Discover Catfishing

COOLING YOUR LIVE TANK WATER IN THE SUMMER

As we know the cooler the water, the more oxygen is penetrated. I hear allot of guys say they put soda bottles of frozen ice in there live wells to keep the water cooler, but does it really help?

 Sure it will cool it some initially but it will not maintain its coolness for long. My theory is, (water frozen in pop bottle dont work well) and here’s why.The diagram below  shows a bottle half melted, in the beginning as you initiualy put your frozen pop bottle in your live well, is when it will cool the most, but then after you get some melt water surrounding the ice and is trapped inside of a non-cold transferring material, the melt water kind of act like an insulator, preventing the ice from actually cooling your live tank sufficiently. 

now i understand why guys are doing this, for the fish. anglers are not wanting to harm the fish with tap,  chlorine water and i do applaud their efforts.

But honestly  a couple gallons of tap water will not harm your fish in a 60-100 gallon live tank, and the truth be known, the fish are probably living/swimming in more harmful substances than the chlorine now!

i have found that blocks or chunks of ice has worked best for me, i will buy it, or make it which ever, depends on the situation im presented with.  To make block/chunk  ice I will fill gallon zip lock bags with water and freeze them, but when I’m ready to cool my water, i will remove the zip lock bags so that my tank water is in direct contact with the ice, resulting a more efficient cool down and will also be easier to maintain a desired temperature through out the day.

P.S. be sure to discard your old zip locks in the proper place.

The channel catfish is the smallest of the catfish species but are the most sought after throughout the US. With 2 to 5lbers, being real plentiful for all to catch and channel catfish up to 15 lbs. are not uncommon. The channel catfish may be smaller when comparing to the other blue catfish and flathead catfish in rivers and reservoirs but by far pound for pound, the channel catfish is the hardest fighters of all.
Channel catfish are affected by the seasonal patterns and there is enough of a migration with the season changes to make them predictable. As the seasons change you can target different migration areas once you learn where they are. As spring breaks and the water starts to warm you will find channel catfish mixed in with blue catfish chasing a variety of bait fish along the banks. Normally they will be holding on the windward side. Their main food source in early spring is the winter kill of shad. If you can find multiple dead shad in an area most likely there will channel catfish feeding on them. Once the shad kill is depleted the channel catfish will travel up the small tributaries located around the reservoir and will stay there feeding aggressively in a pre-spawn mode until early summer. 

The channels will seek out cut banks, riprap and hold there for unsuspecting bait fish. Channel catfish also love mussels so and if you can find (mussel beds) sandy/gravel flats that hold mussels and that are close to deep water, you have just found a channel catfish hotspot. Once the water really warms, channel catfish will head back to the deeper water. Look for deep water on the main body of the reservoir at the mouth of large creeks and rivers that dump into the reservoir, deep ledges, drops and ditches. Channel catfish like to hold there. Look for points or a bar that drops into the creek near where the creek empties into the main reservoir. Also if you can find a large flat that is close to the opening of the creek you will catch channel catfish. A flat at these locations are ideal setup locations for night fishing for channel catfish and blue catfish.

• Hooks are hooks in most people’s mind. They figure they either need a big one or a small one, depending on the fish they are targeting. Lots of anglers go through life completely missing the importance of using not only the right size hook, but probably most importantly the right type of hook style for the species they are pursuing.

Have you ever fished with a buddy and he’s landing three fish to your one? Your hooking them but they keep coming unbuttoned before you have a chance to land them.

Hook choice depends on several factors. Obviously, the smaller the fish, the smaller the hook required. What most anglers miss is, that line size, fish species, type of bait, and fishing structure play a major role in hook selection.

Luck will play a role in your catfishing experience but it’s not just pure fishing luck that makes the difference. Most of the time it’s the hook choice you make that will determine your outcome.
Hook size is probably the first thing an angler thinks of when buying hooks. Most are knowloagable enough to know which hook is the right size for the fish they are after.

Hook Styles
Fish hooks also come in several types. Knowing a few of the more popular ones and their uses can help you be successful. Here are the most popular hooks used in Catfishing.

O’Shaughnessy/ J-hook
This hook is named for the specific design of the hook. It’s a standard hook, forged with a very strong bend. This hook is relatively thick, very strong, and not likely to bend out of shape. Generally designed for saltwater, it is good for general bottom fishing use. Sizes range from #3 to as large as 19/0.

CIRCLE HOOKS
Perhaps the best innovation in hooks to come along, circle hooks promote healthy catch and release. The design of the hook itself, when used properly, prevents fish from being hooked in the gut. Many anglers have a problem using these hooks because they require no hook set. If you do try to set the hook, it will generally come out of the mouth of the fish. These hooks are designed to move to the corner of the fish’s mouth and set themselves as the fish swims away from you. Anglers feel a bite and simply begin reeling, slowly at first, then faster as the hook gets set.

LIVE BAIT HOOKS
These hooks generally have a shorter shank than other hooks. Whether that is to allow the live bait to swim more freely or to be less apparent to the fish is debatable. My vote is to allow the bait to swim more freely. These hooks come in regular and circle designs. Regular live bait hooks will be swallowed and result in gut hooks most of the time. Circle live bait hooks provide a greater chance for a good release.

KHALE HOOKS
The curve on these hooks makes them ideal for live bait. Made from the same wire as the Aberdeen hooks, they will bend if hung on the bottom of some structure. However, once a fish is hooked, the design of the hook prevents it from being straightened.

The Santee drift rig is a catfish fishing rig that is gaining popularity in the catfishing world, when targeting blues or channel catfish in lakes and some rivers when the current is very low to non-existent.
It’s a great go to rig to catch catfish and is very easy to do. The catfishing rig acquired it’s name (Santee Cooper rig) as it gained popularity from it’s use by catfishermen in the 90’s on the Santee Cooper chain of lakes in SC.

There are a number of different variations but here are the basics.
To make one of these for catfish fishing you are basically using a slip sinker rig with a longer leader and adding a float. Weight – Use a 1-2 oz. egg sinker or other types of slip sinkers such as the slinky weights or the one i prefer the pencil weight, but to be honest i will use what i have on hand. The 2 oz. sinker will generally get the job done in most all situations but amount of weight you use is going to depend on how deep you are fishing, the amount of wind and your line resistance as you drag the rigs through the water. If you are not sure what size weight to use start with one ounce and you can work your way up or down in size from there.

Swivel – Tie a barrel swivel onto your mainline below your slip sinker weight, just like you would with a slip sinker for catfishing a Carolina rig.

Leader – Cut a length of 50 pound monofilament leader line at roughly 24 in. use your favorite knot and tie one end of that line to your swivel. the most common leader lengths are anywhere from 18 to 36 inches. I have used leaders shorter and longer and didn’t see and advantage one way or the other on the length leader used.

Peg your Float – The peg float is used to hold the bait some what off the bottom of the contour to reduce snags and to raise your bait a little higher in the water column as you drag your baits across the bottom contour.

Hook – Tie your hook on the end after you have slid the peg float on. If you are fishing for smaller Chanel cats i recommend you use a number 3/0 or 4/0 circle hook. I like the eagle claw brand.
If you are fishing for trophy catfish (like big blue catfish) then go with a bigger hook like a number 8/0 to 10/0 circle hook. i like the 8/0 gamakatsu hook for my rigs. Once you have tied on your hook, go back and slide the peg float anywhere from 3 to 6 inches from the hook and insert the peg back into the peg float.

Now your ready to start fishing for catfish with a Santee Cooper setup. Don’t be afraid the spice it up a little and experiment with different weights, different sizes of hooks and different leader line lengths and determine what works best for you when catfishing and you can make modifications from there, I’ve just given you the basic tools and solid information to get started, you can always improve on anything, tweek it for the way you fish.

HOW-TO-

Once you determine where you will pull your drift, just throw your baited rig behind your boat at different lengths of main line. i normally sling my first rod out far behind my boat and the second one a little closer than the first and so on, keeping them staggered at different lengths. The idea here is to (drift with the wind), draggin your baits across the contour of the bottom or (pull your baits) across the contour using your trolling motor. Although drifting with the wind will produce catfish, i prefer to control my (pull/drift) and target more precise contour structure, such as humps and ledges. Draggin your baits through a more likely lair, will pay off more times than not, increasing your chances for a trophy catfish.

CAUTION-
The Santee rig is good method to search out feeding catfish, at the same time learning what your bottom contour is like and discovering new pieces of structure, however in the process you will get snagged and loose some rigs. (Dont get discouraged), it just the way it is. Ive fished places before where I’d lose 20 rigs a day and Ive fished others and never gotten hung up. It is a fish catching rig.

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THIS VIDEO CONTAINS
Catfishing terminology and illustrations of some hot spot locations that will give you a better idea at what you should be looking for on your favorite fishin hole!
i have guys contact me frequently asking for advice, i dont mind helpin out, i know what its like to look for info. and cant find your answers. but i also know hearing somebody explain something and understanding it is two different things! myself, visualization helps me understand more than anything. so i have developed a series of hot spot illustrations for a better understanding of whats happening where the fish live. you know i could have used something like this when i first got started.

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CLICK IMAGE TO INLARGE

The ditch is a hot spot that only occurs in lakes and reservoirs, it attracts many kinds of fish which in turn attracts the big monster catfish looking for a meal. You can locate most of these by looking at a decent lake map or visually look to the banks for your clues, reading the banks will tell you a lot about what’s going on, generally what you see on the bank will also be happening under the water too. So for this hot spot, I’m going to look for cuts in the bank and by cuts I mean those v shaped fingers that you see extended off the main body of water, which are really just rain water run off creeks and ditches that used to feed the main channel before the lake or reservoir was built.

These run off ditches and creeks can be at any depth and because the ditches can be as short as 100 foot or as long as 500 yards, each one with will have a variety of depths above it, it really just depends on the terrain that the lake is built on.
Ditches will also vary in actual ditch depth, some will show up on your depth finder as small 1 or 2 foot depressions and others will show definite depth change of 5 to 10 foot, along with a variety of widths, most of these old ditches and creeks will be most likely silted somewhat, so don’t expect to see a quick depth change on your depth finder, but of a more gradual change.

Catfish use these types of spots for navigating the lake system, cruising along to locate food that has washed into the lake and to blend into the structure for a ambush point. Keep in mind though, that the smaller lakes my produce a thermocline in the heat of the summer so the deepest parts of the ditch that extends below the thermocline will not produce well. You can still catch catfish but you just have to fish the ditch above the thermocline. spring, early summer, late fall and winter when the thermocline is non existent will be the best time to approach the deep water cat fishing hot spot in the smaller lakes.

The larger navigable reservoir water ways which produce current and do not develop a thermocline, and will hold fish year round although the ditch itself as a whole is good place to fish, the deeper portions of the ditch that extends out and meets the main channel seems to hold the bigger fish.

Use your favorite technique once you have found your hot spot! Catfish frequent these areas regularly and will hit on most all presentations offered. My two favorite methods for fishing the ditches are, target anchoring and a controlled suspend drifting, targeting key areas along the ditch, finding the spot with in the spot. The target area I will always key in on first is where the ditch or creek meets at the main channel and then I work my way back from there!

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ive been doing videos and illustrations for awhile now! but my illustrations have been Amateur to say the least. but i say if your gonna do something , do it right! so here’s a couple of my new illustrations!

what do you guys think!

hopefully it will help some guys!

click to inlarge

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Kentucky rigs can be used as a fish locater and preforms best when it is fished in a drift or drag method also in the anchor position in moderate current, it can also be used for bumping the channels and drops..
chunk bait is best fished with this rig as whole baits will cause line twist.

click pics to enlarge

How to tie your dropper knots for your hooks

applying you hook to the dropper loop

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WINNER CATHOG

VIDEO CONTAINS…

……Winner of the new triple play monster rod holders

……PLUS…. a special [[[sneak peek]]] at a revolutionary new product, being introduced to the catfishing world in 2010

 be sure to check out the video below for valuable info. on free drifting

This video contains…….

instructional illustration on basic how to free drift for monster blue cats, it will definently get you started the right way!

plus! how to plan your strategy before you get on the water.

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