet of water, when something hit that nearly jerked the rod out of my hand, it when into a long screaming run and after playing what I thought was a big hybrid for quite a while I finally got it up to the boat, it was a six pond channel cat! I wouldn't have believed it if I wasn't there!

 

[Mountaineer67]

Re: Catfishers come in

I use a 1/0 circle hook (yeah, I know, most would say that's a little small) but - it's not the SIZE of the hook...

The thing with the circle hooks is not to "set" the hook by giving it a really hard yank, but just kind of pull it pack once the fish starts running.

Works for me, anyway...

 

[ninabl]

Re: Catfishers come in

oh yeah ans eff bass pro. go to acadmy sports in Athens. they have better prices and the selection is awesome

 

[Fishaholic247]

Re: Catfishers come in

I use 8/0 gamma oct/circles for catfishing. I have caught them from 5 pounds to 65 pounds and a friend caught one 78 pounds on my setup. Leave the rod in the rod holder and let the fish run.... you will know when he is hooked up

 

[thefairlaneman]

Re: Catfishers come in

I would try a fishfinder with a large treble hook encased in a doe ball or maybe chicken livers. Note the best catfish bait I have ever used were blood worms.

 

[IronOutlaw]

Re: Catfishers come in

I buy all my tackle at academy now ; ). I haven't made it to the altamaha yet, but did go to lake Oconee. Had about a five pounder up to the boat and he broke the line. Guess my two year old spool of spiderline is rotten. I was using nightcrwlers at the trip was short and unplanned

I'm definitly heading to the haw (altamaha) in august. I've lined up some work at some apartments and have been getting them ready for the students to move back in.

We did tear up the hybrids up there above Redlands in about three foot deep water. They were feeding on some Shad and bit everything we threw at them.

Never tried or heard of blood worms. I only tried dough once and thought it was a rip off. Didn't know I needed a treble hook lol. I couldn't even reel in once without losing it.

 

[Treager]

Re: Catfishers come in

With the catfish tournaments I used to participate in Ohio, We always used circle hooks and cut shad. I know a lot of guys would have dough balls, hot dogs and the like, but it's just easier to fish what they feed on anyway. Generally we would let them run a bit and then set the hook.... (it was always fun tagging a 6-8lbs channel cat in the dead of night)...
My Dad, when he would fish for bullhead up in NY as a kid, would buy chicken liver and let it set out for a day.
I haven't had a chance to get out since moving to TN, but going to try the chicken liver thing next weekend with hopefully some bluecats... (or maybe just go striper fishing... haven't decided yet).

 

[ahoy49]

Re: Catfishers come in

I use night crawlers most of the time. I also use stink bait and hotdogs. Just remember big fish are caught on big bait not necessarily big hooks.

Here are some cats we caught on hotdogs. Kids caught them all. Man oh man was it ever a great time.

Ahoy

 

[dwco5051]

Re: Catfishers come in

I use night crawlers most of the time. I also use stink bait and hotdogs. Just remember big fish are caught on big bait not necessarily big hooks.

Not always. Last week I hooked a 37" channel cat on a 3/16 oz jig with a 1 1/4" twister. I was using my ultra light with 4# test. Took over a half an hour to get it to the net and land it. Didn't have a scales to weigh but sure was a lot of fun. Had me going to one end of the boat to the other as I was by myself and couldn't get the trolling motor up and it was making runs under the boat.

 

[ahoy49]

Re: Catfishers come in

Too cool. I bet that was exciting.

I was meaning on average and on purpose.

Ahoy

 

[HAV2FISH]

Re: Catfishers come in

Went out with a friend for cats this weekend, I used liver and he used cut pieces of chicken in a bag with cherry kool-aid. He caught 5 to every one i caught. I had never seen this used as bait before. They eat just about everything.

 

[RicMic]

Re: Catfishers come in

We used to catch channel cats in ONTARIO in the winter through the ICE. We were walleye fishing, but also caught white bass and cats. Its hard to imagine catching big channel cats, when its -20F and there is three feet of ice on the water, but we caught lots of them on jigging rapalas and minnows on 6# mono. The main problem was that we only had about a 7" hole in the ice and some of the cats were to big to get into the hole.

 

[Dave Barnett]

Re: Catfishers come in

One of the things I have found to be helpful in catching big cats on a pole is to leave the bail tripped on my reel. A big ole cat will sometimes play a bait for a long time before taking it. A lot of time if they feel resistance they will drop the bait. This isn't always the case but I have found that doing this increases my catch by a large percentage.

As far as bait goes I have caught cats on everything from hot dogs and dough baits to night crawlers and live minnows and cut baits. I would say the dough baits have been the least effective for me.

I use treble hooks on my poles and singles on my trot line sets. It's no big deal to remove a treble from a single pole but when I'm in a current on a river I don't want to spend a lot of time fussing with trebles as I go down my trot line.

I use a little smaller hook than some do. In my opinion that is just something that has to be decided by the individual. The only real issue I have with hooks is their sharpness. If you are holding on to some of those old dull hooks you found at a yard sale toss them out and buy you some new ones.

Hope this is helpful. Post up some pics of them ole cats when you get em. God Bless.