Cat Days Of Summer

When sultry summer weather starts pushing some of our favorite trout waters beyond temperatures at which it’s ethical to fish for our beloved salmonids, many of us move on to other targets.

Chasing smallmouth bass with streamers is fun and great practice for trout fishing. Or cast surface poppers for fun topwater hits from bass and sunfish.

Another fun target to pass the time until the cool weather of fall? Catfish.

Found in all 50 states, catfish are abundant, strong fighters and great-tasting. They’re also pretty simple to fish for — perfect for a low-key evening of fishing with friends.

Of the three main freshwater catfish in the U.S. Channel catfish are the most prolific. Omnivorous feeders, they will eat just about anything they can get into their mouths. While the world record weighed 58 pounds (pulled from Santee-Cooper Reservoir in 1964) they average 2- to 5-pounds — perfect eating size in most waters.

Blue catfish are closely related to channel catfish. Thety are fairly abundant in the southeast and mid-Atlantic. In some areas, such as Virginia’s coastal rivers, blue catfish from well-intentioned past stockings, have become so abundant they are causing management challenge. They grow quite large, with 50-pound fish common. The all tackle world record, from Kerr Reservoir in Virginia, weighed 143 pounds.

Flathead catfish are widely distributed throughout the Midwest and Southeast. They are ambush predators that are most active at night. The world record is 123 pounds, and fish topping 30 pounds are common.

Finding good catfish waters is usually as simple as a little research on your state fisheries agency’s website.

Gear for catfish

Whether you target catfish in big lakes, ponds, big rivers or creeks, the basic fishing approach is not complicated: Fish bait on or near the bottom.

The ideal reel for catfish is a spinning or casting reel with a bait clicker. A clicker allows a fish that grabs a bait to run without feeling tension. Hearing that clicker start purring will get your heart pumping. Use 50- to 65-pound braid with a 20- to 30-pound fluorocarbon leader. A non-bait-clicker reel loaded with 20-pound mono will do the job for small cats if that’s all you have.

Like this drawing, a catfish rig is simple.

An appropriately-heavy egg sinker that will keep the bait stationary.

Thread the running line through and egg sinker, with glass beads above and below.

Tie it to a barrel swivel.

Use an 18- to 24-inch fluorocarbon leader snelled to a circle hook.

A 1/0 or 2/0 hook is fine for smaller catfish. Move up to 5/O to 7/O hooks for big blues and flatheads. When using circle hooks, simply apply steady pressure rather than sharp hookset. The hook almost always will lodge right in the corner of the fish’s mouth.

Catfish are opportunistic feeders. Blue and channel cats are sometimes thought of as scavengers — and they certainly will vacuum up stinky, dead items. Flathead catfish are predators and prefer live fish.

There are lots of commercially available dough baits. (Dough baits don’t work well on circle hooks. You’ll need a treble hook or special catfish hook rig.) Some hardcore catfish anglers make their own dough baits.

For the casual catfish chaser, nightcrawlers are a great option for targeting pan-sized channel and blue cats. A downside is that those big worms can also attract a lot of attention from nibbling sunfish and other non-target species.

Other options include chicken livers, crayfish, clams and chunks of fresh fish. Live sunfish are excellent for targeting larger channel cats and predatory flatheads. A 25-pound-plus flathead will have no qualms about attacking a hand-sized bluegill.

After the catch

There’s a reason why you’ll find catfish fillets in the seafood counter at most grocery stores. Fried catfish with sides of cole slaw and hand-cut fries is a summer delicacy. Because they are predators that feed on other fish, flathead catfish are arguably the best-tasting of the catfish family. Soaking channel cat and blue cat fillets in buttermilk can help alleviate any muddy taste that you may experience from fish pulled from warm summertime waters.

Whether you are chasing a few eating-sized channel cats or blue cats, or targeting 50-pound-plus flatheads and blues, catfish are a summertime staple that are abundant, fun to catch and great on the table.