Welcome to the Catfishing Tips Page
Below are the techniques I use to fish the Ohio River In So. Illinois.
Lets start with equipment. I use abu garcia and penn rods & reels spooled with berkley big game line.
I use 30lb test on the smaller gear and 60lb test on my big penn reel and penn baymaster rod.
My favorite hook is whisker sticker 2/0 , but I also use kahle and eagle claw hooks when I use a larger bait.
2/0 is the largest whisker sticker I have found, and sometimes I need a larger hook for the bigger baits like carp and the larger shad and bluegills.
For the larger baits I use up to an 8/0 hook. Always use a wide gap hook for live baitfish
You seem to get a better hookset that way.
Good strong rod holdersare a necessity when fishing for
catfish
Now we have our equipment lets go get some bait.
I use a monofilament cast net to catch shad.
You will find casting net instructions here.Look for shad near boat docks or riprap shoreline thru the summer and fall other times of the year look in the creeks.They won't be schooled in the spring,but are easily obtained a few at a time. As summer progresses you will see the schools increasing in size until winter.
When winter arrives the shad will be in huge schools in deeper water,sometimes even givig false readings on a depth finder.
Certain times of the year shad will get nearly impossible to find.
Try looking near concrete structure, like bridge pillars,(It works for me) More than once I have showed up with live bait,when everyone else was using dead or frozen bait and not catching anything.
I catch a couple cats on the live bait and everybody scrambles for the creeks, to catch live bait.
Another good source of catfish bait are skipjack herring You can catch skipjacks around boat ramps about sunset with a fly rod and a very small fly
tie 3 flys on your line with a small bobber and cast it out and reel it back,
You should catch them 3 at a time.
you won't catch very many in a casting net. I guess they are to fast for the sinking net
Methods of catfishing I use most are,
still fishing while anchored over structure.
Usually deep water ledges, holes, channels. I also like drift fishing flats and especially channels. I position the boat sideways in the river, and let the current carry me down river using the trolling motor when necessary to keep the boat sideways. I also set the outboard steering- if the bow of the boat is drifting faster, I turn the motor to steer up river and vise versa. (not running of course, only as a rudder.) Drifting works very well if fish are inactive
because it puts your bait infront of more fish. I use a simple 3 way rig to drift fish, the key is not to let to much line out and let the bait come down river behind the boat.
To much line and you will find every snag on the bottom.
Let it drag bottom but not to far behind you.
Again I use live shad for drift fishing.
Experiment with the size of shad if you are not catching.
Sometimes even a giant cat will only eat the smallest of shad
and sometimes a 2 lb cat will eat a 6 inch shad in a heartbeat.
I always experiment with the size bait first thing if I have a variety of sizes.
When looking for structure that holds catfish
While drifting get a land mark of the places you catch fish
Those places will almost always have structure in rivers.
Also look to the shoreline for clues to the type of structure that is underwater.
Like mud flats or sand bars, rock ledges, mud ledges, gravel beds, boulders and bluffs dropping off into the river are all good signs that the water just out from there will hold the same structure. Like the boulders in the link above-the water directly out from those rocks holds structure just like you see there.
That is an example of A-1 holding structure for cats
from mid August to March the depth there ranges from 35 feet to 92 feet
with dozens of ledges created by those huge boulders beneath the water
Outside bends are an excellent place to start looking for deep water and ledges.
As the water temps drop look for the cats to be in large #'s holding in deep water in the outside bends of rivers and in the tributaries (creeks)They will stack up in those bends, which will almost always have deeper water than anywhere else.
This serves two purposes for the cats,
deeper holes to winter in and as the shad suffer a winter die off
they will wash down the creeks and rivers
into those deep holes and bends and settle to the bottom
for an easy meal for cold cats to eat without much effort.
Not just the shad, but they are the main food source.
Aother good place to look for deep water is just out from and below the mouth of a creek.
This is a prime spot to look for a washout hole with depths of 35 to 50+ feet.
Also when fishing cold water try down sizing your rig as much as possible
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