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Catfishing Tips and Secrets

There are almost as many catfishing tips and secrets, as there are people who catfish. Some are just little adjustments to a particular catfishing method, while some are very significant in increasing success of finding and catching catfish. Some catfishing tips are on catfishing technique, while others are on use of different or unusual fishing equipment. We will include all, since some of you are at different levels of fishing experience.

The tips below are the most recent post. To see tips previously posted on this page and an ever growing list of tips and secrets, go to Catfishing Tip List .

FISHING TIP:
The Perfect Bait: A common sense aproach to selecting the best bait.

I believe bait selection has more to do with catching catfish than any other one factor. This tip is to avoid the tendency to depend on rare or exotic baits. Defer from the hot bait seller at the big bait shop and select a local natural bait.

The best bait will vary from time to time, depending on time of year, weather, water condition, atmospheric pressure and probably several more conditions I haven’t thought of right now. To select the perfect bait for any given fishing trip, just use a little common sense. If the fish are in a feeding frenzy, as they frequently are, any bait will catch fish. But when fishing is slow, bait choice becomes very critical.

The closest thing you can find to a perfect bait, is a bait that comes from the natural food supply of the fish you are after. I strongly recommend catching, collecting or purchasing your bait from the local water. Whatever food is most abundant and available to the fish is what they are accustomed to eating. It is the bait they will most quickly and automatically take.

Examples:
Shad are very common and frequently abundant in catfish waters. They are easily caught with a cast net.

Minnows and other bait fish will vary from lake to lake and especially from region to region. Bait fish of a particular water can usually be caught in shallow water with a seine. A cast net also works well for this purpose.

When found in quantity, crawfish are ideal bait. Look for shallow nooks with soft bottoms and cloudy or muddy water. Seine with rapid movement to catch your bait. Cast nets do not work well for crawfish. If there is a drop off to deeper water nearby, that location will almost guarantee a catch, when you bait with crawfish.

Grasshoppers are very seasonal, but very effective. In late spring to early fall, many regions will have an abundance of grasshoppers around the fishing waters. In these conditions a hook baited with a grasshopper will almost always guarantee a catch. Catch them during the day with a butterfly net or even better; catch them after dark with a flash light and your hands. There will be areas where the grasshoppers gather to feed on a particular plant. Notice this during the day and collect all the bait you need after dark.

This list could go on and on because of the difference in aquatic, plant and insect life from region to region. I think you get the idea. The perfect bait is a natural bait.

I will leave this tip or suggestion with an example from my early years. I would seine perch from a stock pond near home and easily catch nice channel catfish from that same pond. I would take the perch to a lake about 15 miles away and have only an occasional catch. I would catch shad from that lake and fill my boat up with 3 to 5 lb channel catfish. I would take the shad home and use them in the stock pond with only a rare catch. Common sense supports the fact that they feed on what they are accustomed to eating.

FISHING TIP:
ELECTRORECEPTION: Technology in the fishing world.

This technology is new enough it has not been proven for catfishing. It has proven positive for several other species of both fresh water and saltwater fish, so why not for catfish. It is the use of extremely small electric current to entice the fish to attack your bait. Simply attach an Echip to your line, hook or lure, and fish the way you normally would. The Echips cost between $4 and $6 each, depending on number purchased. Repeated test, using one rigging with an Echip and one without, in the same location at the same time, has consistently produced 25% to 50% additional fish with the Echip.

This testing has been done with numerous species of fish, but I have seen no test results for catfish, yet. Give it a try and send me the results of you efforts. I will compile enough data to prove or disprove the technology for catfish and get it published in one or more of the mainstream fishing magazines. I will credit each of you who supply data in the article.

I found the most professional looking rigs and best Echip kits for catfish, in my opinion, at Pro-Troll, http://www.protroll.com/. Three chips cost about $16.49.

I have found the cheapest Echips at Lake Michigan Angler, http://www.lakemichiganangler.com/. Singles are $4.99 each or three for $13.99.

I found the greatest number of pre rigged options at http://wells-fishing-inc.com.

Why not give it a try? I am going to check it out.

Note: An Echip is a very small sealed tube with a ball bearing and ceramic microchip inside. The movement of the ball bearing causes the microchip to create a small electric current. Fish have been proven to be very sensitive to such currents and use that sense to hunt prey. All living creatures generate such currents when sending instructions from the brain to the various mussels of the body. This includes bait fish.